YMMV / Wipeout (2008)

• Accidental Innuendo: Usually occurs with the 'big balls' obstacle, as can be expected. Sometimes, the questionable name of the obstacle is lampshaded by the commentator.
  Richard Hammond: [while a man in a kilt is about to take on the obstacle] Big Balls ahoy! Oh, I don't mean, you know, the- the kilt, I- I'll just keep quiet.
• Award Snub:
  • At the 2015' Kids' Choice Awards, it was nominated for the newly revamped Favorite Reality Show category, with its former competition moved over to the brand new Favorite Reality Competition category. Wipeout seemed to be a foregone conclusion to win for a fourth year in a row. And....it lost. To Dance Moms, of all shows. Dance Moms' upset victory can be attributed to the Colbert Bump the show got from Maddie Ziegler's appearances in Sia's "Chandelier" and "Elastic Heart" music videos. To make matters worse the Dance Moms award was formally presented to the cast of the show whereas Wipeout's wins tended to only be announced in a throwaway segment, suggesting that Dance Moms is viewed as a bigger deal than Wipeout ever was. To sum things up, Wipeout completely wiped out. Or rather had a giant chandelier dropped on it.
  • The consensus over Wipeout's unexpected shut-out is that predictors severely underestimated the popularity of Dance Moms with the kids' demographic and favored Wipeout solely on the basis its winning streak, when in reality, the show was not that super-popular and only won previous awards by fluke due to soft competition (American Idol and America's Got Talent were waning in popularity at the time, and The Voice was too mature to gain the kids' support), and when put against a legitimate contender was in for the fight of its life. Sadly, this proved to be Wipeout's last nomination, as it was not on the ballot for the 2016 awards, while Dance Moms was, although it was shoved into a new category.
• Awesome Ego: "I'm Buffman! OH YEAH!!!"
• Awesome Music:
  • The theme. It's a perfect description of an episode: funny first few acts before delving into the serious finale. Furthermore, the light bits sounds whimsical and the serious bits actually sound pretty epic. A pity its so short.
  • The song, "Brave, Brave Sir Dave" from the UK version. Even though it was made for a joke about a rather Shakespearean contestant, that doesn't stop it being any less amazing and funny.
    Holy brave sir Dave rode forth to save the day!
    He was not afraid, brave, brave sir Dave!
    He wasn't afraid of the scary rakes or crushing his sphincter or bursting his eyeball or snapping his kneecap or stubbing his nostril or stretching his posture or losing his hairpiece or scratching his finger or burning his bot- (song cuts off)
  • The UK version gave the Sucker Punch a catchy musical riff.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Most of the John bits are pure dialogue with occasional prop comedy. However, during the "Blind Date 2012" episode, Henson starts talking about the events of a fictional Spanish-language Soap Opera. Cut first to Henson in a fake moustashe and Ballsy in bandoliers. That's not entirely unexpected. Annnnd then cut to Anderson in drag portraying the female star and doing his best to look sexy as he does it.
• Cargo Ship:
  • One Season 1 contestant claimed he was in love with the Big Balls. Also a Moment of Awesome, as said contestant actually manages to get past the Big Balls without wiping out, and then proceeded to clear the ball-themed obstacle that followed as well! And then, in an all-star reunion episode in Season 2 when he returns, he clears the Big Balls again! Clearly, the Big Balls love him back.
  • Inverted whenever the Wrecking Ball makes its (Telestrated) appearances and an attractive female contestant is about to reach the obstacle (the Dreadmill in the 2008/9 season, the Shake-a-Lator and Double Cross in the 2010 season) it's at. The fact that John Henson voices it similarly to Louis Armstrong or Levi Stubbs just makes it HIGH-LARIOUS.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Some contestants, like Ariel "Where's the pole" Tweto.
  • Buffman even had a Facebook page once.
  • Let's not forget Frank "Freak of Nature" Beasley.
• Fan Nickname: During one episode, Anderson mentions they've gotten a number of 'scorpion' wipeouts which apparently refers to the occasional instances where a contestant's feet touch their head.
• Growing the Beard: While the show started out being a viewer favorite, come season two and beyond the producers seemed to really nail things down. The obstacles became much more complex and stylized, the Johns' commentary became more snappy and rapid, and the focused-on contestants had a stronger sense of how to play to the cameras.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In UK series 2, episode 8, Richard Hammond hosts a segment called "Total Wipeout Do's and Dont's" for the Wipeout Zone, which he begins by landing on the finishing platform, pressing the timer-stopping button and unconvincingly claiming he beat the course in 54 seconds, a new, unbeatable record. In a celebrity special episode in series 5, Dalton Grant sets the all-time record for the Wipeout Zone... 54 seconds.
• Les Yay:
  • The show had fun with Jill when they dressed up a contestant who admired Jill... in an identical outfit as hers and had the two switch places for the contestant interview.
  • Vanessa gets some in when she gives a contestant the nickname "Harry Hotter". Henson joking whines/wonders why he gets yelled at when he says stuff like that.
• Memetic Mutation: Elias from the first ever episode of the British Total Wipeout, a rather fit looking contestant who seemed very confident to start off with, only for his run to go horribly wrong after he gets stuck in the mud for an astonishing fifteen minutes. When someone brings up the mud when talking about the show in the comments, Elias is sure to be mentioned.
• Misaimed Fandom: The UK Champion of Series 2 Episode 3, "Unassuming" Ricky, caught a lot of heat from the Youtube audience due to his arrogance and trash-talking of the opposition. However, taking into account that he is a part-time wrestler, he was just playing a Heel character during the competition. His real personality emerges when the results of who was faster are broken in the Wipeout Zone, as he applauds and hugs his competition. Sure enough, another champion who described his experience on Youtube and Instagram confirmed that, after spending time with him for the Champions episode, his personality was all for the screen and he was much more amicable with the other contestants off-camera.
• Never Live It Down: Ariel Tweto was the first person ever to get across the big balls. Is she mostly known for that? Nope. Where's the pole!? It's even the name of an achievement in the Xbox 360 game Wipeout: In The Zone!
• Replacement Scrappy:
  • For many, Vanessa Lachey replacing Jill Wagner. Time will tell if this opinion sticks. Given that Jill Wagner is back in Season 6, it likely won't matter.
  • John Cena and Nicole Byer in the TBS reboot, for ignoring the straightman/funnyman dynamic of the Johns in favor of waaaaay too many pop culture references.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Former contestant Ariel "Never Been Kissed" Tweto (of "Where's the pole?!" fame) ended up the star of the Discovery Channel reality documentary series Flying Wild Alaska.
  • Yoshi Sudarso and his brother Peter, who won the first episode of the 2014 season, went on to become Power Rangers! Yoshi played Koda in Power Rangers Dino Charge and Peter played Preston in Power Rangers Ninja Steel, both of them Blue Rangers.
• So Bad, It's Good: The first game based on the show, Wipeout: The Game, is flawed with it's bad graphics, terrible AI, non-existent water physics (as in you sink in water the exact speed as you fall in land), and bugs and glitches. That said, this game can be enjoyed for all the wrong reasons as whenever a character is hit by even the tiniest obstacle (like say a ball from the other contestants) they ragdoll. Mix the over-the-top ragdoll physics with the bugs and glitches and you'll get some pretty hilarious results like stretched limbs and the character model getting all jumbled up.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: For a TV show anyway. In season 5 for a special themed episode, they show off the ability to overlay two runs on top of each other for a distance based contest resulting in both the appearance of the two contestants running simultaneously but also being able to pause or rewind each stream individually.
• The Woobie: One contestant on a Blind Date episode had his blind date quit on him in the middle of the course, despite his attempts to encourage her to keep going, disqualifying both of them.

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