The Greatest Show Opening Ever!

I said it yesterday, I'm saying it again today: The opening credits of the new Challenge are quite simply the best opening credits in the history of television. It is the standard by which all future unintentional comedy will be measured.

You can watch the "making" the opening credits video below. It's well worth it. If you want to see just the opening credits again -- and why wouldn't you -- just skip ahead to the 3:52 mark.

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There's just so much to love here, starting with the facial expressions of the contestants themselves.

There are a few -- mostly notably Evan -- who appear to be taking this VERY seriously. You can just see that he's using this as some kind of pseudo try-out for the role of "Barbarian Warrior #3" in a future Ridley Scott movie.

Then there are others -- Brooke, Katie, Brittini -- who looks completely hungover and can barely stand up straight. I bet there was a whole lot of vomiting going on during this shoot.

And then there are those who appear as if they're just standing there staring into space -- Brad and Landon -- and only tuned in for that split second that the camera was focused on them before returning to their space staring activities.

The best performance, however, is delivered as always by TJ Lavin. He looks just like Zoolander in trying out his "look" except it actually seems like he's genuinely making an effort. Go watch the actual behind the scenes footage -- the best part is at the 2:40 mark when the producers tells TJ to "just focus" and he proceeds to make a face as if he's trying to lift a large boulder with the power of his mind. There's no amount of money that I wouldn't pay to find out what's going on TJ's head at that moment.

I've watched this video a number of times and I can't decide if the whole thing was done in 1 take and about 15 minutes, with the director declaring, "Screw it. Good enough. Let's go home." Or if it took about 1,200 takes and nine days shoot with the director getting increasingly more pissed off at the constant mistakes. It had to be one of those two scenarios.

Finally, this is what kills me about MTV -- they spent money on a freakin' helicopter to shoot this thing and yet they couldn't coordinate so that everyone in the cast actually wore matching outfits. This whole thing stems from an actual New Zeland tradition -- mostly known to the outside world because its done by a rugby team.

When they do it, it actually looks pretty cool; in no small part because they are in unison, all dressed the same and actually look like a team of warrior, rather than a bunch of people who are doing this with about as much coordination as a pack of drunk monkeys.