Dude, This Sucks (lost MTV pilot; 2000)

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This article has been tagged as NSFL due to its disturbing subject matter.



MTV2001.jpg

The network's logo from circa 2000.

Status: Lost

On January 21st, 2000, MTV was taping a pilot for a new show called Dude, This Sucks.[1] it was supposed to a inverted talent competition where 2 team captains would each actively acts out of a fullish performance featuring the bizarre talents of the contestants for 45 seconds. If at any time during these seconds one of the three judges thinks their act sucks, they smash down with a hammer on their podium, the act is disqualified and the entire audience screams out "DUDE THIS SUCKS!" as loud as they can. At the end of half an hour the team with the most points gets a load of money.

In one of the segments of the show, some teenage girls were instructed by studio employee to stand on the stage in a certain place for a part of the show in which a pair of performers known as the "Shower Rangers" were to go through their routine. The girls didn't received any information from the staff about what the performance would be or how they would be involved in it.

The performers, the "Shower Rangers", took the stage, dressed in scouting-type uniforms and appeared to act out some kind of campfire scene, the Shower Rangers then turned their backsides to the audience, dropped their trousers, exposed their bare rear ends, bent over and let fly with a shower of liquid excrement, spraying the unaware girls from head to foot. Apparently they had dosed themselves with a powerful laxative prior to the performance.

Controversy

Unfortunately for MTV, however, the girls who were sprayed by MTV’s "Shower Rangers" weren’t amused by their peculiar idea of humor, nor were their parents. Two of the girls sued the television network on April 5, 2001 Los Angeles Superior Court for infliction of emotional distress, negligence and battery because of the incident which took place last January in Big Bear, a mountain community near the city, One of them told the court:

"We were having a good time until the second act of Dude, This Sucks went on. All of a sudden I was smelling something disgusting, and I started to gag. I looked around at my friends. They were covered in something. As I looked down at myself I realized that I was too."[2]

Another of the plaintiffs, 14-year-old Kelly Sloat, spoke of the humiliation the girls felt when they returned to school:

"Everyone knew about it, even some of the teachers. Most of the kids were cracking jokes or wouldn’t come near us because, even though we washed off the feces, they said we smelled. I will never, ever forget what a horrible experience this was."[3]

Availability

In his statement, the television network's president of programming at the time, Brian Graden, assured that the footage from the show recorded never has aired and never will be.[4] "This was a terrible incident. It was unintended, and we regret that it happened,"  he said. "I was not aware of the content of this segment prior to the taping and have taken steps to ensure that an incident of this nature never happens again."[5]

Gallery

The Daily Show report on the incident.

References