Show blends trivia, torture

What it is: Comedy Central’s new game show “Distraction” is your standard trivia competition with a twist … a sick, painful and often belly-laugh-inducing twist. Think Jeopardy!, but with Ken Jennings getting zapped with a Taser as he tries to remember the ingredients in a Tom Collins. We know that shouldn’t be funny. But it is.

What it’s all about: Each show begins with four contestants blessed with either an unusually high tolerance for pain and discomfort or an unusually high desire for cool prizes and 15 minutes of fame. Garden-variety quiz-show questions are doled out by droll British host Jimmy Carr (who was a writer for the pre-“Office” British TV show “Meet Ricky Gervais,” which might tell you something about his sense of humor). But instead of being able to focus on these trivial pursuits, the competitors are, as the title suggests, distracted by a series of occurrences that range from the highly unusual (players must activate their buzzers by urinating) to the uncomfortable (playing leapfrog with a portly nudist) to the ouch-inducing (having bottles broken over their heads). Contestants are eliminated one by one, but the painful good times don’t end when we’re down to the last man or woman standing. Before our winner can make off with the hard-won bounty (usually a new car or a collection of goodies that may include an Apple iBook, a plasma TV and a Vespa scooter), a few more questions must be answered. And for every wrong answer, those shiny new prizes are beaten up, otherwise defaced or, occasionally, blown to smithereens.

Why we like it: In today’s political climate, we’re shocked and awed that any network – even Comedy Central, home of America’s most celebrated piece of talking poo – would have the nerve to broadcast a show that portrays what amounts to mild torture as entertainment. It’s scandalous, and we would be appalled if we weren’t laughing so hard at the sight of a grown woman with dozens of rubber bands stretched taut across her face trying to recall who sang a list of wretched ‘80s pop songs.