The Bet
From LoadingReadyWiki
What a strange game, the only way to win is not to play at all. At least when Paul's around.
Vital Statistics
Date: February 24, 2006
Category: Shorts
Appearing: Graham, Morgan, Paul, and Kathleen
Writing: Graham
Camera: Paul
Editing: Graham
Music: Unknown
Thanks to: Jessica, for holding the bounce
Location: Bill's Place v2.0
Synopsis
Graham and Morgan make a bet that Graham can go for twenty-four hours without talking. After Graham fails to make Paul understand what's going on with a series of charades, he breaks the bet out of sheer frustration, then resolves to start over. Paul decides to see how many times he can get Graham to talk - and he does get Graham talking through a series of clever tricks. The frustration eats at Graham's sanity until he loses all control, proclaims he'll never stop talking, and runs gibbering into the night. Morgan congratulates Paul on his manipulation skills and concludes the private bet they'd made between them.
Trivia
- The short description given for this video is a pop-culture reference to the 1983 film WarGames; in said movie, a hacker almost triggers total nuclear annihilation when he breaks into a self-aware military computer that hosts a series of strategy games. The last game is actually a control program for the United States' nuclear arsenal, and NORAD is unable to distinguish between the computer's simulated reports and genuine satellite data. Armageddon is averted only by instructing the computer to play each game against itself, starting with Tic-Tac-Toe and slowly increasing the complexity of the games, until finally it plays through each of the preprogrammed war scenarios. Having done so, the computer concludes that all players in the 'WarGame' inevitably lose, and the only way to win the game is not to play. The movie is a well-known critique of the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) and the computer's insight became a common meme.
- Graham's ringtone is 'Take On Me' from the Norwegian band A-ha. This has been heard when Graham's phone rings in several podcasts.
- During the course of the charades, references are made to two LRR recurring jokes: Uwe Boll and Edward James Olmos.
- The video game Graham is playing is Super Mario World for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and the stage appears to be Yoshi's Island 2.
- The scene where Graham flips out is a nod to Strong Bad Email #127, long pants
- Graham will get his revenge in Rebellin'
- At 0:37, someone off-camera sneezes. Their identity is unknown.
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