The Long Road

07/23/2003 Archived Entry: "Iron Coders"

Ever watched Iron Chef? It’s that cool Japanese cooking show where a challenger chef and one of the show’s three champion “iron chefs” have a cooking competition with some mystery ingredient that is only revealed once the chefs have been introduced. The chef who can come up with the best meal themed around this secret ingredient is declared the winner. It’s interesting to see all the wonderful stuff the chefs come up with in such short notice and all the different techniques they use for cooking. One of the best parts of the show is how seriously they take things, when the challenger chef is introduced he walks down towards the host and there’s always some kind powerful music playing while the announcer lists all of that chef’s accomplishments. The Iron Chefs come out afterwards by rising out of the floor onto a stage! It’s fantastic; Iron Chef is like the WWE: Raw is WAR of cooking shows.

I think one of the appeals of this show to people is the horrible dubbing. It’s so bad that it’s funny. The voice actors always carry a faux enthusiasm and really really forced fake laughter. One of the narrators always precedes his statements by addressing the host with “qui-san!” in a very enthusiastic tone. That’s the only part of the show I don’t like, I wish someone would shut that guy up!

So as I was watching Iron Chef a couple of weeks ago at a friend’s place, I thought that it would be greatly humorous if there was a similar show for programming competitions! Imagine the introduction to the challenger: “George is a Waterloo CS student who learnt c++ when he was 6, has won several prestigious programming competitions and wrote his own compiler when he was only in high school” as some greasy haired, thick rimmed glasses guy walks out to the tune of “Imperial March” by John Williams. Other appropriate introductory music could be the Terminator theme, Bad Boys by Inner Circle, The Batman theme, or O’Fortuna by Carl Orff. The cheese factor for this show would be stupendously great! Instead of a “surprise ingredient” we can have a surprise programming language and the programmer who writes the best program in the 60 allotted minutes would win! I see great potential in this.

Replies: 10 comments

That's a sweet idea!

BTW, have you ever seen the show "Bansai!" (sp?) ?

Posted by Romer @ 07/23/2003 09:19 PM EST

Never even heard of it, what's it about?

Posted by Rayne @ 07/24/2003 12:43 AM EST

From City TV's website:

It's a wild, irreverent romp that cuts a wide swath through traditional television! Banzai exploded on to television sets across North America last fall and quickly became a hot topic at water coolers across the land!

More than just a game show, Banzai challenges the viewer with a series of practical jokes, gags, stunts and encourages the audience to place their bets on the final outcome. How long will Mr. Shake Hands Man 2 shake the hand of a celebrity? Which sexy nurse will strip naked first? Which seated woman is not wearing any underwear?

There's only one way to find out - and that way is Banzai!

Posted by Romer @ 07/24/2003 08:40 AM EST

Blah!...I'd never watch some programming competition...definite LACK of potential...:P! (unless its only reserved to air at the U of Waterloo..."no offense")...;)

Posted by dAN @ 07/24/2003 12:30 PM EST

Banzai sounds really cool. I'll try to download some of it.

I'd never watch a NORMAL programming competition but if you spice it up in the Iron Chef style it'd be hilarious to watch!

Posted by Rayne @ 07/24/2003 03:56 PM EST

Iron Coders, something about seeing nerds sweat frightens me.

Posted by Hyperion @ 07/24/2003 04:05 PM EST

They have that, it is called the ACM programming challenge...

Posted by sbdep @ 07/25/2003 08:32 AM EST

with all the cheesy flourish described above?

Posted by Rayne @ 07/25/2003 11:35 AM EST

a programming challenge? that'd definitely get top ratings

hehehe

have you ever seen most extreme elimination challenge? another japanese show with horrible dubbing (but the translations are obviously fake ... and they're done by the good ppl at tnn ... the new man's network) ... that show makes me giggle

Posted by melpie @ 07/26/2003 11:30 AM EST

"extreme elimination challenge"? sounds like that show the simpsons were on.

how am I missing out on all this great japanese television?

TNN? you mean SPIKE TV don't you? =D

Posted by Rayne @ 07/28/2003 02:36 PM EST