# The Price Is Right **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 12, 2005, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-price-is-right/316755 "2005-08-12T17:19:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-price-is-right/316755/1 "2005-08-12T17:19:46Z")
Since I can’t be arsed to get up and change the channel, _The Price Is Right_ is playing in the background. Is it just me, or does Bob Barker talk to the contestants as if they’re puppies? ‘Mary, Mary, Mary! There’s a good girl! Such a _good girl!_ Yes, she is! Yes, she is! Mary wanna play? Play? Play the game? Good Mary! Let’s play!’ ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-price-is-right/316755/2 "2005-08-12T17:24:06Z")
But to give him credit, he’s equally enthusiastic towards everyone. How many other 150-yr-old white dudes can do that? The old white folks I’ve met are usually very racist. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-price-is-right/316755/3 "2005-08-12T17:31:07Z")
Has he every actually asked the contestant if he or she has been spayed or neutered? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-price-is-right/316755/4 "2005-08-12T17:33:18Z")
The Showcase Showdown wheel freaks me the hell out. Always has, always will. What if I get caught and end up under the wheel? Will they stop the show? Will I die covered in glitter? But Plinko rocks the house. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-price-is-right/316755/5 "2005-08-12T17:34:10Z")
> [@fessie](#): > > But to give him credit, he’s equally enthusiastic towards everyone. How many other 150-yr-old white dudes can do that? The old white folks I’ve met are usually very racist. Bob _is_ racist…but only towards Samoans. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-price-is-right/316755/6 "2005-08-12T17:35:24Z")
The Price is Right is my favorite gameshow. Press Your Luck, the Match Game, Jeopardy - all good. But Price is the best. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-price-is-right/316755/7 "2005-08-12T17:38:17Z")
The fact that the show is still on after what, two hundred years, is a testimony that people will watch anything. I always hated the show and wanted people to get physically harmed when the spun the big wheel. “Ow, I broke my hip!” “But you landed on Spin Again!” ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-price-is-right/316755/8 "2005-08-12T17:39:10Z")
If The Price is Right and Wheel of Fortune have taught me anything, it is this: You always look stupid clapping for yourself on television. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-price-is-right/316755/9 "2005-08-12T17:51:29Z")
> [@Shirley Ujest](#): > > The fact that the show is still on after what, two hundred years, is a testimony that people will watch anything. “Reality Television” is a better testimony that people will watch anything. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-price-is-right/316755/10 "2005-08-12T19:18:17Z")
If he talks to them as if they were puppies, he is actually giving them more credit than they deserve. Have you seen and watched the idiots who get up there? Mary, how much do you bid for this plastic, hand held hair dryer? Mary: Uh…$12,984 Bob. Or when they have all the numbers in the price of a car except the last one: $14,98\_ and they turn to the audience for like 5 minutes to see what the last number is…as if anybody in the audience had a clue…it could be ANY number, idiot. Just guess! In the final showdown once, the prize package was a Dodge Neon, a jacuzzi spa and an exercise machine. The woman bid $80,000. If I were Bob Barker, half the contestants would be physically injured before they got off stage. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-price-is-right/316755/11 "2005-08-12T19:18:12Z")
If he talks to them as if they were puppies, he is actually giving them more credit than they deserve. Have you seen and watched the idiots who get up there? Mary, how much do you bid for this plastic, hand held hair dryer? Mary: Uh…$12,984 Bob. Or when they have all the numbers in the price of a car except the last one: $14,98\_ and they turn to the audience for like 5 minutes to see what the last number is…as if anybody in the audience had a clue…it could be ANY number, idiot. Just guess! In the final showdown once, the prize package was a Dodge Neon, a jacuzzi spa and an exercise machine. The woman bid $80,000. If I were Bob Barker, half the contestants would be physically injured before they got off stage. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-price-is-right/316755/12 "2005-08-12T19:20:18Z")
And I just bid my thread twice. Slap me on the head twice Bob, please. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-price-is-right/316755/13 "2005-08-12T19:52:56Z")
The Price is Right? Mmmm… Chantel Dubay… ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-price-is-right/316755/14 "2005-08-12T19:58:21Z")
Related thread: [What will happen to TPIR when Barker kicks?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=149815) ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-price-is-right/316755/15 "2005-08-12T21:20:41Z")
Considering the fact that they deliberately drive the already excited audience into a state of near-hysteria just before starting the taping, I suspect that a lot of the people that seem damn dumb on the show aren’t really all that dumb, they’re just too freaked to think. I have a friend who was on several years ago. I was there. You have NO IDEA how afraid I was that he was going to make a jackass of himself on national TV, but he didn’t. Phew. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-price-is-right/316755/16 "2005-08-13T14:18:18Z")
Sometimes I wonder if he keeps repeating people’s names (like, every sentence when they first come onstage) so that he remembers them. Not to suggest he’s senile, or anything… As I said, I don’t watch it. It’s on in the background unless I change the channel. Do the contestants wear nametags? ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-price-is-right/316755/17 "2005-08-13T14:22:17Z")
Big nametags. Big, big, nametags. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-price-is-right/316755/18 "2005-08-13T19:01:07Z")
Does he swat the contenstants on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper when, in their excitement, they soil themselves? “Bad Mary! Bad, bad Mary!!” as he rubs her nose in it on national tv. ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-price-is-right/316755/19 "2005-08-13T19:21:33Z")
You guys better be careful. Bob Barker can kick your ass…BITCH! ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-price-is-right/316755/20 "2005-08-13T21:18:54Z")
> [@whiterabbit](#): > > Considering the fact that they deliberately drive the already excited audience into a state of near-hysteria just before starting the taping, I suspect that a lot of the people that seem damn dumb on the show aren’t really all that dumb, they’re just too freaked to think. > > I have a friend who was on several years ago. I was there. You have NO IDEA how afraid I was that he was going to make a jackass of himself on national TV, but he didn’t. Phew. Oh, **whiterabbit** , please tell us stories! I happen to love TPIR, simply because it shows people in all of their freaky, stupid glory. I can’t ever decide which I like better: the women who almost pee themselves with excitement and dance around and practically break Bob’s ancient, brittle bones in their huge hugs, or the stoner college kids who are all like, “Rad, man! I’m on the Price! Woohoo!” But, um, yeah, I just keep it on in the background when I can’t be arsed to change the stations, too. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-price-is-right/316755.md?page=2)