Crazy Games is an action-comedy game show produced by Rapid Blue in which South African towns and cities battle it out against each other by playing various physically challenging games.
The first season of the show premiered on SABC2 on 4 November, 2006 at 20h00 and was called Summer Games. The second season was re-titled Crazy Games and premiered on SABC2 on Saturday, 15 December 2007, at 18h30.
See "Seasons" below for seasonal broadcast dates and times.
Season 4 premiered on SABC2 on Thursday 2 April 2009, at 19h30. There are eight hour-long episodes in the fourth season.
Synopsis
Each season of the show is set on location in a different South African city. Summer Games was hosted by Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and filmed on location on the city's City Square and Crazy Games is set in Durban, on location at the Amphitheatre.
Competing teams are cast from Municipality employees from across South Africa who compete in brightly coloured costumes. Each team is accompanied by their city or town mayor as well as supporters and the cities participating in each episode are showcased through inserts.
In the first season each team was made up on 16 people - 10 men and 6 women - and in the second season each team has 10 people.
Each episode each season features two cities or towns playing against each other with the winning team moving on to play the next round.
The games vary from episode to episode and each game is played no more than twice across the series. Teams play five games per episode and the only game to be repeated each week is The Ratchet. Some of the games are:
The Cherry On The Cake
Cherry On The Cake involves a massive cake which has to be topped off with a cherry. This simple action has a snag in the form of a revolving turntable.
While the contestants try to balance the cake, they have to get onto the turntable which rotates around a team member who acts as the chef.
The chef needs to put the cherry on top of the cake as the team member rotates past on the turntable without dropping the cake or losing balance. Each time a cake is topped with a cherry and placed on the table, a point is received.
The team that delivers the most cakes within a certain amount of time wins the game.
Mosquito
A contestant from each team wears a mosquito suit and gets suspended above the middle of the arena in a harness.
Two team-mates use the bounce of the cords to project the Mosquito towards a bunch of balloons. While swinging in the air, the Mosquito has to burst as many balloons as they can and the team that bursts the most wins the game.
Ostrich Races
Contestants are dressed in ostrich costumes and have to cover a lengthy obstacle course. Their aim is to reach their home base and stick their head through it.
After each round, a hole is removed so that the last ostrich to arrive can't place its neck through any hole and is therefore disqualified. The remaining contestants then start a new round and go through the course again.
The first team that has no home for all their ostriches loses.
Impossible Columns
Impossible Columns presents contestants with a construction challenge that involves reassembling a column made up of five different parts and placing it on a swivelling base.
Once the start is given, a contestant is suspended from an overhead frame and must stack the five parts of the column, which are carried by three team members.
The movement of the team member in the air is aided by their team-mates on the ground who pull the rope trying to direct them in the direction of the column. All this happens while the three members are on the slowly swivelling platform.
Once the column is complete, the three contestants must carry their column to the podium.
If the column collapses, they need to pick up the pieces with the help of two assistants and take them to the construction point where it must be re-assembled.
The first team to get their assembled column on the podium is the winner. In the event that neither column is fully assembled within 4 and half minutes, the winning team is the one that has the highest column and is awarded 2 points.
Custard Pie Love Story
A large house-like structure with four windows is erected in front of a conveyor belt. Contestants climb onto the conveyor belt and try to open the windows in order to find flowers. Not every window hides flowers and some competitors find themselves face to face with an opponent throwing a custard pie, a bucket of water or a bowl of flour at them.
The conveyor belt keeps moving on and the contestant must keep playing on by opening more windows. The winning team is the one that gathers the most flowers.
Giant Coffee Boys
Giant Coffee Boys involves contestants servng beersr to their teammates while in a giant coffee boy suit. The contestant in the suit has to get onto a conveyor belt and then step off it onto a turntable.
Once on the turntable they have to serve a beer to their corresponding team-mate who acts as a customer. The contestants must try to keep a speedy pace as the last contestant to make it onto the turntable is eliminated after every round.
The winning team is the one that manages to serve the most glasses of beers.
The Beach
In The Beach competitors slide down a slope in surfboards or lilos with the hope of covering a great distance over the pool.
There are two challenges to this game, the first being the pursuit of enough momentum to cross the pool and the second is to grasp an object that is held out by team-mates situated alongside the pool.
At the end of this slippery course, the contestant climbs onto the floating island with their surfboard or lilo and the object they managed to grasp.
All team members participate in this game. The first team that has the all members on the island with something they grasped along the way wins the game.
The Bubble
This game puts the competitors within the constraints of an inflatable transparent balloon. While inside the balloon, the contestant has to cleverly manoeuvre it over a lengthy circuit.
At the end of the circuit, a ramp leading into a pool awaits them. Once in the pool, the contestant has to tactfully use their wit to float across the pool to get to the final ramp. This ramp then leads out of the pool with a quick downward movement.
The first contestant who crosses the finish line wins the race.
Over The Rolls
This game starts off with a contestant running up some stairs to reach a slide and then down a toboggan into the pool. The contestant then has to reach the beach in order to get to the first floating roll.
Once getting over the first floating roll, the contestant has to go over a second floating roll and eventually out of the pool before doing a final run to the revolving platform.
The departures of contestants are signalled every 10 seconds. This means that at some point there may be more than one contestant trying to get over the rolls. In this case teammates can help each other.
The winning team is the one that succeeds in getting to get the most contestants onto the revolving platform.
The Ratchet
The contestants are faced with reaching the summit of a steep slope. The rules prohibit the contestant from using their feet to assist them in reaching the summit and need to use dwel sticks to go up the slope of the structure.
The game is in the form of a relay race so three contestants take turns in reaching the top of the slope. If the contestant is unable to reach the top, he or she must cede his place so that his/her team-mate can start.
The game is won when the three team-mates have reached the top of the slope or, failing this, by the team that has the most contestants at the top.
Scoring:- If a team wins a game they score 2 points and if they draw they each score 1.
- The maximum number of points any team can score during an episode is 10.
- The Ratchet is the final deciding game of every round and the team that reaches the highest point of The Ratchet wins the round. Each teams points for the four previous games are accumulated and the team with the highest starts furthest up The Ratchet. This means that the leading team starts with an advantage but if the losing team manage to ace it they can still win the competition.
- The finale takes place between two teams and is decided by the two teams who score the highest points in The Ratchet across the competition.
Seasons(All seasons air exclusively on SABC2)Season 1 (12 episodes)
Premiere: 4 November 2006 | Finale: 20 January 2007 | Saturdays, 20h00
Season 2 (20 episodes)
Premiere: 15 December 2007 | Finale: 26 April, 2008 | Saturdays, 18h30
Season 3 (10 episodes)
Premiere: 26 June 2008 | Finale: 28 August 2008 | Thursdays, 19h30
Season 4 (8 episodes)
Premiere: 2 April 2009 | Finale: 21 May 2009 | Thursdays, 19h30