STATISTICS

PERSONALITIES

STRUCTURE

PHYSICAL CHALLENGES

OBSTACLE COURSE

MISTAKES

TIDBITS

ACCESSORIES

SOUNDS

INDEX


MARGINAL MISCELLANI
During the 1987 Nickelodeon run of Super Sloppy Double Dare, a contest was held which involved the physical challenges. There was a transparent mailbox to the left of Marc's podium filled with postcards. When a team successfully completed a stunt Marc drew a letter from the mailbox and the lucky person who sent the letter got a prize, usually an Etch a Sketch Animator. If the challenge was not won, the person received a DD t-shirt.

Quick explanations (in somewhat chronological order) of some toss-up stunts:
Wheelbarrow Apple Race - Move an apple with your nose from one side of the stage to the other while your partner lifts you up like a wheelbarrow.

I Want My Mummy - Wrap up your partner's entire body with a roll of toilet paper. First one to use the entire roll wins.

Dueling Straws - Suck up milk with a straw from a bowl and spit it back up into cup to fill it pass the line. Both contestants have their own bowls. Marc's said a few things about how kids play this stunt: "They're spitting at each other folks!" and "Yes...the lady is drooling all over herself."

Egg Crack-Ups - Throw eggs to your partner across the stage. The catcher of the eggs then cracks 5 of them on their forehead. Used also as a regular physical challenge, but this version had them crack 10 eggs in 15 seconds.

Clown Shoe Golf - Putt golf balls into your partner's shoe which has a hole in the front end of it. Marc would usually intro this one as Ed Sullivan, "Here we have a really big shoe..."

Top Gum - One person chews pieces of gum one at a time and then sticks them to his/her partner's goggles. First one to stick one piece to each eye lens of the goggles wins.

Balloon Break - Each contestant wears a jumpsuit with 10 hooked balloons. First team to pop their share of 20 balloons wins.

Dem Bones - Teams have their respective jumbled up skeletons with several pieces unattached on the floor. First team to complete their skeleton wins.

Chicken Feed - Pop balloons filled with liquid while dressed as a chicken. The liquid, as always, flows into the cup, passing the line.

Orange You Glad You Came - One player throws sponges (shaped like oranges, soaked in juice) into a vat in which his/her partner is located. This person then stomps on the sponges, getting the liquid into their cup.

Bouncing Babies - In a large contraption one player is hooked into an enlarged diaper suspended in mid-air. The other player simply rolls down balloons down a ramp which is below the suspended player. Bouncing up and down, the diapered player pops the balloons, allowing the liquid to pass the line in their bucket.

The Stagehands' Revenge - The stunt is started when liquid is released from one of those large barrel like containers from above. The teams are placed symmetrically beside the container on the floor with various items to get the water off the ground (ie, dustpan, shovel) in order to fill their cup past the line.

Viewer Requests:

Thanks to Joey Wehmann for the following contributions!

Velcro Darts - One kid stands in front of a board with dart targets shaped like ice cream cones while the other throws ice cream at the targets.

Save Dad/Mom - Like Velcro Darts, the family had to throw food, which looked like potatoes, at 6 clocks. If they didn't get all the targets, dad/mom would get dumped on by "toxic waste".

Hollywood Squares (DD style) - Someone would throw sponges at a tic tac toe board. The object was to make tic tac toe by breaking the baloons involving the center square where the other person was. If they would make it, the kid would run over and hit the other person with a pie.

Spit Wad Students - Kids would throw spit wads at a bullseye which was held by their parents' heads, which were connected to a helmet.

Italian Baseball - The kids and their mom would throw "meat-a-balls" at dad while he tried to hit the meatballs with Italian Bread into the buckets the kids also held.

Caveman Golf - Two people would dress as cavemen and try to hit a "stonage ball" through an obstacle, then into a volcano. If they made it, the volcano would explode.

Hoopsy-Daisie A simple physical challenge. The object was to make a hula hoop go from one person to the other person with out touching the hoop with their hands. That's why their hands were connected with gloves on clothes pins. 20 seconds.

The Rice Transfer The contestants hands were connected by a handkerchief. The object was to put rice in a, guess this, in a cup past the line! (Who would of known!) 30 Seconds - a pretty easy stunt.

The Human Wheelbarrow This was a toss-up. One kid wheelbarrowed the other over 3 pies. The player on the ground had to put the cherry in the glasses with their teeth.

Bucket Backpack - In this one, someone threw gak covered balls, into 3 buckets, one on top of the contestant, one on the left, and one on the right. This one is very hard. Marc says it's been done, but I've never seen it done.

Basketball Bounced - 3 people standed on one side of the stage and threw basketballs at the 4th person across the stage. The 4th person had to catch 5 in either 20 or 30 seconds. 1 between his legs, 2 in the armpits, and 2 infront. Chris, who replaced, Jamie, who replaced Dave as stage assistant, did this very well.

Once again, innumerous thanks to Joey Wehmann for the descriptions of these challenges!


PHYSICAL CHALLENGES
This page chronicles just a fraction of the hundreds of physical challenges used by Double Dare in its 7 years.

Early in the series a lot of the stunts performed were reminiscent of Beat The Clock, as they relied more upon skill. As Double Dare progressed (along with an increasing budget) the stunts' focus relied more upon props and mess. The overall change occured when DD moved from Philadelphia to Orlando. No matter what time or place however, the physical challenges were the most important aspect of the show since they always decided who won the game.

What follows is a list of some of the more popular (and not-so-popular) stunts played on the show in a somewhat chronological order, with titles (either real or made-up) and a brief description.

KEY: D=difficult, V=variable difficulty level, E=easy; M=messy, NM=not messy, SM=somewhat messy; 15/20/30= usual time for stunt

STUNTS USED ON DOUBLE DARE: 1986-1988

Unlock the Door .........................................................D.....NM.....30
Objective: Open the two locks on the door.
Both contestants are given a ring of keys; one key from each ring would open one of the two locks. A classic example of a seemingly easy stunt turned into one of the hardest as practically no one was able to open both of the locks, let alone one of them.

Airmail .........................................................V.....NM.....20
Objective: Throw one paper airplane into a mailbox 8 feet away.
A VERY simple challenge--both of the contestants are able to simultaneously throw an airplane one at a time. Marc made a bet with Dave that this stunt would never be accomplished but he was proved wrong many times. Later in the first season to make the stunt harder, the contestants would have to make the airplanes themselves.

Harvey's Wild Oats .......................................................D.....NM.....20
Objective: Move 3 cans of oats to the end of the stage using 1 hand.
Another early stunt with no mess at all, this one stumped many contestants. The difficulty laid in the passing of the 3 stacked containers to your partner. The challenge spoofs Quaker Oats, even caricaturing Quaker on the can with Harvey in costume.

Water Basketball .........................................................E.....SM.....20
Objective: Throw 3 water balloons in the basket.
This stunt originated from an early DD contest - they asked viewers to send in ideas for physical challenges and the winners (whose stunts were played on the show) received a T-shirt. The props they used were dreadful. The backboard was placed on the wall panel and wasn't secured very well. Halfway through the stunt, the board came loose and almost landed on the contestant's head. Marc and Robin ended up holding the board up for the rest of the time. The stunt was never tried again until much later when they changed it to a toss-up.

Creamed Cup .........................................................V......M.....15
Objective: Fill a cup past the line with cream.
Definitely one of the more popular challenges of the 80's. Along with the seltzer bottles, the spray cans of whipped cream took a while for DD to figure out. In the beginning, they forgot to shake the bottle before handing it to the contestant making the stunt harder than it should've been. The stunt later required you to fill a smaller cup all the way to the top.

Pie in Your Pants .........................................................V......M.....30
Objective: Catapult 3 pies into your partner's huge pants.
Another wildly successful stunt, its only fault was the catapult itself. Most of the early ones would hardly project the pies anywhere (except backwards). Later in the series, they replaced the catapult with a spring-loaded hand, but this only caused the pies to hit the lights in the ceiling.

Blind Food .........................................................V.....SM.....15
Objective: Find hidden objects in food while blindfolded.
Not very creative, nor were they very exciting, but they were very often used in the early days. Another problem was that it was designed primarily for one person. Examples: Chocolate in Jello, Teething Rings in Cereal, etc.

Pour it On .........................................................E.....SM .....15
Objective: Fill a cup past the line with liquid.
One contestant just sat down while the other one stood wearing a helmet with 2 opened tubes of water. Another ho-hum stunt, this one in fact was borrowed directly from Beat the Clock.



Rain on Your Parade ......................................................V.....SM .....30
Objective: Fill a cup past the line while your partner plays instruments.
This is DD's "Ten Chances" of TPIR. How many times did you see the contestant with the cup move their head down, losing all the water? This happened all the time, and not just with Rain on Your Parade.

William Tell .........................................................D.....SM.....30
Objective: Knock the apple off your partner's head w/ a seltzer bottle.
This is my all-time least favorite physical challenge. They played this one way too much, and I've only seen it accomplished one time. And when the player finally aimed the bottle correctly, the current of the water wasn't strong enough to knock the apple down. Later on FDD, this stunt resurfaced but it was totally different. Bows and plungers were now used along with wooden apples.

Dunk the Ducks .........................................................E.....NM .....20
Objective: Drown 10 rubber duckies in a pool of water for 3 seconds.
Won every time, this stunt was a total no-brainer. If it wasn't for the contestant who actually submerged his entire body in the water, this stunt wouldn't be worth noting. In Super Sloppy DD, the water was changed to mud, and the contestants were advised to totally fall in, something no one ever did.

Barber of Seville .........................................................E.....SM.....20
Objective: Put an apron on; cream, shampoo and wash your partner.
Another cinchy challenge. Notable for the usage of DD's trademark "Green Slime Shampoo." The stunt was changed to increase difficulty by lengthening the distance between the contestants.

Babies, Bottles, and Bonnets .....................................V.....NM .....20
Objective: Fling baby food to knock over 5 bottles on a wooden plank.
This is one of the earliest stunts that required contestants to dress up. Granted, just a bonnet isn't much, but the idea eventually progressed to outlandish proportions. Sometimes the stunt was played with 30 seconds and all the bottles had to be knocked down.

Pop Goes the Balloon ....................................................E.....SM.....15
Objective: Out of 10-15 balloons, find the one with chocolate.
One of DD's few stunts that's based solely on luck, this was also the simplest yet very successful attempt with gak filled balloons. This stunt also takes on the early years premise of only getting one player messy. The question of, "Wanna sit down there or go over there?" became a DD cliche. Sometimes the balloons in this stunt were transparent, leading to very quick and easy wins.

Musical Eggs .........................................................D.....NM.....30
Objective: Catch an egg in the air with cymbals while blindfolded.
A stunt that reads very easy on paper while very difficult to perform. Marc tells the egg thrower to say "now" when the eggs reach the cymbals, but usually they'd never achieve perfect timing. Also, the contestants should've thrown more than one egg at a time...this one's not extremely egg-citing. Woody Fraser reused this stunt for the Family Challenge in '94.

Egg Lincoln .........................................................V.....SM .....20
Objective: Catch 3 eggs in your open-ended top hat.
A classic example of how DD could get away with a tiny budget in the late 80's. Only props used were the eggs and a top hat with the top cut off. Although the stunt only involved throwing and catching, the end results were often exciting and funny. It was amazing to see how much egg yolk stuck on to the player's head when he/she removed the hat.

STUNTS USED ON DOUBLE DARE: 1989-1993

Water Fountain .........................................................V.....NM.....20
Objective: Fill a cup capturing water sprayed by a powerful fountain.
Maybe the only stunt used in the later years to not depend on props as much as skill, this challenge was won more frequently on Super Sloppy DD than on Family DD. The reason? The kids would always run up to the fountain to get the water; the adults would stray back about 5 feet wasting time trying to find the range of the water stream. Marc would eventually say, "I wonder why..."

Exercise Bike Launcher ..........................................V.....NM .....30
Objective: Catch balls that are shot out of an exercise bike.
One of my all-time favorites, even though not much skill was required. There would be perhaps 150 balls shot out of the attachment to the bike; the "catcher" had a huge funnel backpack in which to catch 6. This stunt was the only one that could end prematurely before knowing if the stunt was won or lost.

Human Taco/Pizza/Salad/Sundae/etc ................E.....VM.....20
Objective: Turn your partner into food using condiments and props.
One of the few stunts to be influenced by Fun House. FH was much more messy in the late-80's, and DD tried to top them during SSDD with stunts like this one. No matter what the procedure was, the final objective was to pull on a lever connected to one of those huge barrels of unknown liquid. Once in a while these wouldn't work, and at least once a small girl wasn't able to pull it down due to its heaviness.

Rest in Gak .........................................................E.....SM.....20
Objective: Knock down half the tombstones on a table 10 ft. away.
An interesting stunt, mostly because of the names they placed on each tombstone. Sometimes they used names from current events, other times they simply used their own names, but on several occassions they used the tombstones to bash Fun House. When Marc came across one that said J.D., he said "I wonder who he is," mocking the idea that kids don't watch FH. They pushed the FH cut downs to the limit once when Robin and Dave came out on skateboards to intro the stunt.

Trash Head .........................................................V.....VM.....30
Objective: Catch 3 globs of trash in your "trash-head."
The "trash-head" is actually a plastic container that is worn over a player's shoulders, conveniently letting the gak fall on their heads. All the time the trash was concealed in a thick gunk of green goo that seemed like the messiest substance they ever used. What's worse is that Marc voluntarily put his hand in there once in a while to show the trash, unknowing that the glop would stay on his hand until the commercial.

Breakfast in Bed .........................................................E.....VM.....15
Objective: Pour stuff on the bed while moving it and changing places.
The last 15 second physical challenge. This one was very quick but usually always exciting as the final obstacle would always occur on the last second or two. This stunt was changed during SSDD to Sundae type gak and a makeshift boat instead of a bed. This boat looked like it came right out of a Flintstones episode.

High Five .........................................................D.....VM.....20
Objective: Wearing huge 10 ft. rubber hands, pop 10 balloons.
One of the most unique stunts in DD history. The huge hands the contestants got into were amazing (they were so hard to get out of, this stunt was usually always used before the first commercial) and the idea of slapping your partner's hand with a balloon in the middle is practically surreal. This stunt would garner laughs as well - Marc would always get gak on his suit from the inevitable flying gak.

Pizza Tossing .........................................................V.....SM.....30
Objective: Catch the pizzas your partner tosses over his/her head.
The first challenge to implement the conveyor belt. This would later be used innumerous times on Stone-Stanley programs.

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Cement Pipeline................................................D.....VM.....30
Objective: Move the liquid from one side to the other with 4 people.
A VERY aggravating challenge, and to the best of my knowledge, never won. This is the one where each member of the family holds on to a piece of half-pipe above their head. First of all, they'd never get into a line from tallest to shortest; second, they didn't know what they were doing in the first place. No physical compatibility and this stunt falls flat. Marc would use his spiel that a stunt only appears when it works during testing, but this one went overboard with the amount of times they attempted it. The FDD version of William Tell if you will.

Hot Dog! .........................................................V.....SM .....30
Objective: Hit a bullseye under the gak container with tennis balls.
Not a very notable stunt, except that a joke came out of the use of the "hot dog bun" costume. Marc would invariably say, "doesn't she have nice buns folks?" Even though the gak was supposed to be mustard, it really was a different substance with yellow-coloring. This, as in all other similar cases, leads Marc to say "a mustard-like substance..."

I Told You to Sit Down! ...............................................V.....VM.....30
Objective: Catapult pies into a family member's oversized pants.
The "Pie in Your Pants" of the FDD era, complete with the exact same clown pants. Admittedly, the catapulting chair was the best pie launcher they ever used. Maybe too good. A lot of times the pies would just go straight into the lights. This was also a stunt that should've just been used with 2 people. There were 2 meaningless tasks for the other members - pick up a pie for one, drop the pie for the 2nd family member.

Toss Your Cookies .........................................................V.....SM.....30
Objective: Create cookies and throw 3 of them into a large coffee cup.
Another stunt to utilize the DD conveyor belt. Other than the punny title, this stunt isn't remarkable.

Honey, I'm Home .........................................................E.....SM.....20
Objective: Catch 2 cards and a newspaper in a suitcase and out the door.
This stunt was actually used as a 2nd round toss-up very frequently. One time Marc noted, "we play it enough times, you oughta know it by now." This also paid tribute to I Love Lucy as the adults wore wigs akin to Lucy and Desi. Also after everytime he says the title, Marc joins with the audience with a Desi laugh that's more enjoyable than the stunt itself. It's actually Tim Taylor's laugh in a Cuban accent.

Beer Barons .........................................................D.....SM.....30
Objective: Slide down "beer" down the ramp and fill up the container.
There are actually 2 versions of this stunt; one involves a beer jug that gushes liquid out, the other already has the beer into different sized bottles. Also the ramp had slight edge to it near the end that tipped the bottles into the contestant. Someone must've gotten mad about the idea of kids and beer...later Marc would refer to it as "root beer".

The Double Dare Dancing Machine .........................D.....NM.....30
Objective: Hook a balloon and navigate it through a course.
Used during the final season of FDD. By this time the novelty of props started to wear out and a new wave of challenges like this one involved much more agility. Maybe it was Marc's idea...after all, he was the creative consultant during the final 2 seasons of FDD.