Figure It Out?

You Can't Do That On Television :)

What IS the reference?

Someone guessed close enough so here it is, You Can't Do That On Television :)

It makes me think of an old late '80s Nickelodeon show called Super Sloppy Double Dare, when the losers would almost surely end up covered in green goo.

Close enough :) It's a reference to the old kid's show You Can't Do That On Television that aired on Nickelodeon around the same time.

That started in 1979, the same year I started college. Double Dare started the year after I got out of college, so probably around 1986. Both were fun shows. I have one of the official Super Sloppy Double Dare t-shirts from when they were screening in Erie around 1990 or so. I was too old to be on the show, but everyone who attended the screening as audience got a t-shirt. It's basically this, but mine is a red shirt with blue letters.

I can tell you first hand the slime and other foods they used in Double Dare did not smell good. It smelled worse than the bottom of a cafeteria garbage can, mixed with sour milk. The screening set reeked of it. Everywhere you saw whipped cream, they actually used baker's cream. Baker's cream is a denser and more dairy than standard whipped cream, so it could keep it's shape under the hot studio lights better, but soured really fast. Oh, and whenever they showed ice cream, it was just more of the nasty baker's cream, with coloring added. The mustard and ketchup was fake too. They used vanilla pudding with vivid color dye for those, because real mustard burns the eyes. The peanut butter, jelly, syrup, Jello and baked bean messes were all the real thing though. None of it was ever fresh, as they used expired food that was going to be thrown out anyway. It sure looked good on TV, where you could not smell it.

I think You Can't Do That On Television used colored oatmeal for their slime, so that probably didn't smell much at all. I feel sorry for the workers who had to clean it up after each day!

Interesting, I remember watching double dare when I was really young around 2002-03ish, it was one of those shows that my whole family watched together and enjoyed. It's interesting that you were able to attend one of the screenings and got a pretty neat shirt out of it :)

I always wondered what they used to get the perfect shots on TV for all their various messes, I guess in their case appearances were more important than smell! You've gotta wonder what it was like actually being on set for a full episode and getting covered head to toe in all that stuff under the hot studio lights. doesn't sound pleasant at all.

As for You Can't Do That On Television, I remember reading that there were permanent spots of green stained into the tile at their original studio so that doesn't bode well for ease of cleanup!

Most of the kids were probably so excited about being there and winning prizes, that they weren't thinking of the smell.

Probably right.