Kickstart the Gunge

Kickstart the Gunge was the name of the last game played on most of the Saturday shows on Kickstart from 2005 onwards. Each week would feature a child between the age of 9 and 12 facing off against one of the show’s hosts, with the loser getting gunge poured over them. In languages without a word for “gunge”, it would be called Kickstart the Slime or Kickstart the Goo.

Original Format
Originally, the child contestant would spin a wheel, called the Wheel of Goo, to determine which host they would be facing off against, whether it was Ericka, Blade or Andre. The wheel would change from week to week, with Ericka’s portion usually being deliberately larger than Blade and Andre’s (as a joke between the three hosts).

Both contestants (the child and host) would sit inside rectangular tubes. The child would be given four lives, and the host would be given three. Starting with the child, the two would take it in turns being asked questions by Spy. The contestant could either play the question, or pass it to their opponent. Whoever had to answer the question would get 15 seconds to answer it. If they got the question right, their opponent would lose a life, but if they got the question wrong, or didn’t give an answer in time, they would lose a life.

Once a certain contestant lost all of their lives, Spy would fill a tube located above the contestant’s head up with gunge. Spy would then ask if the victim had ”any words”, before counting down from a random number, and yelling ”Kickstart the gunge!” Spy would then pull a rope, releasing the gunge onto the loser.

If the child won the game, they would win a prize, and if they lost, they would win a ”Victim of the Gunge” certificate.

2006 version
The version featured in 2006 featured a child contestant sitting in just a single rectangular tube. This time, Spy would spend 60 seconds talking to the child. If the child said ”Yes”, ”No” or any of their abbreviations within 60 seconds, they would get gunged by Spy. The child, however, would get prizes depending on how long they lasted without saying any of the “banned” words.

Several episodes where the child got set free featured Spy saying to the audience ”But... Somebody has to go in!” before making somebody else (who was generally Ericka) go in and get gunged.

Cheers
In 2007, Zoey Dawson would cheer “GUNGE! GUNGE! GUNGE! GUNGE! GUNGE!” and then say “Nat you uslysa?” (are you ready) to the child when it was about to start.

Trivia

 * Many fans requested Spy Fandel to go up against a contestant. This never happened, however. This notably makes Fandel the only host who was never gunged on the show.
 * When the playing the game, the children and hosts always removed their glasses, accessories and footwear. In international adaptions, they didn't.
 * Although the gunge was usually cyan or pink, it was occasionally a different colour.