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. When the game was originally introduced, only Ericka, Blade and Andre were eligible to get gunged.

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 the life.

Once a certain contestant lost all of their lives, Spy would fill a tube located above the contestant’s head up with either white, blue or lime gunge. Spy would then ask if the victim had ”any words”? After counting down from a random number, Spy would yell ”Kickstart the gunge!” and 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.

2007 changes

 * The child now decides which host they can play against, but they were not allowed to pick Spy.
 * The child now only had three lives.

25th March 2006
Amrit Freeland agreed to go against Ericka on Kickstart the Gunge, to determine who is the smarter children’s entertainer. The two were both given four lives, and were asked questions about Kuboian cartoons (including some created by Freeland). In the end, Ericka won with two lives to spare.

14th February 2009
Blade Holter returned as a surprise guest on 14th February 2009 (not even the hosts knew he would be appearing), where he challenged Ericka to a battle on Kickstart the Gunge. Even though Blade ended up winning, Spy decided to give him a half-gunge anyway.

A regular Kickstart the Gunge began shortly afterwards, making this the only day to have more than one gunging.

Team Battles
Some episode would feature a child teaming up with a host, competing against two of the other hosts. Both teammates on the losing team would be gunged.

Team battles occurred on the following days:
 * 30th April 2005
 * 22nd April 2006
 * 10th June 2006
 * 2nd June 2007
 * 30th June 2007
 * 26th April 2008
 * 28th February 2009
 * 14th March 2009
 * 18th April 2009
 * 27th June 2009
 * 29th May 2010

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.
 * Out of the 136 episodes broadcasted from 2005 to 2010, Kickstart the Gunge made 121 appearances (120 not including its double appearance in one episode).