“You Bet Your Life!”
First print date: August 13 1977
Prog appearance: 25
Writer(s): John Wagner
Artist(s): Ian Gibson
Total episodes: 1
As the citizens of Mega-City One search for more and more ways to fill their often dull and boring lives, the staple of the cud-chewing, television-watching common man, the game show, is extremely popular, and one of the biggest hits on the vidscreen is the show
You Bet Your Life. It is, of course, carried on an illegal pirate channel, as this show really does take your breath away! Literally. Contestants compete for big cash prizes, and if they fail, they are killed. Dredd has been trying to track down the station for some time, and when he catches his manservant robot Walter watching it, he is furious, but realises that this may be the break he's been waiting for. Taking Walter with him, he uses the robot's tracker to trace the signal. As they home in on it, the show is in full swing. One of the contestants has just condemned his grandmother to a life (presumably, a very short one!) of penal servitude in the plutonium mines in Mutant Land.
As the woman is led away in shackles, terrified, her grand-daughter is given the choice of taking 10,000 credits or opening the mystery box. Of course, she goes for the box, inside which is a poisonous spider. She is not long for this world either, and Dredd and Walter, though they have located the signal, have not arrived in time to save her. As they kick in the door and shoot the guards posted at the entrance, they see that the remaining member of the family is being asked to spell a word (which does not exist: they made it up) for his chance to win one million credits. Unfortunately, the alternative is to have his head sliced off by the guillotine he is now resting his neck on.
Dredd bursts in, sees the descending blade, thinks fast. As the gameshow host and his assistant leg it, the Judge shoots at the blade, causing it to split in two. The two halves then end up in the backs of each of the fleeing perps. Justice has been served.
Quotes
Baby Bob Nicely: “Okay Sheldon, here's your question. For 10,000 credits or a nasty end for granny: who was the 53rd president of the United States? I'll give you a clue, Sheldon: say President Bates.”
Sheldon: “Uh, I'll say President Bates, Bob.”
Bob: “Wrong!”
Sheldon: “But you said...”
Bob: “I lied! Never mind, Sheldon! Good game, good game!”
Dredd: “Walter! Turn that off this instant!”
Walter: “But ... but Judge Dwedd! This is Walter's favouwite pwogwamme!”
Dredd: “It's also so illegal that you could be dismantled for even watching it! They
kill people on that show!”
(Interesting point: Dredd professes to hate Walter (as do we all of course) but here, where he would legally be within his rights to blast the bot to pieces, dispensing instant justice, he hold back and allows Walter to turn off the vid. Is he remembering the Robot Wars, and the part Walter played in them? Is he reluctant to stir up anti-human sentiment, should such an incident be reported? Harmless robot killed for watching television program! Does he just then realise he can use Walter to track the station, or is it something softer, deep down inside him, that stays his hand? Does he in fact not only tolerate the little mech, but actually like him? Or does he just feel sorry for him?)
Bob: “This is the part of the show where Sheldon's wife Penelope is offered 10,000 credits or the prize contained in the mystery box. What's it going to be, Penny?”
Penelope: “Oh, I don't know, Bob!”
Crowd: “Take the money!”
Other section of the crowd: “Open the box!”
Walter (watching on his screen, behind Dredd on his Lawmaster): “Open the box!”
Dredd: “Shuttup, Walter!”
Bob: “Well Sheldon, you've lost your entire family. How do you feel about answering the sudden death question?”
Sheldon: “Uuh, good Bob. I feel good!”
Bob: “All right then. For one million credits or a one-way trip to the mortuary, spell Glynxxpittle!”
Bob: “Time's up! It's been really great having you on the show, Sheldon!
You Bet Your Life it has!”
Laughing in the face of death
Well this whole episode is a laugh riot all the way through. Possibly not too far from the truth either, with the way game shows, which have now pretty much given way to reality shows, are going. Back in '77 though the only kind of reality show was the likes of “Badgers at night” by the BBC Wildlife Studios, and weren't we all much happier? But the dark thread running through this humourous story shows us that the host of
YBYL is in no way ready to hand over money to the contestants. From giving them the wrong answer as a “clue” to outright making stuff up, as he does with the word he asks Sheldon to spell (even had he somehow got it right, no doubt Bob would have said it was wrong, and who would correct him?), Baby Bob Nicely makes sure that anyone who is foolish enough to bet their life on his show always loses it. I suppose in a way that makes it even more popular, as citizens vie to be the first to survive and defeat the show, and scoop the million credits it offers, which surely they don't have anyway.
Bob Nicely is a caricature of every smarmy gameshow host you've ever seen, from his glued-on smile to his condescending remarks, his loud clothes and louder personality masking a psychotic killer using this show as a way to stalk his prey --- no, he doesn't even
have to stalk them.
They come to
him, and he gets to practice his art
live on television. What more could a serial killer ask?
It is quite mildly funny when Walter, in pursuit of the station with Dredd and as referenced in the “Quotes” section, gets caught up in the show himself and shouts “Open the box!” He's not a very bright robot though, is he? Or perhaps just naive, if he can't understand what's going on in front of his visor. Or maybe he thinks it's all for show.
I'll ask the questions, Creep!
Given that the show is illegal anyway, is there any hope for granny, who is about to begin a short but brutal stay at hotel Mutant? Penelope is dead, nothing the Judge can do about that. But if they chase after the thugs who took his grandmother away, surely they can catch them and prevent her being transported? I don't believe Mega-City One has any sort of matter teleport system, so the muties would have to come for her in a craft, or she be taken to them, (probably the latter, as aren't mutants banned from entering the city?) and a road block could be set up. But is the Judge willing to expend such manpower and time, I wonder, in helping what is technically a lawbreaker? Then again, did granny really realise what her grandson was getting her into? And then again, Dredd often says ignorance of the law is no excuse, so maybe he might be expected to leave her to her fate? We're not told, anyway: I just wondered.
I AM THE LAW!
Participation in an unlawful enterprise is, to Dredd, as bad as masterminding it, and to prove there is no innocent party here, he announces to all of the audience that they are under arrest. No doubt if he can trace those watching at home, they'll be heading for the cubes too. Later, we'll see him bring in the entire Eurovision (probably Megavision) Song Contest to be locked up!
Messages
The only one really is that man's greed is eternal, and people will do anything --- including risking the lives of their families as well as their own --- to attain a fortune. Also, I guess, that there has to be a ceiling (or floor) beyond which popular entertainment is not allowed to progress. There's taste, there's opportunism, and then there's the law.
Nothing changes?
It doesn't really. People remain as stupid and as greedy as they are now, still prepared to risk everything --- even their lives --- for their shot at that golden ring. Never gonna learn. And whatever is outlawed just goes underground. Happened with radio, then rave parties, drugs and now television shows of a, shall we say, dubious nature. The nature of the beast does not change.