Sport, celebrities and pain go together as well as beans on toast. Diving is one of the most painful sports in the world and everyone has some experience of belly flopping into a pool or performed a dive that went painfully wrong. It is this hope of seeing celebrities do the same and hurt themselves live on prime television that draws the audience to the show - as it would be less entertaining if all the celebrities emerged unharmed and dove well, but luckily for us this isn't the case. While they try to impress judges and the audience with good dives, it is the failures and painful landings - like Omid Djallili in the gif above - that people enjoy watching. Even small errors in execution can lead to failing a dive, and attempts to impress have resulted in many celebrities being injured in training or during the shows. While people continue believing in their sporting ability and TV producers looking for the next hit, painful sport-based entertainment will continue to thrive.
6. It's A Knockout
This is arguably the TV show that started people watching a show for a laugh. It's A Knockout was a big sports day for adults that focused on the spectacular and the absurd, with team participants dressed in oversized foam costumes and running courses based on the theme of that game. While there was a competitive edge, few could remember who actually won, but many could recall the spills and calamities from each episode. The overall emphasis of the show was comedy and the games within the show always ensured we were laughing at their expense. Every comedy stereotype and tool was used and played to at every opportunity: buckets of water, custard pies as well as sprayed water and foam were used to make failure inevitable for many contestants, who would wipe out repeatedly over the course of a game. The hosts were often laughing as loudly as the audience at home would be at the state some of the contestants got in. Even contestants who repeatedly fell over were laughing at themselves, showing enjoyment can be gained from knowing you're going to fail all the same.
31 year old father of one with a background in sport. Still a child at heart, which is probably why I like wrestling, TV and films so much. If you like what you read, please follow me on Twitter: @glen_naylor