3. Wonder Showzen - Patience
MTVNever has such an offbeat and relatively obscure show caused such offence, outrage and divisiveness. Its fans hailed it as total genius; its critics, many of whom were religious groups, were horrified by its content, with some branding the programme 'satanic.' True, this trippy cult show is unsettling; although it is presented as a darkly comic parody of educational children's TV, there are no gently crafted moral lessons or counting games to see here. Regular staples include an amoral puppet called Chauncy, sketches where children are shown asking intrusive and offensive questions to adults on the streets, and creepy cartoons. Undoubtedly, Wonder Showzen's most WTF moment came in something that has never been attempted on TV, before or since. 'Patience,' the final episode of season one, was intended to be what the creators called 'a visual palindrome'. It purposely drives viewers bat-matter crazy with puppet Clarence (usually seen interviewing members of the public on moral and religious issues) repeating the word 'patience' over and over again with a random man he ambushes on the street, until the end of the first half of the show. Then, to express its apologies to viewers for the repetitiveness, a title card appears to inform us that Wonder Showzen will show the first half of the show again - backwards. And yes - it really does do this. The intention of this was - you guessed it - to teach viewers to be more patient. It's true; if you're going to tackle this episode, you'll need all the patience you can get... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sltSm5mUniw