Big Races

The other day I was surfing channels and saw a bunch of grown men in chicken suits riding bikes around an obstacle course. I was intrigued.

Turns out it's a show called "Big Races." Apparently it's based on a BBC show called "It's a Knockout" which ran from 1966 to 1982; a version ran in the States as "Almost Anything Goes" in 1975 and 76.

There were four teams, each representing a different country, which competed for points in a series of strange events. One event had members of each time trying to stand on specially marked patches of ground in a bull pen while the bull roamed around trying to gore them. It was pretty cool.

The four teams were Russia, the U.S., China and Belarus but I have no idea why those four countries were represented and they never explained who any of the non-Russian competitors were. The Russian team, however, was interviewed at frequent intervals throughout the show; they also did sideline interviews with famous Russian athletes who were present to cheer on their side.

Despite a commanding American lead going into the final event, the Russian team won (surprise). According to the Russian Wikipedia page on the show, only one other team has won in the five seasons the show has run - China, in the first season.

The show is a good example of Russia's lite nationalism. Go to any sporting event, or really any public event in this country and you will see people waving Russian flags, even if the event has nothing to do with international competition. When I went to the beauty pageant last week there were five or six people in the audience with Russian flags who would wave them at intervals, while people were applauding or during a dance number.

Think about how this show would work in the States: there would be teams comprised of immigrants from their respective countries; they would do heartfelt backstories about how their family escaped civil war and fled to the U.S. and the children became successful restaurateurs; the stands would be filled with true compatriots who excitedly cheered their team; there would be flags and paraphernalia from each of the countries; the Spanish team would joke that they have more experience running away from bulls.

None of these things were apparent in this show. It seemed pretty clearly designed to make Russians feel good about themselves and their country and to cram as much flag-waving into a timeslot as possible. It's also a product of Channel One, one of the government-owned stations. At the end of the show the announcer asked us to "tune in next time and cheer Russia to victory!"