Hey, Taxi!

For the past month or so, I have this fantasy about my time in New York. I’m heading somewhere uptown and decide to hail a cab. I climb inside and tell the driver my destination. Suddenly I hear a sharp blast of sound and the roof of the cab lights up – I’m on Cash Cab!

I can’t tell you how much I’d like to appear on this show. Cash Cab is a game show on the Discovery Channel in which unsuspecting riders are asked general interest questions as they travel to their destination. The further they go, the more money they can win. But if they miss three questions. They’re back out on the street again.

And man, I love it. I love the ambush when they first get into the cab—some folks have great surprised faces. I love seeing the cab travel down streets and past shops I recognize. And there’s not the sort of filter that a show like Jeopardy! has -- all sorts of people hail cabs. Salesmen, stoners, professors, club-hoppers – anyone can play. Some do surprisingly well. (I was thrilled when a guy and his teen daughter took a ride, and she was the one who knew Alexander Hamilton wrote The Federalist Papers. Put that in yer pipe and smoke it, “kids today are stupid” crowd!) Others, not so much. Some people tank three questions in a row, which is its own kind of fun.

We watch a lot of serial TV at our house. Plenty of dramas have ongoing stories, and sitcoms like The Office and 30 Rock do it as well. So it’s a treat to have this show in our rotation, ready to play we need some lightweight fun.

Rob