Who's braver?

Last Thursday night, with nothing better to do than flick channels and nurse allergies, my clicker landed on the following shows. As I read the descriptions and watched each show for a few moments, I asked myself: "Who's braver?"

Survivorman
Here's a description of a recent episode: "Les Stroud tried to survive a frigid week on Baffin Island with a hunk of uncooked seal liver, some oil rich blubber for heat, a seal hook, and ..." Who cares? We know this uber boyscout survived, otherwise they wouldn't air the show!


Survivor Fiji Contestants
"The Castaways compete for a seaplane ride and trip to a spa, but an injury to Boo leaves him struggling in the contest." Ha ha ha ha ha! From what I could see, a pulled knee ligament left Boo struggling in the mud when a CBS doctor hurried onto the scene and declared him miraculously cured after a commercial. I flicked the channel to...


Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?
When I saw John, a burly marine, compete against five cute 10 year-olds, I knew I was watching a truly brave soul. There he was sweating bullets over such tough questions as "Bern is the capital of what European country?" or "Light is the only thing that can escape a black hole." (T or F.) Our brave marine stayed in the game until he won a half million dollars.

Any man willing to pit himself against a gaggle of cute kids to make a fool of himself in front of millions of people is brave in my book. Plus he jumped, screamed, and rolled on the floor like a man possessed as he realized he was going to win the brass ring. Now, that made for great t.v. (He fell short, but didn't care.)

Want to pit yourself against these kids? Click here to answer some 5th grade questions. (Taking the quiz from Week 1, I would have made $1 million in the first show without the kids' help. Would you?)