A Rare and Tasty Gag from a Reality Show

Former Playboy Cyber Babe of the Month Mary Beth Decker gets real in a very nice gag/headset ensemble.

This is about the coolest bit of gag imagery I've seen on any reality series. Which isn't saying a lot, reality series have been about the poorest provider of gag scenes in the history of television, and that includes news shows, which have the occasional gagged protestor to spice things up and even occasionally gag their own news anchors.

The thing that makes this gag so compelling of course is the combination of headphones and gags. They look great. In combination, they have an almost science fictional look to them at first glance.

The contest in this episode of Road Rules: South Pacific is to navigate an obstacle course while sensory deprived. Four of the team members are blindfolded and two of them can see. But the catch is that the two who can see wear headphones so they can't hear and duct tape gags so they can't talk to the blinded members of the team to help them. I guess they have to guide them by touch.

The scene lasts a good 15 minutes. That's one of the advantages of bondage scenes occurring on reality shows. It's not some hasty rescue scene that's compressed as tight as possible to move the plot along, it's a CONTEST and they take all the time they need to let it happen.

And it is our very great fortune that one of the team members who is gagged and headphoned is Mary Beth Decker, a former Playboy Cyber Babe of the Month. That's her in the photo. They were really serious about keeping her from talking to her teammates -- they used two pieces of tape on the gag. Tasty, tasty. A pair of dark glasses -- the big wraparound kind -- would have really hit the spot here.

I'd happily watch reality shows if they did this sort of thing more often. But of course, they don't.