Smush facts for kids

Smush was an American game show that aired on the USA Network. It ran from December 3, 2001, to June 21, 2002. The show was all about combining words to create new, funny phrases.

Gameplay

Smush was hosted by Ken Ober, with Lisa Dergan as co-host. The show's set looked like a fun basement party. Four contestants played, trying to "smush" answers to clues together. This created a brand new phrase.

For example, if the clue was "A New England state + 'Flying Circus' man," the answer would be "Vermonty Python." This combined "Vermont" and "Monty Python." Sometimes, the "smushed" words didn't have to be spelled exactly like the original words. An example of this was "Belly Lafghanistan," which came from "belly laugh" and "Afghanistan."

Rounds 1 and 2

In these rounds, quick clues were given. Players had to "smush" the answers together. The first player to buzz in with the right answer got points. If they were wrong, other players could try to guess.

Round one had clues with two parts. These created two answers that needed to be smushed. Each correct answer was worth one point. Later in this round, some clues were pictures or visual puzzles.

Round two featured clues with three parts. These created three answers to be smushed together. These were called "Smush Tris." Each correct answer was worth two points. The very last smush in the second round was called the "Smush Quad." This was a four-part clue and was worth three points.

After each of the first two rounds, the player with the lowest score was out of the game.

Round 3 (Smush Chain)

Round three was known as the "Smush Chain." Clues were given one at a time. The smushed answer would get longer and longer. To score, a player had to buzz in and say the entire chain of smushed words.

There were seven clues in total. The first clue was the starting point and wasn't a smush itself. For instance, a chain might become "Leap Yeardrum Major Tommy Thompson Twin Cities." This combined "Leap Year," "Ear Drum," "Drum Major," "Major Tom," "Tommy Thompson," "Thompson Twins," and "twin cities."

The first clue was worth one point, the second was worth two points, and so on, up to seven points. The player with the highest score moved on to the final bonus round.

Money Round

In the bonus round, co-host Lisa wrote a word or phrase on a mirror with lipstick. This word was the main "root word" for the next five smushes. Five clues were read one by one. The answers to these clues had to smush either to the left or right side of the root word.

The winning player had 45 seconds to answer these five clues. For each correct smush they gave, they won $1,000. If a player made a mistake, that clue and smush were skipped. Players could also skip a clue and come back to it if they had time left. If the player answered all five clues correctly within 45 seconds, they won a total of $8,000!