Smush

Smush
Genre	Game show
Presented by	Ken Ober with Lisa Dergan
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Diplomatic Productions Greengrass Productions Jellyvision
Release
Original network	USA Network
Original release	December 3, 2001 – 2002

Smush is an American game show which aired on the USA Network in 2001.

Smush was hosted by Ken Ober and co-hosted by Lisa Dergan. The show, set in a basement party atmosphere, featured four contestants trying to "smush" the answers to clues together, to create a new smushed phrase. For example, the clue "A New England state + 'Flying Circus' man" would result in an answer of "Vermonty Python," formed by combining "Vermont" and "Monty Python". Smushes did not have to use the exact spelling of both words. For example, "Belly Lafghanistan" could be a combination of "belly laugh" and "Afghanistan."

Ken read rapid-fire clues in which the answers smush together. The first player to buzz in with the correct smush answer scored points, but an incorrect answer gave the opposing players a chance to take a guess. Round one saw two-part clues which caused two answers to be smushed together; and each correct answer was worth one point. Later in that round, the remaining clues were visual clues. Round two had three-part clues which had three answers smushed together; those were called "Smush Tris", with each correct answer worth two points. The final smush in the second round was called the "Smush Quad", so-called because it was a four-part clue meaning four answers were smushed together; that clue was worth three points.

The player with the lowest score at the end of each of the first two rounds was eliminated from the game.

Round three was called the "Smush Chain." Clues would be given one at a time to a smush that would grow progressively longer. To score, the player must buzz in and recite the entire chain, starting at the first clue. A total of seven clues were asked, the first of which served as the base of the smush, and was not a smush in itself. (For example, the chain might become "Leap Yeardrum Major Tommy Thompson Twin Cities," by combining "Leap Year," "Ear Drum," "Drum Major," "Major Tom," "Tommy Thompson," "Thompson Twins," and "twin cities.") The first clue was worth one point, the second clue was worth two points, and so on, up to seven points. The player with the highest score went on to the bonus round.

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