Do you remember Match Game? A game show from the 60’s and 70’s (and even into the 80’s), it was hosted by Gene Rayburn and featured a panel of guest “stars” including Vicki Lawrence, Brett Sommers, Richard Dawson, Charles Nelson Reilly and Betty White, among many others.

(If you don’t know Match Game, you probably don’t know any of those names, either. Except for Betty White, she continues to make a name for herself into her 90’s.)

Match Game had a simple premise: Sort of a group MadLib, there were two contestants, the host asked a question with a word– or words– missing, the panel would write their answers on cards and hide them, the contestant gave his answer and then the cards were revealed in hopes for a match. For instance, a question might be, “Fat Franny was so fat, and the studio audience would respond, “HOW FAT WAS SHE?” to which Gene would repeat, “Fat Franny was so fat, when she ordered from a take-out menu, the restaurant used a ________ for delivery.”

Here’s an example of Dumb Dora being so dumb, HOW DUMB IS SHE?

Risque and offensive by today’s PC standards, the questions often set up the participants to blurt inappropriate responses.  Cheap and crude with mostly B and C list stars, it appealed to the afternoon post-Soap crowd. And kids home from school. It may have contributed to shaping my formative years. That may explain a lot.

The reason it’s top of my mind this morning is because we reference it frequently at my house. Dave will say, “That ball game was so boring (HOW BORING WAS IT?)…” or “This driver was so dangerous (HOW DANGEROUS WAS HE?)…” or “It is so humid today (HOW HUMID IS IT?)…”

The rest of the story rarely features a blank for me to fill in, but I swear, when he opens a sentence with, “It was so something…” I have to say HOW SOMETHING WAS IT?

And that sets me on the track down Match Game Lane.

The show may still be on television, in some new incarnation or repeated on one of the billions of cable channels. I haven’t seen it lately, but we still reference it a lot. It’s funny how some things stick with you after all these years.

HOW FUNNY IS IT?

What memories do you stumble across frequently? What oldie crops up current? What little thing from your past has contributed to who you are now?

It would be so fun, How fun would it be?, it would be so fun if you answered in the form of a Match Game question!