B Movies Blog

Hello, Movie Mavens! Welcome back to the B Movies Blog. Today, we’re popping Fuse into the ol’ VCR.

We all know I was an MTV girlie. 

But, friends, I was also a Fuse fanatic. 

For those who don’t know, Fuse began as MMUSA (MuchMusic USA) all the way back in the 90s. 

Over the years, and several mergers and acquisitions later (insert American Psycho reference here), the Fuse I grew up with came to be around 2003. 

And, boy howdy, was it wild. But, y’know, in the best way. 

The three big shows I watched religiously on Fuse were: 

• The Nighttime Clap
• Pants-Off Dance-Off 
• The Whitest Kids U’Know 

The Nighttime Clap

I feel like out of all three of these shows, this is the one most people aren’t going to remember. I feel like I might lose some of you, so stick with me. 

Like WKUK, The Nighttime Clap was a sketch-comedy show that has basically been forgotten by the entire internet. Seriously. You can barely find anything about it, including the sketches. 

The big ones I remember are “The Philosophical iPod” and “Goth Chick On…” 

Billy Eichner also did some man-on-the-street style sketches, which is WILD. 

You can find some sketches throughout YouTube and Vimeo, but there’s never been any sort of physical release. It also seems like there were only a handful of episodes released/shot. 

I can’t 100% say how this holds up, but I think I remember some gay jokes sprinkled throughout.  

Pants-Off Dance-Off 

This is truly one of the most insane shows I remember watching in my formative years. 

If you don’t know the premise, let me explain: 

People would strip to different music videos, and then the audience would vote on their favorite dancer. 

That’s it. That’s the show. 

I had to Google to find out if these peeps even won money. They apparently had the chance to win $200 and an opportunity to compete in an all-stars episode. 

So yeah…that was a real show I watched all the time, aka for the two seasons it was one/all of the repeats. 

The good news is, I’ve talked to other people who also bore witness to this show, so I know I’m not alone. 

The Whitest Kids U’Know (WKUK) 

Some of, if not most of you, are probably familiar with The Whitest Kids U’Know. 

Several clips from it went viral, including the “Sic Semper Tyrannis” sketch, and growing up in a high school marching band from 2006-2010, it served as the height of comedy for me and a lot of my friends. 

Does WKUK hold up? Erm…

There are some sketches that are still fine to watch. But, I do want to give you a big ol’ warning that a lot of these sketches…don’t. 

It’s hard to watch a lot of these. I’ll be honest. So, I would say to keep that in mind if you’re looking to start a nostalgic rewatch. 

I also want to say RIP to Trevor Moore. Losing him did break my heart because I watched these sketches a lot growing up. 

Additionally, if you saw and loved Barbarian like I did, you may or may not know that Zach Cregger is actually a WKUK cast member. 

Fuse almost feels like a fever dream now. Just when I think I hallucinated a channel I watched over several years of my life, a song on my playlist that I found from Fuse will start playing. 

It’s crazy to look back on how much time has passed since I stayed up too late watching sketch comedy shows and Pants-Off Dance-Off after singing along to music videos all day long. 

This one’s for Baby Baillee. 🖤