America's Funniest Home

America's Funniest Home Videos dvd debuted in 1990 and includes footage captured (or staged) by home video cameras. The first host was Bob Saget who provided commentary on topics such as wedding and sports bloopers children and pets getting in trouble and furniture or other objects collapsing. The top three videos of the week are eligible for a cash prize and the winner is selected by the studio audience.

The kid on the screen can’t be more than 2. He’s standing on a patch of lawn, examining a few dark mounds that some animal has dropped on the grass. As he leans in for a closer look, he begins to lose his balance. The image freezes, and Tom Bergeron, the puckish host of America’s Funniest Home Videos, puts his finger on the TV monitor. “I see a forehead-to-shit ratio right there,” Bergeron says, tracing the kid’s likely downward trajectory.

It’s a late fall afternoon and we’re on the show’s cold and spangled Los Angeles set, a glowing cavern filled with lava-colored video walls and spectral white stars. Bergeron, dressed in a black suit, is rehearsing a bit called “Hit, Miss, or Disgusting?” in which two audience members will be asked to predict the clip’s outcome: Will the kid fall headfirst into the minefield? Or will he swerve away at the last second?

Since this is America’s Funniest Home Videos—a show that for more than 20 years has served as a highlight reel of our lowest moments—the answer is pretty obvious. You don’t get on national TV by dodging poop, and sure enough, when the video resumes, the kid goes down, right on target. “That’s the first face-plant into feces we’ve ever had,” Bergeron says with mock pride. He takes a sip of coffee before moving on to the next clip, in which a little girl gets clocked by a tire swing.