Amidst a number of shows which try so hard to be cerebral and generally expose themselves as fraudulent, 1000 Ways to Die is an odd breath of sincerity; sincerely stupid and ridiculous, but refreshing. Each show is a collection of 'shorts' wherein someone dies, usually in an unusual way. The acting is atrocious. The special effects are mediocre. The narration is often funny. And each scene concludes with a 'title' for that death, which is usually a pun. In my opinion, it's the funniest bit of the show, and you'll probably find yourself trying to guess what the death will be 'called' before it appears on screen.

The dramatizations are pure ridiculousness. In many cases, it's pretty clear that the producers and writers took great liberty with the characterizations (they wanted to make sure that for the most part, you don't feel too much sympathy for those who are going to die). Practically every other woman on the show is a stripper (as the narrator assures us) and ample screen time is given to showing us these women strutting around as sex kittens before someone else around them dies. Is it possible that death follows strippers? Maybe. I really don't know. But this is about the only 'thought candy' 1000 Ways to Die provides.

It also gets funny to see the 'experts; the show uses, to attempt a legitimization of itself. The same people keep showing up as experts, though their titles shift. The conspiracy theory expert becomes a certified 'deathologist' an episode or two later. I suspect he was really just some guy selling newspapers outside the studio, who was offered a few bucks to act official and accepted.

And the show doesn't suffer for it one bit.

It's a comedy. Enjoy it as dumb fun and it will indeed be fun. Expect more and you'll be let down. But you should have a pretty good idea of what the show is within the first five minutes.

This show is not for the faint of heart. It re-enacts some really gruesome deaths and these are deaths that have happened to real people. I can't believe some of them actually happened because they are so crazy, like one about a purse snatcher who ran into a car wash to get away from the police, slipped on water, fell back on a pressure hose that turned on and shot high pressure water into his skull until his head blew up. Some are a one in a million chance to happen, like a guy who gets killed by a stray bullet shot into the air from a mile away. It comes down dead on into his heart. Some make me think, I hope to God I don't die like that, like the guy who presented the brazen bull to an emperor who put the presenter into it to test it. If you've got a fascination for death and the macabre, you will enjoy this, the narrator makes some rye jokes to keep the mood a little lighter. It's not really meant to be a grim depressing show, just a show that makes you go, whoa that is messed up.

1000 Ways to Die is a gruesome little guilty pleasure focusing on all the grotesque ways people can be killed. The show largely does a good job of making it fun and not too offensive, but at times it stumbles.

The writers took a few episodes to find the right formula. The first episode poked fun at people who died, often at work, for things that weren't really their fault. One sketch made a pun about the death of a laundry worker who died because his idiot co-worker didn't bother to unplug the dryer he was cleaning. Another cracked jokes about a girl who only died because she took her high heels off and then stepped in a puddle which unbeknownst to her had a wire in it. These early episodes were just cringe inducing.

Later episodes dealt with this issue by making certain the victims were too stupid or mean to be sympathetic. Even so, a certain feeling remains that it's wrong to be enjoying this show, especially when you hear that many of the stories actually did happen in real life, but to little children rather than the jerks you're watching.

1000 Ways to Die...the show your conscience will hate you for loving.

Let's first get this out of the way - 1000 Ways to Die is like a slasher film. Except it's actually a TV series. And the deaths portrayed actually happened. Sort of.

1000 Ways to Die is exactly what the title suggests - a barrage of odd and unbelievable ways to die. These are claimed to be dramatizations of actual deaths. What they really are are loose interpretations of rumored deaths, sort of what would happen if Mythbusters cut out the mythbusting part of their show. The deaths here aren't really to be taken seriously, just enjoyed.

And boy are they enjoyable. You get some really entertaining special effects in this show. These deaths look like they were taken straight out of a campy horror flick, between the decapitated heads and severed intestines. Yes, decapitated heads and severed intestines. On prime time cable. Pretty rad, huh? And what would decapitated heads and severed intestines be without retarded men, sexy women, and flat-out neo-Con inspired racism? And boy, if you like all of the above, you'll love this show.

As for me, I'm a little appalled at what this show gets away with, and how dumb it is. But entertainment is entertainment, and I find myself oddly entranced by increasing amounts of blood and brains as this show continues (as one 'expert' put it, 7 gallons of blood, to be precise). As much as this show epitomizes the mindlessness of American television as of late, it also epitomizes the rough, tough, masculine culture that Spike claimed to embody but hadn't yet delivered. Well, this show delivers testosterone-pumped entertainment in its purist form. Sex, drugs, and guts. And really, how could you argue against THAT?

I really like the Commentary of the deaths. At one side it gives important and informations about the death and on the other side it gives a short story. I really like the concept and I really enjoy watching it. A last thing I like is that they didn't only choose deaths from dumb people, but also possibilities of death penalties in the middle age.

Some stuff I don't like: -The Death Names are unfunny as hell - Sometimes the animation is really bad or unrealistic

My conclusion is that it is really worth watching it, if you don't take a good animation too seriously.

The show is very unique, entertaining, and additive. It takes crazy deaths that possibly happened in real life and builds a story around it typically showing a bad person receiving what they deserve. It is not the absolute best show on TV, but myself along with a lot of people I know from different age ranges and backgrounds enjoy it. Only the type of death is based on true events, the story that is built around it is 100% made-up for entertainment value. Ron Pearlman (Sons of Anarchy, Hellboy, Beauty and the Beast) is a perfect narrator for the show.

My main reason for posting was to respond to some of the negative reviews...

1) Trashy and Tasteless, 14 October 2010, Author: Lloyd Bowman

The show is not meant to be tasteful, it is there for entertainment purposes. If the show was bland simply going over these odd deaths, then it most likely not be on the air due to a lack of audience. It has a targeted audience and does a great job reaching them. Lastly, the show is on SPIKE TV...if you are looking for something tasteful, then you are on the wrong channel.

2) Terrible exploitation of people, no lessons learned!, 9 March 2011 Author: Kristinartist79

The show allows viewers to see possible ways that they could die that they would never dream of. In that aspect, it does serve a purpose. One example was "Water-Logged". I have personally jumped off rocks into the water along with thousands, maybe millions of other people. Did any of us think that water might actually shoot up your rectum? Now, I would think about it twice prior to doing it again. Who knows, it might of saved my life or another viewers. Also, how does it not get into how to prevent it? Simple, DO NOT DO IT! Each episode shows you exactly how the death occurs along with experts explaining it to you. So how do you not see how to prevent it? Lastly, you state it is not for kids...WOW, really? It is a show about people being killed in strange ways...why would I show that to my kids? On top of that, it is on SPIKE TV, not PBS. The fact that you even brought that up along with Sesame Street and religion shows that you are a complete idiot and you should not be allowed to watch TV.

3) Unconventional, 13 November 2011, Author: Megan Ross

When you watch a movie, do you want to see good people being killed? When you read or watch the news, do you want to hear about an innocent grandmother being shot? Not at all. On the other hand, you do want to see the enemy or bad guy being killed in the movie along with the robber, rapist, murderer getting killed in real life instead of their victims. With that being said, for the show to gain an audience and have that audience enjoy what they are watching, they have to show situations where a bad guy or someone that deserves to die. This allows us to enjoy it. I wouldn't watch it if innocent people were being killed, nor would anyone else.

When I heard of this show I thought it sounded like an interesting concept. However, watching it really disappointed me. The running commentary is glib and flippant, more interested in blaming, degrading and making fun of the victim than it is portraying odd yet real ways in which people's lives end. Given that that these are purportedly reenactments of real actual deaths, the running narration and enactments of the deaths make the show tasteless and trashy. It doesn't even rise to the level of camp.

You may enjoy the program, but given the obvious loathing the show has for what its creators deem idiots and losers, I can picture its producers taking glee from their viewers' deaths, thinking them to be idiots if they are watching.

Everybody dies sooner or later. Don't waste what is left of your life watching this. You'll live to regret it. (1 out of 10)

This is a reality show that people are dying to appear on.

Actually, no one really wants to be on 1000 Ways To Die. But some people are just either too stupid or too unlucky not to.

If you can imagine the people who do the "Darwin Awards" website writing a horror movie, this is probably close to what they would come up with. Each death is horrific, but you find yourself feeling a little better afterward, because in most (not all) cases, you realize the gene pool just improved a little bit.

The best deaths are those that fit the way the deceased lived. There are so many of these that it is impossible to list them all. (See every show. There's at least one example in each episode).

There are times when you watch a horror movie and can't stop laughing at the stupidity of it all and the ridiculous and often comical deaths that occur. You also laugh knowing that you're watching an unreal event and no one has really been killed. Then there is this show, that presents alleged real-life deaths in the most convoluted and gruesome way possible and calls itself "entertainment" in the process.

What we have here is a rather lame attempt at creating a documentary of weird and over-dramatised deaths at the hands of people that on the one hand are either too stupid or too desperate to realise that if they go ahead and do whatever they have planned, they'll die in the process, and on the other hand we have mostly unfortunate people meeting their demise due to nothing more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I've seen several episodes of this and the only reason I can tune in on an ad hoc basis is to listen to the science behind each death and what the body and organs go through or react to when humans decide to push the envelope a little too far. If the show were just about deaths and then the science of what when on and how death occurred, then I wouldn't have any real problem with it. What I take umbrage with is the underlying message that for selfish and hubristic reasons, all of these people somehow deserved to die and were served their comeuppance, and we as an audience are supposed to sit back and laugh through the experience of someone dying in horrible and often very torturous ways.

As an example, the man who decided to travel through Thailand on a happy ending massage tour. He heard a distant buzzing which was putting him off and when the masseuse went to investigate she unwittingly let loose a swarm of highly poisonous hornets which stung his body to death. Apparently the toxin was so potent, it dissolved his organs and the man died in absolute agony. The masseuse just ran off and didn't bother to help. I'm sorry but I find no part of that funny or deserving.

Or the man who boasted that he was able to swallow anything and live to tell, but when someone offered him their umbrella, his throat muscles triggered the release button and the umbrella opened up in his throat effectively cutting off his oxygen in seconds. So whilst being surrounded by people, no one was able to help him. Was what he did stupid? You bet! Did he deserve to die that way? Not at all. I doubt that any of the people who were there witnessing the incident weren't laughing about it.

Many people live off the land and many cultures eat bugs, but one man decided to cook and eat grasshoppers and little did he realise that he was allergic to some chemical that is contained in the carapace of the grasshoppers. Unless you've been tested for it, you'd never know you were allergic to this kind of food. The chemical reacted with his body and the poison shut down his organs and killed him. According to the show, he deserved to die as he and a friend were growing marijuana illegally.

Or the young woman who ended up in bed with a sports star only to then be shot in the head by a gun that was kept hidden in the oven. She pre-heated the oven as a nice gesture to make him breakfast the following morning and the heat in the oven reacted with the gun metal, which fired the gun as she opened the oven door. Again I don't find the death funny or deserving in any way.

This brings me to the reality of it all. From limited research, it would appear that most of the deaths as portrayed on the show are not entirely real and a huge amount of artistic license has been used for cheap laughs. While the disclaimer at the beginning advises us that names have been changed to protect the innocent, it would also appear that most of the circumstances of the various deaths are either taken from urban myths, with no real basis of reality, or the incidents are an amalgam of several deaths made to look as comical and as over-the-top as possible, thereby generating the laughs at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. Due to that I can't see a show like this as entertainment. As mentioned above, if this were a horror movie with actors then I can disassociate myself from the fake blood and deaths as they are exactly that, fake. In this case, the deaths are purported as being real with real people in real situations, so in knowing that I'm then expected to be entertained by a real persons death under the guise that the deceased person was supposed to die as they were engaging in something that they perhaps shouldn't have been. The viewing audience gets to schadenfreude over these incidents just as they would in a B-grade movie. To use the usually gruesome death of a real person for entertainment is in pretty poor taste.

There have been a few incidents where the "victims" are simply at the mercy of their own stupidity, so perhaps removing these people from the gene pool may be a blessing in disguise but with some of the actual deaths being a one in a million chance that the validity is highly questionable.

1000 ways to die is not a must see show, it's pure low-brow viewing and I can only imagine at the calibre of a person who would find any of this amusing. If any of the entertained masses ends up losing someone they care about, pray they don't end up on this show.

#629: A man is having an x-ray of his head taken when the doctor and nurse begin having sex in the control room. They accidentally hit the exposure button repeatedly while having sex, eventually giving the patient a lethal dose of radiation. This is one of the brutal and odd deaths explored in this episode. The way it plays out on the show, however, is hilarious.

One of the networks that I try to avoid is Spike TV. They never seem to have anything that's worth watching. Wrestling and obstacle courses aren't my idea of entertainment. I gave this show a chance while I was channel surfing, watched one death and much to my surprise I was hooked.

This show is immensely entertaining and have since changed my opinion about Spike. They did what would seem impossible by taking a real life horrific situation and gave it the feel of an old school slasher flick.

1000 Ways to Die recreates these stories with an abundance of gore and prosthetics giving it the feel of a horror film. It really makes the show a lot of fun, and almost makes you forget that this actually happened.

What I love most about the show is the intentionally bad acting on display here. Everyone's reactions and line delivery are just so bad that they're hilarious.

In short, horror fans will love this show.

I disagree with the person who said that viewers of this show are stupid. I think that this show is a great way to show people that they need to be careful by showing how the victims died unexpectedly. On the other hand, I agree with the person who said that the producers seem more concerned with making the victims seem like idiots, jerks, or bitches than actually portraying the deaths. While I'm sure that some of the victims either weren't the most likable people or the smartest people, I highly doubt that they were all mean or stupid since anyone, no matter how nice or intelligent they are, could just drop dead at any moment, for some unknown reason. All in all, great show, but personally, I think they need to stop making generalizations like that.

Normally I wouldn't give a show, or a movie for that matter, such a low rating; however, "1000 Ways to Die" is both inappropriate and disrespectful. Sure TV shows has shown violent as well as terrifying ways to die, but many of these deaths are used to amplify the type of atmosphere the Director is looking for in the story.

Although the stories in "1000 Ways to Die" might be slightly modified and the names changed, the fact is the creator of "1000 Ways to Die" chooses to mock real cases where real individuals have died as a result of unfortunate circumstances or poor decisions. Not only is the idea of this show completely insensitive and morally unacceptable, but the "humor" is utterly distasteful. It's one thing to laugh at someone's misfortune in a fictitious movie; however, it's another to laugh at a real individual's misfortune especially if that misfortune should lead to their death. In the end, a viewer should ask him, or herself if they would laugh at the death of someone they loved. If not, than why does it become acceptable to laugh at the death of another?

In the end, this show is a disgusting shameful stain that should be removed.

If you enjoy gore, dark humor, Ron Perlman, and occasional partial nudity, this is the perfect show for you

For the few of you that know nothing about this show, it recreates unusual scenarios resulting in somebody dying. It concentrates on one death for about 4 minutes, before moving on to the next one, then the next one, then the next one. There's little focus on a single death, and it gets old quickly .

The deaths usually start out by introducing a character, usually a person they can kill without any remorse, and introduces the scenario. It then goes on to display the death using over the top blood and gore that looks to be equivalent to something you can buy at a local Halloween store.

The people that die in these stories are all either drunk, or stupid. The actors playing them are horrible, and not the least bit believable. It always sounds like they're reading off a script right in front of them.

The show always ends a death by naming it using some stupid pun.

The best I can say is that i occasionally got a chuckle out of the show, and a few of the deaths are somewhat interesting.

I would only recommend this show to people who are willing to turn their brains off, and watch amateur four minute horror movies.

I wish they'd bring this show back. Did they really stop making it after telling the audience 1000 ways to die? It was such a good show. In a way it kind of taught us how to not die by making stupid decisions. It was definitely interesting and entertaining.

1000 ways to die was a reality TV series from 2008-2012 on Spike TV. It depicted real life events reenacted by actors.

It would show you the date, place and how they died. These weren't regular deaths either, these were mostly bizarre and happened out of pure stupidity.

My favorite part of the show was the narrator's punny names for the deaths.

I wish this was available for streaming somewhere because it's not in syndication anywhere. It is only survived by YouTube videos.

Everyday we really do face 1000 ways to die!

10/10- Michael I.

Look. It isn't certain things. But it definitely is other stuff. I'm gonna put this as the king of its niche. Think, if I was feeling really mashed up on booze or anything of your choosing, could this arouse me, horrify me and make me laugh my arse off but know that this is not intelligent stuff? Yes. Believe that everyone deserved what was coming to them for no apparent reason. Believe it was exactly as happened on screen. Pass out happy.

Facts, explanations, scientific details for stupid deadly events. And a lot of irony who, episode by episode, becomes uncomfortable. Because the serie explores the fascination of public for not the most decent details . And the dark humor. Sure, each case could work as warning. But it is just a show. With morbid details and bizarre guys, with crazy choices and terrible deaths. With a moral who not change to much. Because the accidents happens.

This show does not teach safety and is just making a mockery over people's final moments. It is such an obnoxious show! My heart goes out to the families of these victims that are being exploited. Also, this show is not geared towards children, the vocabulary and content is not at a level that children would understand, let alone the fact that they have episodes about sex and other contents that is too mature. Also, again, its really not getting into detail on how to prevent the accident, most of these are just freak accidents that just happen and probably can't be prevented in the first place. I think it was made by religious nuts that want to preach about how its a miracle that we are alive and show in a subliminal way how some are punished! Its not like a show like Sesame Street or those after school specials that teach children the consequence and warn children of dangers; its not even teaching adults of dangers. Its mean and preachy and should be off the air!