The 9 Grossest 'Double Dare' Moments Of All Time Will Still Give You Nightmares

If you were a kid in the '80s and '90s, there was only one place where the question "Truth or Dare" was never, ever uttered, and that's Double Dare. Nickelodeon's classic game show was all about the crazy physical dares and wacky obstacle courses. Each episode, two teams of lucky kids and their parents (or is it lucky parents and their kids?) competed in a series of challenges straight out of the Mouse Trap board game. Not only were the dares ridiculously elaborate, they were also totally gross, as proven by the nine grossest dares on Double Dare. There are many stages to an episode of Double Dare. Some of these gross dares are individual physical challenges, others are obstacles from the infamous Double Dare obstacle course. All are disgusting.

If it took you years to realize that the giant-sized bowls of spaghetti and the thick, green, mucus of the boogers challenge on Double Dare were 100 percent fake, you're not alone. More likely than not, you totally cringed every time you watched the show, whether it was because you didn't like getting dirty and an overwhelming majority of the challenges involved getting covered in some kind of goop, or because you had nightmares of being smothered in a gigantic peanut butter and jelly sandwich (same). The grossness of the challenges on Double Dare freaked everyone out back then, and looking back at the grossest dares on the show, they still do today.

1. William Tell

The William Tell challenge involved using a huge spray of seltzer to knock an apple off your partner's head. While not the grossest thing you could be covered with, seltzer doesn't sound all that great. The floors were probably sticky and slippery, and one's hair would be all manners of gross at the end of this challenge.

2. Sundae Slide

The Sundae Slide sounds innocent. One just has to climb up a slide covered in sundae toppings — or, in this case, slippery, chocolate-fudge like substances. Contestants often got stuck on this particular challenge, resulting in them being covered in brown goo and desperate to get up the slide. That combination of strange substances and despair is hard to recover from.

3. Down The Hatch

Down the Hatch was basically Sundae Slide in reverse, where contestants have to dive head first down a slide covered in various substances (read: goop).

4. Pie In Your Pants

Pie in Your Pants is, well, exactly what it sounds like. One half of the team would use catapults to project big pies into their teammates big pants. The contestants were wearing real pants under the huge things to catch pies in, but the idea of pies going down their pants is enough to swear most of us off the dessert forever.

5. Blue Plate Special

The Blue Plate Special usually came towards the beginning of the obstacle course and was truly deceptively simple. Contestants had to dig through giant sandwiches, pancakes, or waffles to find a red flag. As far as Double Dare challenges, this one was pretty straightforward, but the idea of being smushed in a giant sandwich was just too much.

6. In One Ear

Contestants unlucky enough to have to go through the In One Ear challenge were forced into a short, narrow passageway covered in yellow, ear-wax like paste. Yuck.

7. The Tank

The tank is basically just a large tub filled with various substances. The tank could be as harmful as balloons and as disgusting as a pool of baked beans. Yikes.

8. Cold Fish

Cold Fish was a challenge that involved small tunnels filled with goop, made to look like giant sushi roles. Not vastly different from Down the Hatch or other goop challenges, what set this one apart was the fact that contestants had to be on their hands and knees, crawling through the unidentified substances.

9. Pick It

Arguably Double Dare's most iconic dare, Pick It was exceptionally gross. Contestants had to dig into a giant nose looking for a flag, causing green goop to fall down on them like boogers. The stuff of nightmares.

Oh, Double Dare, you were so gross, and yet so satisfying.

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