43 replies to this topic

[Quilt Fairy]

Because one show about gold mining was not enough, here it is, Jungle Gold. A show about 2 entitled assholes who got themselves a couple of million dollars in debt who go to Ghana to find 'their' gold and solve all their problems.

Snark away.

Edited by Quilt Fairy, Nov 14, 2012 @ 11:09 AM.

[RoxyMonoxide]

I refer to these guys as Scary Temper Guy and Wonderbread. I kinda hope they get shanked by the end of the series. Also, if I was married to either of them, I would have the divorce papers all drawn up by the time they got home.

[cissyboo]

Douchey Douchey Douches. One (George, the dumb blonde one) with probable roid rage. The other who is just as clueless, but less ragey. The heavily tatted, ear plugged (or whatever those grommet sized things are) mechanic, who doesn't understand why he can't get a job in UTAH of all places. The Liberian foreman, who probably figures at least he'll get paid by the production company.

These guys are just dumb (except for the foreman and the Indian descent <Bushan Kumar> operator). Go to a foreign country, where English may not be a first language outside of the major cities, and not learn anything in the lingua franca? And then bitch and moan about the country, and the corruption, and and and. This isn't your first time mining in Ghana, assholes! You said so yourselves in the first episode! Why is any of this a surprise to you? Unless whatever douche-pills you are taking wipe your memory clear every evening.

Then the whole 'let's buy some gold so we can sell it and send money home for the insurance premium' bullshit? Why not just send the money? Why didn't they take care of that before leaving? Why not use a disposable type cell phone rather than a smartphone? Why not lay off the botox, gym, and hair coloring (the one wife looks heavily processed!) to save money.

For those on the other side of financial ruin, they sure do have a lot of toys, from what I could see in their homes. Just like the Downsized assholes.

Edited by cissyboo, Nov 14, 2012 @ 11:29 AM.

[Lastkidpicked]

A show about 2 entitled assholes who got themselves a couple of million dollars in debt who go to Ghana to find 'their' gold

I kinda hope they get shanked by the end of the series.

Why is any of this a surprise to you? Unless whatever douche-pills you are taking wipe your memory clear every evening.

Quit holding back and tell us how you really feel!

I love this thread already.

Edited by Lastkidpicked, Nov 14, 2012 @ 11:54 AM.

[curemode]

I like the show and find it incredibly tense and stressful. Sure makes me glad I'm not running a Ghana gold operation. I find it therapeutic in this sense.

I don't care for the blonde fellow, with his macho-derpy confrontations and displays (although I was glad to see an MMA fighter finally putting all that training to use in the real world). The other guy I find pretty reasonable (the "Wonderbread" as described here, yet he seems to me to have at least some form of Asian in him). Travis may be right in his assessment of the whole project, but man was he a whiner. I found him much less open minded, on the cultural front, than either of the two main guys.

As for them being clueless, I can't totally agree. Most of the problems are beyond their control or budget (the premise of the show is that they are desperate and broke, so this what we have to expect) and their responses have, so far, all seemed to work.

[Xingu]

My favorite part of the show was the opening of Eppy 1. George is leaving his family. He kisses the wife and kiddies good-bye, hops in his car and takes off for the airport. So, dude, are you planning on leaving your car at the long-term parking lot at the airport for three months?

This is the kind of business decisions that got these asshats in the trouble they are in.

Wait. I take that back. The financial problems they are in are were based on their religion. As Mormons they have hooked up with a sleazeball who has coerced them into giving up everything. They went to Ghana as young missionaries. They were sold a bill of goods and now think they can replicate that. But I think the original claim they worked on was a pyramid scheme. They only were told of the riches, not the losses. They now think those numbers were true and hope to do the same with this claim, not knowing that even if they do succeed, and they won't, the take off the top will leave them with next to nothing. Once they pay off the investors, the tithing, and expenses all they will be left with is what the producers pay.

I will say this for them. They bring the HoYay!!! back to TV. They sure are pretty to look at. But they are missing one key element: Any guy named Scott should be the blond one. It's just confusing otherwise.

Someone forgot to tell them that there is gold in the San Fernando Valley much richer than Ghana and closer to home. It's called gay porn. If they are straight it pays even more. They could make much more in the Valley doing gay-for-pay than they will ever see in Ghana. The hours are better too. And now condoms are mandatory.

They are now stuck in a god-forsaken country where they have nothing, have nothing to send home, and can't even walk through the streets knowing that they owe the street vendors money. Not a good situation.

If this weren't reality TV, they'd be dead by now.

Edited by Xingu, Nov 17, 2012 @ 5:54 AM.

[cissyboo]

curemode- Scott Lomu (the dark-haired one) has a father who is from Tonga (Tongan?), so Scott is Polynesian at least on his father's side.
They are acting clueless, in my opinion, particularly since this is not the first time they have done the 'gold mining in Ghana*' thing. They SHOULD know what to expect, and not be all surprised at the local shakedowns, the Chinese miners, the climate, the muck, the inconvenience. But, since their show is produced by the same group that does Toad Hoffman's show, knowledgeable miners are not good TV drama, so we get the clueless act.

*This was mentioned in the first show. This two, who are acting like every thing is a big shock and surprise, as well as showing general mining incompetence, have done this before. They got a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of gold (per the show)the last time.

[seesaw123]

Thanks for separating Jungle Gold from Gold Rush. Two different shows with different sets of retards.

[Hezadelsol]

This show is so bad on so many levels. So these two meatheads get into debt playing the housing market, rightfully lose everything because they were part of the problem, and then decide to ride the gold market in much the same way. Guess what, gold is going to come crashing down too folks, it's just a matter of time. These guys need to get a real job and stop playing into the next big investment scheme.

I'm going to go for the ultimate snark and say that I think George's wife is ugly. I don't know what it is about her but I just think her face is kind of busted. Could have just been her makeup in the one episode I remember seeing her a lot in, who knows.

So far they're just getting a pittance of gold. Something tells me this site has been mined over and over, or it's just a shitty claim. Why did they think this claim would have a lot of gold in it again? Because some random dude from Ghana says so? They only got like 4400 in gold and used it to pay debts on gas and claim. Who is paying for all those Ghanaian workers?

Also they rubbed me the wrong way when they were all "oh it sucks they have to use mercury but we don't have the money to do it any other way". Give me a break, you don't give a shit about those natives handling dangerous chemicals.

[peaceknit]

Gah! I couldn't watch any more than the first epi of this series with these gasbags! The condescending way they treat the Ghanaians made me sick. Epic fail.

[RoxyMonoxide]

Hezadelsol - I think the problem will ultimately be that these two douchecanoes have their wash plant set up incorrectly. Seems to be a common problem on these mining shows. We are bound to find out by the end of the season that the sluice box is at the wrong angle.

[Hezadelsol]

That's a possibility too. I just enjoyed the possibility of them being played the fool with an already mined claim.

[Lastkidpicked]

The math just doesn't add up with Travis the Mechanic.

They said that they offered him $5000/ month and no percentage of the gold.

That's $ 60,000/year and it's a lot of money. But there's an oil boom in many western states, and a good, skilled mechanic can make $ 60k per year and live 2 hours (by plane) from home, rather than half way around the world.

Didn't add up from the very beginning.

[Tunia]

NONE of the math adds up:

Supposedly, they're over a million dollars in debt from their housing fiasco.
The screencrawl states there's an estimated $1.2 million of gold on the claim they're leasing.
They owe the landowner 25% off the top for the leasing rights.
So, if they get every smidgen of gold off that property, the owner would get $300K, leaving $900K for salaries, equipment, maintenance, insurance, travel, daily living expenses, yada yada yada. After all that's paid and they split the remaining profit (if any), how much - or how little - do they each get to send home for to cover their debt?
Seems like a whole lotta' work, time and aggravation to come out way below even. What's the point?

[brgjoe]

Of course I could never prove this. But I am pretty much convinced that this show was created by Disco and the producers of Gold Rush to come up with a show that would find people even more unlikeable and inept than the Hoffman's. Unless I get some sort of memo leak or Anonymous manages to hack their emails, this theory of mine will remain unproven.

But for me it's an actual conspiracy theory I can believe in. :)

I also don't get how these guys can be $1M+ in debt after supposedly making millions in the real estate market. I know house prices have dropped during the meltdown, but .. sheesh. Though given how half-azzed they were with this gold mining planning, maybe I can wrap my brain around the possibility of them losing that much $$.

Why did they need Travis there? If they have mechanics on site supposedly, why would they pay him $5000/month when they don't have a lot of money to spend in the first place?

This whole show is a cluster. They should have just had some of the Hoffman's stay down in the jungle and do a show from there.

[misterbfd]

Christo has a new gold mining show that premieres on January 17th. This one follows a group of French street performers who decide to chase their dream of becoming wealthy gold excavators in South America. They leave their families and performance art behind to search for the elusive mineral in Peru. The twist is that the group works their Peruvian claim exclusively in silence and whiteface, and it called "Miming for Gold".

[Quilt Fairy]

Geez, misterbfd, don't give him ideas!!!

And as far as some of the math goes, I suspect these guys were 'paper millionaires' like the guy on Downsized. You 'own' a million dollar house with a $950,000 mortgage and voilà!, you're a millionaire. And that's how you can go from being a millionaire to being a million dollars in debt so easily. I personally feel no sympathy (or empathy) for them. A good start for me would be selling their expensive homes and cars, not trying to maintain an unsustainable lifestyle.

Edited by Quilt Fairy, Nov 20, 2012 @ 11:45 AM.

[Hezadelsol]

I also don't get how these guys can be $1M+ in debt after supposedly making millions in the real estate market. I know house prices have dropped during the meltdown, but .. sheesh. Though given how half-azzed they were with this gold mining planning, maybe I can wrap my brain around the possibility of them losing that much $$.

Why did they need Travis there? If they have mechanics on site supposedly, why would they pay him $5000/month when they don't have a lot of money to spend in the first place?

My guess is they played the retarded douche card, bought up a ton of property, and couldn't flip it before the bottom fell out, sticking them with a bunch of houses they paid more for then they are now worth. I have no sympathy for people who played the housing game.

Travis was grossly overpaid in my opinion. He didn't seem to be fixing much, and the fact that they dismissed him with little care about having no mechanic means they didn't really need him in the first place.

[Lastkidpicked]

Miming for Gold...

I can just imagine the mimes pretending to pull on a rope to get the excavator unstuck.

It will work as well as anything Travis did.

[Quilt Fairy]

OMG, these guys make the Hoffmans look like mining geniuses! And what struck me in the current episode is that Scott and George realy aren't mining, all they're doing is wheeling and dealing. Pretty much like what they did when they were in real estate, I suspect.

I loved it when they fronted $5K (that they really couldn't afford)for 2 rock crushing machines that produced only a fraction of what they needed to break even. I think their foreman, Victor, really nailed it when he said 'They are a little desperate, and they will listen to whatever sweet words someone whispers to them.'

I wonder if these two have ever considered just filing for bankruptcy. They seem so set on trying to maintain the heavily inflated lifestyle that they had in the good times.

[cissyboo]

I agree, Quilt Fairy-if this jerks do ANY of the mining work on a regular basis, I'll pack up my entrenching tool and head to Ghana to mine for gold tomorrow. So far, we've learned that they have a foreman, who isn't 'roid rage George or Scott (but with their lack of native language speaking skills, this is not necessarily a bad thing), they pay someone(not the foreman) $5000 a week to run the excavation, they fly home to solve crises at the drop of a hat, and they spend a lot of time driving around in their Bongo truck. Not a lot of mining labor involved in those activities, just saying.

We also found out that George is out of shape because he hasn't been to a gym in three months. Maybe doing some manual labor would solve that little physical conditioning problem, you think, George?

Let's try and hook up with the traditional miners! I'll offer them my trommel, for a cut (of course), and let them do all the work! Sounds excellent! Of course, Mr. Traditional Miner guy says no-this is how the workers (looked like most of the village) earn money. You don't work, you don't get paid. Something George did not seem to comprehend.

Let's trash our mining claim owners' decisions! Don't dig more material out of the pit that could flood at any minute, start the wash plant! Then tell these guys 'We can do better! You suck!' when we, the viewers, haven't seen either one of you do much in the way of 'work' or 'manual labor' (outside of participating in last week's hole digging experiment). Plus, doesn't the excavator driver (Bushan Kumar) work for the claim owners (Chris and Singh-correct me if these two aren't the claim owners)?

Then I got bored, and went to bed.

[xls]

They are not miners, they are problem gamblers, getting deeper in debt hoping to hit the jackpot. Who is stupid enough to lend them money?
Whats stopping their wives from getting a job?

[heydude08]

Their wives MUST be working because these two jokers haven't sent any money home in over two months, and bills were due when they left. They just chase one dream(nightmare) after another. That's why they are in the desperate situation they are in. Doubt they know how to work a 40 hour week at anything remotely physical.

[Hezadelsol]

I think these 2 are the butt of some hilarious joke. They listen to everything and take it at face value. Someone just has to say "there's a million dollars worth of gold in this ground" and they will drop everything to go "mine" it. Chris and Singh have another site that produces a ton of gold. I think they're just playing George and Scott, stringing them along because they KNOW they're just a couple of idiots. They probably knew the mine wasn't going to produce or they would be mining it themselves, not mining on behalf of douche and doucher. Now they get to collect 50 grand for essentially getting them no gold. I love it, it's a perfect scam.

Same thing with the other site, "we're totally going to get 8-10 grams today". Gets 2 grams. Here's the bill. I think it's hilarious they thought they could hustle the galamsey. Of course they don't want a trommel, they work by hand! There's no way in hell they're going to split the profits with you, for not doing any work white boy. I'm enjoying the fact that they're just getting farther into debt and have nothing to show for it because they lack critical business skills, and certainly lack all mining knowledge needed to succeed in Ghana. The only thing these 2 know how to do is wheel and deal, and since they're a million in debt I can't even say they know how to do that well either.

Edited by Hezadelsol, Dec 3, 2012 @ 11:09 AM.

[Lastkidpicked]

OMG, these guys make the Hoffmans look like mining geniuses! And what struck me in the current episode is that Scott and George realy aren't mining, all they're doing is wheeling and dealing. Pretty much like what they did when they were in real estate, I suspect.

The only thing these 2 know how to do is wheel and deal, and since they're a million in debt I can't even say they know how to do that well either.

Very insightful, Quilt Fairy and Hazadelsol.

We see this all the time in our business as well. People who are MUCH too busy running around making the big deals to actually get anything done.

The one thing that they are very good at is finding investors to give them money for their next scheme.

Edited by Lastkidpicked, Dec 4, 2012 @ 11:23 AM.

[RoxyMonoxide]

I must say, this show has been a delight to behold. It's a real kick of schadenfreude. These two guys seem like horrible people who are a bad bet business-wise. I'm not sure if they're getting a sympathetic edit, but if they are I can only imagine how breath-taking stupid the footage left on the cutting room floor is.

[Quilt Fairy]

I'm anxiously awaiting the season finale tonight. If the previews are anything to go by, we might end the series with them getting shot. Schadenfreude indeed.

[cissyboo]

No shooting, boo! But giving an ultimatum to a sketchy gold dealer is stupid (so are these guys, though). I bet the 'dealer' is behind the robbery-he gets the cash and the gold.
Scott misunderstood the directions, color me stunned. These guys are stupid. There is no doubt in my mind as to why these fools are so deep in debt, particularly if they conducted their real estate business the same way they 'mine' for gold by hustling and conducting sketchy deals. No sympathy for their plight from me.
George runs funny. Road block! Here comes the armed robber! Yay, robber! Someone smokes, and left a pack of cigarettes on the floor boards. Set up? The great deal was a set up? George goes in to a roid rage fit. Stupid stupid stupid. Robbed Robbed Robbed. "We will track him down and do something to him!" "We have to report it to the police!" "We were doing a black market gold deal and got robbed, Mr Ghanaian Police Man! What are you going to do to get our money and illegally purchased gold back? We're Americans and that gold is OURS! ALL your gold is OURS!"

It's the end of the line for Scott and George! Promise? Let's come to terms with the armed robbery. Let's get a gun, if we had had a gun I would have shot him with the gun, says Scott. No money, no options, let's pack up our toys and go home. We are defeated. We suck. Suck suck suck. Let's go home and find some capital to fund more idiocy and dumb assery in Ghana. We WILL be back! George threatens the viewers. We get the skype with the weird looking wives of Scott and George. It doesn't matter how many times you get knocked down, it matters how many times you get back up fighting-words of wisdom from George. Why not just get real jobs?

Edited by cissyboo, Dec 8, 2012 @ 8:30 AM.

[GravityWins]

Awww, I was so hoping for the shooting. That was a lame ending to all this insanity.

[Quilt Fairy]

Wait, was it on? I just saw a listing for a live Chopper build-off and I didn't even change the channel to Discovery.