Can anyone explain what a gongshow is?

A 'Gong Show' is also used by hockey officials to describe a game that has numerous penalties or other unusual situations.

The Gong Show was a show hosted by Chuck Barris (pronounced "Barry") in the '70's. It was like American Idol, some really talented people....some horrible.

They purposely had a couple of bad acts on each show so they could get "Gonged" right away.

It was funny when 1 judge hated the act but the other 2 liked it, they would hold the other judge back to stop him from gonging.

The Unknown Comic, (Murray Langston), was a stand up who told intentionally bad or corny jokes while wearing a paper bag over his head. Frequently, Langston would tell insult jokes at Barris' expense, who would then feign anger and eject Langston from the show.

One time, the unknown comic had a small brown paper bag on his hand and acted it out as a ventriloquist.

I went out for halloween as the "Unknown Comic" one year, telling bad jokes instead of "trick or treat"!

Basically it means a shitshow, where everything goes wrong. Based on the Gong Show television program that ran in the seventies where people would perform stunts or talents and when it was particularly bad, the judges would sound the gong to end the competition.

Like you just got. A show that gets a thumbs down.

I've never heard of the word but here is some helpful information.