America's Toughest Jobs, Episode 4: Big Wheels Keep On Turnin'…

Previously on America's Toughest Jobs: Our 11 contestants tried their hand at gold mining in the Alaskan wilderness. Sandy glittered, while Phil proved to be fool's gold and was thrown out.

This time? Well, oddly, all the listings I saw said the jobsters would be logging in Oregon this week. But it looks like this will actually be the monster truck challenge instead.

It's a bit different from the others, I should add, since the jobs we've seen previously all actually fulfill valuable functions in society, while monster trucks are, at best, merely a form of entertainment. That takes something away from this challenge for me personally. But our host Josh Temple sure seems excited about it. Who thinks “reality show host” will never qualify as one of America's toughest jobs?

"Monster Jam" is called "the greatest extravaganza of sheer horsepower and carnage." Are "extravaganza" and "carnage" two words that should be used in the same sentence, really?

We're finally leaving Alaska and heading for Salinas, California, where there is apparently a big dirt track for monster truck rallies. Rick is psyched. Sandy, sporting the "My Name is Earl" look, says she's been wanting to get behind the wheel of something like this her whole life.

This week's boss is Dennis Anderson, a monster truck champion and creator of Grave Digger (which is a monster truck, obviously). He's an awfully brave man to be wearing so much neon.

Michaela watches the huge trucks fly through the air – a gigantic tire pops off of one of them – and says this is "crazy." Actually, she says it three times. Once, twice, three times, it's crazy.

Rick tells us he's been a Monster Jam fan for a long time. Rick was raised by a struggling single mom and was homeless at a young age. His toy replica of Grave Digger got him through the rough times, and so he's overwhelmed – choked up, even – to be a part of this challenge.

The jobsters head out to a grass-covered track to test-drive monster trucks. Anderson explains that they'll start out in low gear, bang it up to high gear, then get out of throttle. He says some more, but it sounds very complicated. That's all you really need to know, I suppose.

Dennis will judge the contestants on accelerating, braking, steering, and shifting gears, as well as how well they obey the safety personnel. If the drivers lose control, the trucks are equipped with a remote-control shutdown switch.

Rick is as happy as a little kid – he's sitting in Grave Digger itself, the real incarnation of his childhood toy. He says the adrenaline that hits you when driving the truck is overwhelming. He seems to have a successful go at it, and he jumps around and celebrates when he's out of the truck.

Rie tries driving a truck called Taz (and yes, it's made to look like the cartoon character). Rie says smelling the oil in the truck is like "Heaven." She and I have very different ideas about what constitutes a peaceful afterlife, apparently.

We run through the other truckers – Rommel has some issues, apparently. Ben says it's intimidating just to get into the truck. You can't breathe well or move much. Sounds very unpleasant. Nevertheless, Ben appears to be very adept, and Dennis takes a shine to him. Unlike last week's boss (according to Ben), Dennis must be pro-dreadlock.

Eric accelerates for too long a time, prompting the safety guys to shut down the truck's engine. Dennis warns everyone to stop the truck immediately once it's shut off – don't coast. Chris is up next – we're reminded of his behavioral issues in the last trucking challenge – and, whattya know, he's a problem child again. The safety guys shut off Grave Digger, but Chris keeps going, failing to hit the brakes. The safety guy chews him out, and Chris just keeps saying, "Yep, yep." It's like talking to a teenager wearing headphones. Nevertheless, Chris gets another chance and screws up again. Chris is thrown out of the truck, he argues with Dennis, lather, rinse, repeat.

Bryce is in Taz and takes off too early, nearly hitting the safety dude. Now Dennis chews out Bryce, who didn't understand how to react to the "go" hand signals. He seems awfully calm about it, considering he nearly killed somebody.

Now the jobsters have to prep the trucks and change the tires. They have to jack up the tires, tighten the lugnuts, and do it so the tires can withstand the impact of big jumps and the subsequent landings. The tires they're rolling around are over 700 lbs each. Michaela tells us it's the first tire she's ever changed a tire in her life. "I am tough, but cars are not my thing," she says. Heh.

Rick says he was picked to work on the tire-changing team with Chris, Eric, Rie, and Steven. He's not so sure about his teammates – they don't have the best reputations. His imitation of Rie chattering on sounds like some kind of tribal chant. Eric, meanwhile, is careless – as in we see him nearly injuring his leg under the weight of a monster tire.