Walking On Egg Shells

[Stpauli9]

During the Corona lockdown, I ended up spending time watching prank shows and hidden camera shows over the internet. It was interesting to see how I react to these situations. Punk'd was the worst because all I saw cruelty. My Asperger's does mean I dislike sudden change and twists, so a show of playing tricks left me feeling nervous.
I found I had developed a serious feeling of paranoia, like I was walking on egg shells. I rehearsed what I would do in such a situation. This is Australia, which has a history of copying American shows, so I was worried someone would copy this show and would play a trick on me, celebrity or not.
I cleared my youtube history and actually went a withdrawal period without going back to those shows and I'm good. I watch Jackass, the Dudesons and Failarmy and don't wince at any of those, so how was a candid camera joke making me almost paranoid?

 

[escargot]

During the Corona lockdown, I ended up spending time watching prank shows and hidden camera shows over the internet. It was interesting to see how I react to these situations. Punk'd was the worst because all I saw cruelty. My Asperger's does mean I dislike sudden change and twists, so a show of playing tricks left me feeling nervous.
I found I had developed a serious feeling of paranoia, like I was walking on egg shells. I rehearsed what I would do in such a situation. This is Australia, which has a history of copying American shows, so I was worried someone would copy this show and would play a trick on me, celebrity or not.
I cleared my youtube history and actually went a withdrawal period without going back to those shows and I'm good. I watch Jackass, the Dudesons and Failarmy and don't wince at any of those, so how was a candid camera joke making me almost paranoid?

Part of the 'fun' is imagining the prank being played on yourself. The tricks are usually elaborate so you're unlikely to be victimised this way.

 

[Eponastill]

StPauli9, I thought your message was very interesting. I imagine lots of people have been caught up in watching more youtube than normal during the lockdown. So I kind of read your message as being about a reaction to lockdown (pardon the amateur psychology ). The unexpected threat and how you might deal with it. And then taken way beyond what is actually likely to happen, which has made you paranoid because the mind loves having something to worry about. Worrying too much about things that might not happen is one of my anxiety-inducing specialities. So I've been working on that one this year with some meditation and trying to stay in the present. It's been working on and off! But instead, I have got caught up in watching programmes about prisons. Yep and imagining how I'd cope in prison. On reflection there are obvious parallels to the lock down there as well!
Ah the human condition. We're funny creatures. I'm glad you managed to cure yourself.

 

[EnolaGaia]

... I watch Jackass, the Dudesons and Failarmy and don't wince at any of those, so how was a candid camera joke making me almost paranoid?

I think the difference lies in whether the incident is inflicted on a "victim" with whom you identify (i.e., someone who might be you).

Stunts illustrate people risking their own health and well-being in making fools of themselves.

Pranks among stunt crews (e.g., among the Jackass regulars) have "victims", but the victims are folks who don't seem to mind being made to look like fools.

In contrast ...

Pranks played on unsuspecting people (e.g., the general public; not part of the crew) may appear to be mocking or endangering victims who are confronted with weirdness or danger they didn't choose to experience. If the victim isn't in on the joke or isn't prone to clowning around such pranking is akin to bullying. If you're sensitive to having someone screw with your reality or to being bullied it's not funny, and it may well be frightening.

 

[Frideswide]

@Stpauli9 I hear you!

I just can't get over the cringe and distress that the cruel versions create in me

 

[Spookdaddy]

...Pranks played on unsuspecting people (e.g., the general public; not part of the crew) may appear to be mocking or endangering victims who are confronted with weirdness or danger they didn't choose to experience. If the victim isn't in on the joke or isn't prone to clowning around such pranking is akin to bullying. If you're sensitive to having someone screw with your reality or to being bullied it's not funny, and it may well be frightening.

I cannot watch this sort of stuff - I find it utterly cringeworthy.

It seems to me that way back in the day of the old candid camera genre this kind of thing was based on seeing how human beings as a group responded to unexpected situations - now it's purely about using unexpected situations to belittle and ridicule individual human beings. It seems to me that any apparently positive reactions by the pranked, in response to the reveal, tend to be based solely on sheer relief - which is very different indeed to the retrospective complicity implied by the shit eating grins and backslappery of the perpetrators.

I used to half hope that Noel Bastard Edmonds would try something out on me - so I could kick the living shit out of him and claim self-defence, while having the whole thing recorded for posterity.

 

[RaM]

The town were I spent my youth had a UCP that had a cafe,
Jerramy Beagle of Beagle's About did a thing were he would
sit opposite someone and pinch chipps off their plate, I was
told that he got away with it a couple of times then went for
another chip only to end up with a fork stuck in the back of
is hand.

 

[Kondoru]

Spookdaddy is right; they are not very funny at all.

 

[GNC]

I don't mind the pranks if they make the victims laugh. Here's a great example of when Buster Keaton was employed by Candid Camera in the 1960s:

 

[JamesWhitehead]

when Buster Keaton was employed by Candid Camera in the 1960s:

It is more than a bit sad that they could base the gag on no one recognising Keaton at this date.

 

[GNC]

It is more than a bit sad that they could base the gag on no one recognising Keaton at this date.

I suppose, but his spell of alcoholism had ruined his earlier good looks, and he was getting on a bit by then.

 

[Spudrick68]

Talent shows now and quiz shows to me look cruel as though some people enjoy watching someone suffer. And that to me reflects rather badly on our society.

It is all good and well some people saying that if they are stupid enough to go and do it they deserve whatever they get.

That individual who went on a talent show who really thought that they could sing but really couldn't. Is it acceptable for TV producers to put that person onto the TV show so that everyone can laugh at them? If they did it for their five minutes of fame they will think it was worth it. But what if they really thought that they could sing and no one told them that they couldn't.

And one quiz show host used to say "come and and see what you could have won."

 

[Mythopoeika]

Talent shows now and quiz shows to me look cruel as though some people enjoy watching someone suffer. And that to me reflects rather badly on our society.

It is all good and well some people saying that if they are stupid enough to go and do it they deserve whatever they get.

That individual who went on a talent show who really thought that they could sing but really couldn't. Is it acceptable for TV producers to put that person onto the TV show so that everyone can laugh at them? If they did it for their five minutes of fame they will think it was worth it. But what if they really thought that they could sing and no one told them that they couldn't.

And one quiz show host used to say "come and and see what you could have won."

I can't watch any of those shows without cringing and feeling sorry for some participants.

 

[Kondoru]

People will do anything to get on the telly


I dont think that has changed

 

[Stpauli9]

All my research and reading into the programmes show that obviously they are extensively edited and changed to better suit the intention. The 'mark' will have their reactions edited to and, if they are set up by supposed police, so police really act that way...it just did a proper number in my head.

 

[Ogdred Weary]

I think we need prank shows where the prank is murder, ideally mass murder.

I joke but we will probably have them by 2030.

 

[PeteS]

I used to half hope that Noel Bastard Edmonds would try something out on me - so I could kick the living shit out of him and claim self-defence, while having the whole thing recorded for posterity.

Yep and I wonder whether in fact that some people did kick the shit out of Edmonds, Beagle and their like, but it was never reported. On similar lines someone I knew years ago was visiting a tourist spot where you got a trip through caves. His girlfriend went on the tour before him whilst he fed the baby in the car. She suddenly came running out of the entrance, having been scared witless when some bloke dressed as a ghost had suddenly jumped out and grabbed her arm( as part of the experience). Calmed her down and he went on the next tour. Sure enough the "ghost" jumped out and did the same thing to him. Ghost got a severe kick in the balls for his effort.

 

[Stpauli9]

Bet that guy wished he was ghost then.

 

[Kondoru]

Oh, thats made my day!

 

[RaM]

There was a Japanese one called I think Banzi? were several contestants were ferried
from place to place often offshore and subject to different type of what can only be
described as torture, if you were first to crack not only were you eliminated from the
show but had to find your own way home.

 

[Krepostnoi]

Ghost got a severe kick in the ghoulies for his effort.

FTFY

 

[AnonyJ]

There was a Japanese one called I think Banzi? were several contestants were ferried
from place to place often offshore and subject to different type of what can only be
described as torture, if you were first to crack not only were you eliminated from the
show but had to find your own way home.

It was called Endurance (translated) and Chris Tarrant featured it often on his TV show about TV...

 

[Mythopoeika]

There was a Japanese one called I think Banzi? were several contestants were ferried
from place to place often offshore and subject to different type of what can only be
described as torture, if you were first to crack not only were you eliminated from the
show but had to find your own way home.

There was a show called Banzai! on British TV years ago, but it wasn't as extreme as what you describe. That sounds like Endurance, which was shown fairly regularly by Clive James.

 

[PeteS]

All my research and reading into the programmes show that obviously they are extensively edited and changed to better suit the intention. The 'mark' will have their reactions edited to and, if they are set up by supposed police, so police really act that way...it just did a proper number in my head.

I'm pretty fond of watching US car shows, but one in particular got my goat. In this one a relative or friend of a car owner arranged for their car to be taken away for restoration without the owners knowledge. It was then pretended that the car had been stolen and the programme showed the owner throwing a wobbler about the loss of his much cherished car. "Police" officers were shown to be investigating, interviewing the owner and being in constant communication with him. The final "reveal" showed the owner massively relieved and surprised that his car had been restored without him knowing.
I found it all difficult to believe and indeed it came out afterwards that it was all bollocks. The owner was fully aware what was going on and indeed had to sign a contract at the outset agreeing to pay most of the cost of the restoration. I suspect most of these "reality" shows have only a microscopic grain of reality in them.

 

[Krepostnoi]

The owner was fully aware what was going on and indeed had to sign a contract at the outset agreeing to pay most of the cost of the restoration.

Wait, what? I mean, I have no problem believing that the show was staged in the manner you describe, but surely the only reason anyone would agree to take part would be if the TV production company financed the restoration.

Mind you, even back in the day, I had qualms about things like "Christine" and "The Dukes of Hazard", in which owners of the relevant classic car model were bribed to allow their vehicles to be wrecked, on the promise of a full restoration afterwards. It's vandalism in the name of entertainment, and the restored vehicle is, pace Trigger's broom*, not the same.

* As I've banged on about before, of course, "Only Fools and Horses" has devastated the Reliant enthusiasts' hobby.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

I have watched a lot of the Just For Laughs videos, which come from French-speaking Canada. Some of them are ingenious and funny but the more extreme ones cannot possibly have been tricks played on innocent victims - they would induce PTSD! After watching a few, I began to recognise the regular "victims."

Some of the more jaw-dropping ones involve a team of evil children. Fake or not, they are very well staged, I have to admit.

 

[PeteS]

Wait, what? I mean, I have no problem believing that the show was staged in the manner you describe, but surely the only reason anyone would agree to take part would be if the TV production company financed the restoration.

Mind you, even back in the day, I had qualms about things like "Christine" and "The Dukes of Hazard", in which owners of the relevant classic car model were bribed to allow their vehicles to be wrecked, on the promise of a full restoration afterwards. It's vandalism in the name of entertainment, and the restored vehicle is, pace Trigger's broom*, not the same.

* As I've banged on about before, of course, "Only Fools and Horses" has devastated the Reliant enthusiasts' hobby.

Yep - the TV company didn't finance the restoration - this came to my mate from the horses mouth as it were. But when you consider that these now famous companies charge hundreds of thousands of dollars it's perhaps not surprising. I know that more than one of these US car/bike restoration companies came to bitterly regret their involvement with these TV productions.

 

[escargot]

There was a show called Banzai! on British TV years ago, but it wasn't as extreme as what you describe. That sounds like Endurance, which was shown fairly regularly by Clive James.

James would be regularly reduced to tears of laughter when commenting on Endurance.

At one point the hapless participants were required to drink a pint of lime juice, which James assured us had the acidity of BETTERY ECID. For years afterwards the former Mr Snail and I would turn to each other and murmer bettery ecid at any mention of sour or unpalatable food or drinks.

 

[Spudrick68]

This is the Endurance one I recall:

 

[stu neville]

James would be regularly reduced to tears of laughter when commenting on Endurance.

He writes about it at length in The Blaze of Obscurity, as he later went to Japan to make a documentary about their game shows, and was part disappointed and part relieved to see that it was actually very well marshalled and monitored, with some serious exaggeration. The discomfort - hot sand down the pants - was entirely real but actual danger was minimal.

The owner was fully aware what was going on and indeed had to sign a contract at the outset agreeing to pay most of the cost of the restoration.

Most of this kind of reality show is distorted as hell. I spoke some time ago of my own indirect experience of them:

The whole of Changing Rooms was as fake as hell. In one of the early series, they did a flat at the other end of the road from where we lived at the time. They alleged in the series that it was all done in three days, with just the designers and one or two tradesmen each - which was bollocks. They were there for over a week and with a whole platoon of carpenters, plumbers, decorators.. in fact in later years I got to know one of the chippies, as he took up teaching after while and happily confirmed that this was always the case. That in mind...

...Don't blame the tradesman. They got through a lot of the "invisible" ones every series, when they pointed out to the designers that an idea was a) impractical, b) almost impossible to maintain for more than five minutes, or c) just fucking stupid. The rule was that the designer's word was gospel. The tradesmen were there to do, not think.

Apparently a lot more got damaged than teapots, too (this after a shelving unit built to display antique teapots collapsed destroying most of the collection), but it was usually replaced new-for-old and conveniently left out of the edit. The teapots in question needed old-for-old replacement which wouldn't happen soon so they fessed up.

Likewise, Wheeler Dealers is entirely rigged. Try walking into a car accessories place and then offering them £300 for £500 worth of stock and see how far you get. The same applies even more with the haggling on Bargain Hunt (the producers make up the difference with the seller once the cameras move away.) It's all passable enough entertainment but in most cases not remotely real.

The honourable exception is Changing Rooms' direct descendant DIY SOS: The Big Build. That is exactly as they show it (my BIL worked on a couple of them, it works as they portray it, lots of local tradespeople and merchants giving their time and goods for a deserving cause, and the presenters all genuinely chip in.)