I loathe that sort of “humour”.
While I find the Todo el mundo es bueno series of movies boringly repetitive, I like the general idea. Candid camera used to show that “everybody (well, ok, not all but most) will lend a hand,” and anybody who ended on the actual movies gave permission.
But those programs? Ughhh. To me if I’m in a party and people pop that kind of tapes or get that kind of program on, it’s time to leave. Preferably on the double, before they start barfing and I, not being even the owner of the place, get stuck with cleaning it up on grounds of being the only one sober.
Maybe that’s “my problem,” as I’ve repeatedly been asked by the people enjoying the shows - you need to be drunk out of your wits (or merely witless) to enjoy them.
I agree that there is a distinction between Japanese game shows or Jackass on one hand and Punk’d on the other; the first aren’t “ambush” humor. But mind you, Ashton Kutcher should not be anywhere near show business at all simply because of that laughter - was he raised in a donkey farm?
This is pretty much my take, too. Someone earlier in the thread said that if you could empathize with the targets, the humor would make you uncomfortable; I absolutely agree with that. When I was a kid, I yearned to be the target of a Candid Camera joke. I thought it would be the coolest thing EVER.
As an adult, still some of my happiest moments in life are when the totally unexpected and inexplicable happens. Surreality fills me with great joy and delight. When I watch those shows, it is because I can identify with the target of the joke that I find them funny.
That means, of course, that I like the jokes that don’t result in emotional anguish to the target. Strangeness, confusion, utter bewilderment, a sense that you’ve drifted into a Kafka parody? That’s awesome. But suckage is not.
Daniel
Not thrilled with ambush humour, but I did see one Just For Laughs episode that was hilarious, mostly because it was so ambitious and so well done. The producers set up a very realistic alien-type spacecraft in a crash-landing setting, complete with rising steam, scorched earth, etc. Must have cost a fortune. They included a couple of very panicked and jittery cops trying desperately to rope off the area, make calls on their radios, and whatnot. The cops would grab passersby in a panic and get them to help out cordoning off the zone. I suppose the passersby may have been in on it, but they sure played their parts well. They were panicked as all hell, and when the top of the spacecraft began to open, the cops and the passersby practically went into conniptions. I guess it was impressive as much as it was funny, especially if the passersby weren’t in on the joke. It was kind of like getting a feel for a truly unbelievable, War of the Worlds situation.
Nonetheless, if they’d got me with this one, I definitely would have belted somebody very hard indeed.
With Girls Behaving Badly (or whatever it’s called), and a few other shows, don’t you get the feeling that everyone is in on the joke? I’m pretty sure that in half these shows, the “victim” is actually in on it.
I hate it. It’s so bullshit and I await the time they try it on a person who is severely mentally unstable.
I would like one of the victims that allowed them to go on with the show to say the footage would be required in the lawsuit. I’ll hope they get like a million dollars.
I would tell the person off, so no show from me girls.
I don’t like Jackass. I do like *old * Candid Camera, but not the new one. I like the Jamie Kennedy Experiment and Girls Behaving Badly. I don’t like Punk’d. I don’t like Tom Green.
I don’t hate it. I think that “ambush comedy” is tricky to do well.
Some of “Punk’d” just seemed to be lying to person in uncreative, mean-spirited ways (arresting someone for shoplifting).
But, then some of Ali G’s stuff is not only humorous, but satirical, smart, and appropriately iconoclastic. Humor as brilliant as anything I’ve ever seen.
And, maybe to get that kind of stuff, you need to break a few eggs along the way. I don’t think it’s possible to know a priori THIS is going to be funny, and THAT isn’t, so let’s just do THIS.
I really enjoy the self-abuse that the Jackass gang puts itself through.
That’s kind of funny. Pokin’ a hole in the kid’s goldfish bag.
Those of you that hate it–have you seen Trigger Happy? It’s probably my favorite comedy of this sort. My two favorite sketches:
-As a guy in a business suit walked through a huge dark empty building–possibly a train station late at night–a spotlight shone down on him. He didn’t notice it at first, and when he did, he looked befuddled and then continued walking as the light followed him. A security guard came up and asked him to turn the light off.
-A car stopped at a construction site as a worker held up a “STOP” sign. As the worker began to turn the sign around, the car eased forward–and then slammed on the brake when the driver saw that the other side of the sign also said “STOP.” Then, as the worker began to turn the sign around again, the driver started to ease forward again, only to slam on the brakes when, lo and behold, the first side still said “STOP.” Then the worker walked away, leaving the driver completely confused.
Both of these were the sort of utterly bewildering things that would delight me to experience as the target of the prank, and when I watched them I was cracking up. I know the descriptions don’t sound that funny, but it was hilarious.
Daniel
For me it depends on the joke. A show like scare tactics I loathed. There was one episode where the “joke” was to have the mark get in a car with someone (I think it was a pro stunt driver), who then proceeded to get in a chase with the police (might have been fake police, or real ones in on the joke). Not funny, the guy was freaking out trying to get him to pull over before they died, and at one point contemplated jumping out of the moving car.
Borat was 50/50 for me. Bear in the ice cream truck pulling up to the kids was funny. The whole dinner scene not funny.
Candid camera never bothered me because it was more weird situations than aggressive.
Trigger Happy TV was good too, because again it wasn’t really directly attacking anyone (at least what I saw) and was just oddness. I still imagine the giant cell phone and him screaming HELLO every time I hear that ring tone.
It was actually called Just For Laughs Gags.
Just For Laughs is the broadcast of the Montreal Comedy Festival - stand up, the occasional bit of sketch comedy, and the odd oddball (Stomp or Tap Dogs for instance).
Which made Gags something of an ambush for me the first time I saw it…the little green mascot guy, the distinctive music, getting ready for real JFL…then…what the hell was that?
I was at the gym the other week and saw what appeared to be a wedding prank show. :eek: I think some or all of the wedding party was in on it, but not the guests. They did things like pretending the church was under construction and wouldn’t be ready for the ceremony, and seeding the reception with fake guests who made outrageous “drunken” comments to the real guests. Is this a real show? Are people so desperate to be on television that they’re willing to punk their own wedding day?
Yep. It’s called The Wedding Crashers. I think I would like it done differently, but the production is crap. It suffers from the same problem as AFV — too much interruption with needless intros and set-ups.
For me, it all comes down to the mean-spiritedness of the joke.
Candid Camera never bugged me, because the majority of the time, it was silly stuff that didn’t really distress anyone very much or for very long. Think the trick water fountain and 4 year olds segment.
Jackass was very similar in my mind- it was either those guys busting their own asses, or (usually) doing something inane and silly, like Chris Pontius dancing around in the jockstrap, or Johnny Knoxville dressed as the old man. I can’t say I was that amused when that one guy went into the home improvement store and took a dump in the show toilet though.
Punk’d and many of the more mean-spirited shows (Jerky Boys) never did it for me- it was usually just mean, and uncomfortable, and not in a “weird guy jumps out and dances in a jockstrap” kind of uncomfortable. More in a “guy is shown his car being destroyed… ha ha, it’s not his car” type way.
I wouldn’t mind Girls Behaving Badly if the people doing it were any good. Most of it is innocent, harmless, and isn’t mean (I don’t like the mean ones. I don’t want to see people’s buttons pushed to breaking. I don’t mind seeing people in a “what the hell?” situation, though.) For them, the set up is ok, the execution is awful.
But the mean ones - I don’t want to watch that.
I watched an episode of that. It was horrible. I had just gone through wedding hell being in my sister’s wedding party, and I was completely sympathizing with the friends and family who thought the wedding that they had worked so hard for was going so badly. It was just plain mean, and I think there would be any number of lost relationships over a bride and groom who think that punking their own wedding is funny.
I have to strongly disagree here. While some Japanese game shows feature contestants that “signed up for it” (Ninja Warrior, Most Xtreme Challenge, etc.), they do MUCH worse stuff over there to innocent bystanders.
A few Japanese videos that I’ve seen on the net…
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They put a camera up in the air lookind down over a small alley. Wait until a lone innocent starts to walk up the alley. When the innocent is alone in the middle with nowhere to go, they get 50 or so people to come running screaming from the other end of the alley. The innocent is mortified as the camera zooms in on his face as he tries to figure out what’s going on as a wall of screaming humanity comes rushing at him.
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Innocent goes into a type of Port-o-Potty. As he sits to do his business the roof opens and the base is hydrolically lifted until the innocent is lifted ten feet in the air where all of the public can see him, as he clamors to pull up his pants in humiliation with nowhere to run or hide.
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Kind of like number two: An innocent sits on a toilet to do his business. A hole in the wall opens up and the toilet, innocent and all instantly turns into a sled which then starts rolling out of control down a hill. Again, the person has no choice but to sit there naked screaming or jump off risking bodily harm.
While I have to admit I laughed like sin at all these, it’s dangerous for society to allow such thing, because who knows where it will end. I have to wonder what legal recourse someone would have if something like that happened in the States.
I do not react well to being put on the spot. In a heated verbal confrontation, my brain switches off. I can’t think matters through logically, I lose the ability to express myself in a coherant manner, and I often have little choice but to stand there helplessly and take whatever abuse is thrown at me. Being placed in some Tom Green or Borat situation would probably sent me over the edge into a homicidal rage. Pranks played on friends or on “deserving” targets are fine by me, but if you rely on humiliating innocents for your “humor”, you deserve to be tarred and feathered.
I once saw part of a show on Mexican TV where they pulled Candid Camera type pranks on passers-by, but many of them were what I would consider horribly cruel. For example, innocent on a crowded street sees the classic “Don’t Turn This Sign Around” sign posted on a nearby wall. If they give in to temptation and try to turn the sign around, someone hiding above them yells “a warning” and triggers what looks like a large stone block hurtling toward them. Sure, let’s get a thrill watching people leap back in horror at the prospect of having their heads crushed by falling masonry!
I don’t like it either. I’m especially annoyed by the Jerky Boys, but prank calls in general irritate me. Candid Camera was okay but that’s about it.
I like original Candid Camera with Alan Funt and Fanny Flagg. The stuff they did tended to bring the surreal into people’s lives and see how they reacted. They didn’t jump out and say “You got PUNKED!”
The stuff from today I can do without.