So, in a bid to aid with my post-X-mas diet, I decided to watch Fear Factor “Couples” last night.
When it got to the “Eat disgusting crap” portion, my interest perked up, as did my gag reflex.
So, the contest was - each couple had to root, with their mouths only, through 10 nasty pies to fish out coins, and then chug a big smoothie containing the nasty contents of the pies.
The contents of the pies were:
Duck tongues - so what - Dim Sum in many parts of the world. Gross out factor - low
Pig guts - ditto - sausage casings are not that nasty - GOF - low
Live maggots - well, this is nasty, 'cus, they’re maggots - GOF - pretty dern high
Rotten fish - WTF?!?
So - to the general question - I’m assuming the duck, pig and maggots wouldn’t really cause any lasting harm BUT wouldn’t rotten fish be food poisoning, dry heaves, puking and shitting for days on end, waiting to happen?
I’m assuming that the producers don’t actually want to kill the contestants - so how could they feed them rotten fish without the contestents getting violently ill?
My SO suggested perhaps they could lace them with some sort of antibiotic.
The simple answer is the fish wasn’t rotten at all - they just said it was. I think the producers could get in a lot of trouble with the FDA or whoever regulates food safety for intentionally feeding people improperly handled and spoiled food. Sprinkling antibiotics onto rotten meat doesn’t seem like a real life procedure to me; sorta like Homer Simpson gulping down sleeping and wake-up pills while truck driving… sleepy… sleepy… AWAKE! AWAKE! AWAKE!.. sleepy… sleepy… AWAKE! I doubt microbial contamination would be handled that way in this day and age, even in the military!
People in this part of the world are usually pretty squeemish and “girly” towards fish of any kind. Even a good proprtion of grown men will wrinkle their noses and go through the whole “eeeeeww stinky!! shuffle-away” routine if they get anywhere’s near a fish, even swimming around in a tank (and god is it ever embarrassing :rolleyes: ). Nah, to gross people out here all you’d need to do is take a frozen fish, chop it up, and put it in a pie crust… make sure some skin/fins/eyeballs are in frame and you’re all set (and safe). I don’t think anyone could tell a rotten ground-up fish from a fresh-ground up fish through a camera lense anyways.
At the start of the show they announce something to the effect that these stunts are very dangerous and should never be attempted by anyone at any time.
Then the proceed to show the foolhardy idjitswho attempt to do the very thing that all have been warned against. The contestants risk life and limb to win a pot of $ and if they fail they are out of the game. I would rather have a good meal at a good restaurant and forget the ‘instant fame and riches.’
Anyone with a modicum of sense knows that the lotteries like slot machines are “Stacked” against the players. If not the casinos and states and other operators would not be running them. They pay out just enough so that many get a few bucks as bait to continue playing while gradually taking back the winnings and more!
Both are “Birds of a feather” Suckers all. Whether risking life and limb or the weeks pay check.
I think it depends on your definition of ‘rotten’. If I say that an apple was rotten, I’d mean that there has been a breakdown of apple due to microbial action. If I say that a breakdown of apple juice has happened due to microbial action, I’m takling about cider. So following that logic; cheese, beer and sourkraut are all rotten.
I don’t thing antibiotics would do much since there are toxins produced by bacteria that would make you sick.
100 year old eggnog, was made from a Chinese dish know as a hundred year old egg. Which isn’t a hundred years old, but sure seems to be.
Some possible sugestions I’ve heard around work are:
A non-pathogenetic bacteria was used to rot the fish - bingo, rotten fish, no botulism.
Iradiation - bacteria may be there, but you just blast the crap out of them - no problem for people to eat. (Hopefully this would take care of the nasty parasites that would probably be growing as well.)
A special animal farm a la Orix and Crake where animals of the appropriate guidelines are grown - interesting, but a bit creepy.
Not real rotten fish. Well, it may not have been rotten, but it was nasty as hell.
The contestents are morons and will suffer through days and days of GI hell for the crappy $10,000 that was up for grabs for this particular contest. This is probably the correct answer.