Scare Tactics: I'm SO glad they're getting sued

Cafe Society
41

Surprisingly, that’s not far from the premise of the show. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any show quite as disturbing as Scare Tactics. What really disturbed me most was:

The “joke” played on the guy in the car where they picked up a sinister hitchhiker who had a head in his backpack. When the unwitting victim in the backseat saw what was in the bag, he said “I wish I’d brought my knife!”. A few minutes later, when the hitchhiker pulled out a fake knife and began to stab the driver (who was in on the joke), the poor guy in the backseat, frightened out of his wits and trying to protect himself and the others in the car, jumped up and began to hit the hitchhiker with his fists. What if he’d really brought a knife?? In a moment of panic and truly believing his life was in danger, he probably would have pulled a knife on the guy. Someone could have been seriously hurt in that scenario. Or any of the scenarios on the show, actually.

Not to mention the fact that the pranks pulled on this show are seriously un-funny and rather sick.
And besides, what kind of “friend” would set another friend up like that? I’m glad I don’t have friends like that. Geez.
This show is beneath contempt.

42

The following had better not turn this thread into a gun-control debate.

I just watched the “exclusive video”. They’re lucky they didn’t pull this sh*t around me. I do not go camping unarmed. Given that there’s coyotes, bears, racoons (which can be nasty) etc, it’s a good idea when in the wilderness to be armed, just in case. I’ve never once had to draw my weapon. Not once. But if that one-in-a-thousand case happens, I want to be prepared.

And if a f*cking huge thing had A) Slaughtered my dog (I assume that “Chelsea” was a dog and the blood was supposed to be her), B) had attacked me (or a friend) by roughing me up and throwing me against the window of my RV enough that I (or the friend) was bleeding and C) started pounding on the window, trying to get in, I’d happily unload a clip into the whathever-the-hell-it was: rabid bear, psycho or bigfoot, I’d worry about the species of the thing later, it’s already proved itself a threat to my safety. Talk about an obvious case of self-defense.

And Colorado has the “Home owner’s defense law” (aka the “Make My Day” law) which allows “allows residents to use deadly force in their homes against intruders”, so…

And, although I’m pretty mellow normally, I’d break the nose of a “friend” who set me up like that.

This show may be the stupidest idea I’ve ever seen.

Fenris

43

Wow… There’s quite a few people who need enemas in here…

First off, these are all set up by friends, and the scenarios are so ridiculous that if you get freaked out by them you deserve it.
Second, the applicants are heavily screened (no NRA presidents are going to be the butt of a scare).
Third, it’s all young people - not quite prone to heart attacks.
Fourth, they don’t do anything physical to the mark, just try to scare the piss out of them.

This is basically a step up from Candid Camera, but not as horrible as Fear Factor. I saw the show last night and about laughed my a$$ off. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it, but there is no reason for the moral outrage some of you are showing here.

It’s just TV.

44

To say that someone is happy that someone else is being sued is scarry in itself. That is not a nice thing to be happy about. Plus, people need to have an open mind about life. Things like this have been done, will be done, and are being done all the time. It is all in good fun so calm down. Enjoy life instead of being so uptight and taking everything so personal.

45

Forget a knife. People can easily kill each other with their barehands. Crushing someone’s windpipe, breaking their nose into their skull, causing any sort of blood clot from a major blow to the body, smacking someone’s head around… anything could happen.

46

All of the senarios are completely safe for all involved. The people that make any tv shows or movies have many many people that make sure of these things. All of the victims in each case are there with a friend or someone who knows them very well and can tell the producers if they have anything that could harm someone. Yes, they could even just punch or kick but there are enough people on the set to stop this from going to far. These people are not ignorant and would let anything happen to anyone invovled.

47

No, I will not calm down. This is a sick and twisted thing to do to someone.

48

The last thing i have to say about this thread is that having the knowledge that I now have from reading all the posts to this subject makes me laugh all the more frequently. For me to know that there are this many people that will get this upset and are so close minded about little things in life as practicle jokes just makes me want to perform even more practicle jokes on the whole of the world. It is the most funny thing I have ever experienced. You people make me laugh and I thank you for that.

49

Broccoli, anyone who sets me up to be the laughingstock of millions ain’t my friend. He or she can also expect massive retalitation. Secondly, if I see someone in a monster costume run at me, I may not be dumb enough to think the aliens have landed or the Monster of the Black Lagoon really exists, but I may be dumb enough to believe an especially demented serial killer is running around loose. And I WILL get Medieval on his ass. I agree with everything Fenris said above.

Cite, please?

What if that young woman mentioned above, the one who ran into the canyon, had stepped on a stone and turned her ankle severely, or else stepped on a rattlesnake? What if the melee in the car had caused the driver to lose control and strike a pedestrian or another vehicle? Would you be laughing then? Probably.

Give me a fucking break. Fear Factor is another stupid show, but the participants are willing and everything is explained to them upfront. There is no comparison.

onyxtyghr:

Personally, some lawsuits, as with those against tabloid newspapers that knowingly print lies about somebody or corporations that knowingly dump hazardous wastes, make me very happy. I am frankly amazed that you can print a statement as Pollyannaish as “That is not a nice thing to be happy about,” and defend a show that mocks people who believe they are threatened.

See above remarks to broccoli. When you scare people, and they get out of control, the situation is not completely safe. I’m a big man, 6’4" and 280 lbs, and if I’m scared to the point where I run amok, the situation most assuredly is not completely safe. Especially, as I will try to inflict massive damage on my tormentors.

I would think it is obvious that, in order for the prank to be convincing, all of those experts are going to be some distance away. Obviousily, that woman would not have bolted into a canyon had someone authorative shouted out “Whoa, this is all a joke.”

Ah, yes, my friends always pat me down before we go out.

See above incident with the car. It’s also obvious you’ve never been in a fight or you wouldn’t downplay the significance of getting kicked or punched, especially if the kicker/puncher knows how to fight and is scared out of his wits.

Tell that to the actor who died during the filming of The Twilight Zone Movie.

50

The signup procedure (currentl you basically have to email them, online registration not up yet) is a series of interviews, Q & A sessions, and meetings with the people behind the scenes and the script writers. You get setup by a <i>close</i> friend. This isn’t a random freak out by a stranger. This is someone who knows you very well. I know all my close friends know whether or not I carry a gun or knife… In fact I can name each friend I have who does pack, and what they carry.

If someone were to seriously hurt themselves on the show I would feel bad for them, and I would totally justify them asking for compensation for it.

And I am totally justified in comparing Fear Factor to Scare Tactics. Not in terms of what the show entails, but in terms of the public’s reaction to the show. I should have made that more clear. The point was if you don’t like it, you don’t have to watch.

51

damn you brackets!!! shrug

52

I saw "Fear Factor"only once and that was because I was talking with parents for the first time in three months. My dad’s a fan. I don’t watch many shows as I don’t own a TV. When I did own a TV, I watched only football and basketball.

As for a close friend setting me up, I repeat, anyone who sets me up for pranks like that ain’t a friend. Friends don’t deliberately make their friends look like asses on TV.

You and your friends may tell everyone what they’re packing. My buddies are a more canny lot, and some of my buddies don’t broadcast whether they are armed.

53

To Peyote Coyote, As a matter of fact I do know a lot about fighting being as i have been in a Traditional Shaolin Kung Fu M.A. class for about 2 years and have been in more than a few other Martial Arts classes in my life time. I am also a big man of 6’3" and 375 plus pounds. I do know the damage that a person can do to the human body very well. My master has also taught me that size is not even an issue either, since he was around 5’9" and around 205 pounds but he tossed me around like I was a rag doll. My point being was that there are enough people to stop that from happening to anyone on the show. If anything the friend that is there right next to the victim of the joke would calm the person down and tell him that it was a joke. And, yes all of my good friends would know if i have a weapon or something on me in this kind of situation. The producers are smart enough to know and say “Make sure that your friend does not have any weapons on them because they will be scarred during our taping!”. And they also will ask “Does your friend have any physical problems with their heart or their brain or blah blah blah…”. It is called a screening process that everyone will have to go through. If these questions cannot be answered then they cannot be on the show plain and simple. These people are not stupid idiots that don’t think of all the possibilities and reactions before hand and have a plan to resolve any of these things happening.

54

Yes, but the bottom line is–no one knows how someone else will react in a situation like that where the person is completely panicked and scared for his/her life. There’s absolutely no way to predict how a “friend” might react to having a knife pulled on them, for example. Even the most mild-mannered person might go completely ape-shit if he feels his life is being threatened.
It’s simply dangerous, IMHO. There’s a vast difference between a “practical joke” and what happens on Scare Tactics.

And as for Fear Factor–to me, these two shows are not even in the same league. Like the poster above said, the participants in Fear Factor know ahead of time what they are getting into, they know they will be taking part in dangerous and sometimes disgusting stunts. They sign up for it themselves.

And I also think the word "friend’ is the wrong term to describe someone who would sign up their friend to be a victim on Scare Tactics. There’s a reason they are called “Victims”.

55

Actually, it was three-Vic Morrow and two Vietnamese child actors (and they were violating many child labor laws in that case).

56

No, but I might someday have to participate in Scare Tactics without my consent. There’s the difference.

And again: GO to the Scare Tactics website. Watch the “exclusive video”. As far as the people in the RV were concerned, someone had butchered their dog, beaten up a friend enough that he was bleeding, and was pounding on their RV’s (apparently) plexiglass window hard enough to shake the entire vehicle. Are you telling me that it would be unreasonable to assume that your life were in danger in that situation?

Like I said: were I there, the “Sasquatch” would have had a nice tight grouping in it’s chest, I’d be in trouble, and the producers would be in a hell of a lot more (since I suspect I’d be covered by the Colorado law).

Think about the scenario above: they made someone think their dog had been butchered. How is this even remotely entertaining? I’m curious. Would you Scare Tactics defenders also think a radio show where they got laughs by calling parents and spouses of soldiers who were currently overseas and telling them their loved one was dead would also be funny? Why or why not?*

Fenris

*This isn’t so unlikely: I recall a radio show that got kicked off the air several years back for calling a cop’s wife and telling her that her husband had been shot as a prank. Again, Scare Tactics defenders: funny or not?

57

If I had thought one of my beloved pets had been slaughtered like that, there would be fucking hell to pay.

58

Stuntmen can also die or get injured on a set. And then you have to take into account sheer stupidity, like Jon-Erek Hexum’s death, where he shot himself in the head with a gun loaded with blanks, because he was dumb enough to think he couldn’t be hurt. (One of my friends worked with Hexum for a while—she said he was “sweet, but dumb”.) Add to that Brandon Lee, who died in an accident while shooting “The Crow”, and the famous Vic Morrow death. The stuntmen deaths are not covered as much in the news, but in the local LA news you’ll see it covered more. Yes, these accidents and deaths do happen.

When you see that professionally trained stuntmen can die or get injured, even though everything is set up to be safe, and they’re prepared and trained to be safe, it’ss obvious that nothing is foolproof. Scare Tactics has the additonal “loose cannon” aspect: unwitting victims who think it’s all real, and who may do ANYTHING to save themselves from a percieved life-or-death situation.

59

The most recent major example was on xXx. In the scene where Xander Cage is paragliding onto a boat, Vin Diesel’s stunt double hit the bridge head first and died. They cut and reshot the end to hide it, but most of the failed stunt footage had to be left in the movie.

60

I watched the show and that’s not what happened. I can see why you’d get that impression from the video clip because it doesn’t show who is who like they did on the show. There were only two “victims”. Everyone else was in on it. The victims were setup by a friend. The story he told them was basically “Hey I have some “friends” that are camping and they invited me to join them. Let’s all go.” Those “friends” were in fact actors and they were the ones who pretended that the campsite was detroyed and the people that were waiting for them were missing and possibly dead. I didn’t get the impression that there were any pets involved but in any case the actual victims did not know anyone or any pet that was missing. Also the 2 victims never left the camper so they were never in any real physical danger. So don’t get all up in arms thinking that they made someone think their beloved pet was dead because they didn’t. If they had then I would agree with you that it’s not funny at all.