Tales of the Ticklish: Ticklish Laughter on Game Shows?! Yes, Please!

 

"Distraction", from Italy, where one of the distractions
is being hung upside down, and bare feet tickled,
 while trying to answer questions! Brilliant!

    Last blog, we were talking about the hilarity & comedy awesomeness of Howard Stern, and his "tickle chair" segments, in which he would lock (velcro strap) celebrity guests in a converted reclining chair, ask them various questions, and then tickle their bare feet (or ribs) if they answered wrong, or refused to answer at all, as in the case of "personal life" questions, like, "Are you sleeping with (insert name)..  From that comedic brilliance, we move onto a similar, related topic: tickling on game shows! Some of the ridiculously silly clips that you can find on YouTube are absolutely hilarious (I can't post them here because of annoying copywright issues), and, if you search keywords, "tickling game show", or "tickling contest", you may joyfully stumble across them, like buried treasure. It's as hard as finding buried treasure, because there is so much CRAP on YouTube, and I found the good ones by accident, researching Howard Stern tickling stuff, and other feet tickling items, so they're definitely out there! You probably won't be able to understand the language (or maybe you will, since this blog is worldwide! Thank you!), as the best ones are from Brazil, Italy, and Japan, but it doesn't matter because, after all, hysterical laughter IS a universal language of happiness! 

Who can hold out longest without laughing?!
Love it!

     But that got me thinking about the annoying, hypocritical uptightness of American culture. You never see tickling on US game shows, and, even though I absolutely love my country, I could only speculate that it's because of the somewhat puritanical nature of our culture. Somehow, unless it's in a funny kids' cartoon, or a classic episode of The Three Stooges, the beautiful fun of tickling bare feet, or tickling ribs & underarms, instantly gets attached to sex or "fetish behavior", when in truth, they are separate entities entirely!! Sure, consenting adults can use tickling & light bondage as an absolutely fantastic form of foreplay, but that doesn't mean that EVERY instance of tickling in life is about sex!! I think that other countries get that, and have a much more relaxed TV environment, where you then get to see things like contestants on gameshows being tickled mercilessly, in a hysterical visual & audio package! Me, I simply can't turn it off when I see someone being tickled! I imagine myself being in that situation, and I start giggling a lil' bit as I watch, and listen to, those people laughing, thinking, "Wow, that must be SO MUCH fun to do!".. Maybe it's because some of the Brazilian contestants are in bikinis, and that would make it too "naughty" to be on American TV..(BIG rolling of the eyes).. Meanwhile, you see what's on some of the MTV "reality" shows, and your stomach turns at the inappropriateness. I say, "More tickling feet, less pregnant teens!" ...Now there's a campaign slogan if ever there was one!  :)

I couldn't understand what they were saying, but I'm pretty sure the concept was that one girl placed her bare feet up on the lap of another girl, and then the second girl lightly tickled those feet, and that first girl wasn't allowed to laugh out loud, OR pull their feet away, or else the buzzer would sound! I had giggly goosebumps on my arms, watching this fun! LOL!!