From The Past: March 2, 2009
In books and movies:
The book The Running Man was about people who go on a TV game show in order to try and win a one billion dollar jackpot. In order to do that, they have to avoid being killed. If I remember correctly, most people who signed up for this show really needed the money for their family.
The movie Death Race is about a TV show where prisoners compete in a car race to maybe win their way out of prison. This is a pay-per-view type of TV show where people pay $250 to watch the race. There are three parts to the race, so people can pay for one part or the entire thing all at once. 2/3 of the drivers/prisoners die, so people tune in to not only view the race, but also the violence.
In real life:
People love watching reality TV like the game show Wipeout where contestants compete through an obstacle course to try and win a $50,000 grand prize. These people have clearly been in painful situations, but we still sit on our comfy couches laughing and watching (me included).
There are also some Japanese game shows out there like Sasuke and Takeshi’s Castle. They do some crazy stunts. You can view excerpts of these shows on YouTube.
We have TV shows like Fear Factor where we can’t get enough of a person biting into a bug or being enclosed in a clear box filled with snakes. Sadly, there is a certain sadistic thrill in watching someone do a thing you know terrorizes them. I think to myself, “I’m not doing it, but if they need the money that bad – let them go for it.”
We also have American Gladiators where typical people compete in physical endurance challenges against seasoned professionals.
We get a kick out of ghost shows like Celebrity Paranormal Project and Fear where participators are put in situations where it’s dark and the producers can scare the pee out of them. Yea, it scares them, but we at home are laughing at them. The show Scare Tactics was a hidden camera show where they did particular scary gags on people just to see their reaction. This made the audience laugh.
These days, people pay to watch the contestants in the Big Brother house via the Internet. I’m sure there are other shows (other than porn) where people pay to watch reality TV. The question is: how far will we go with it? What will we pay to watch? What are our limits?
If they showed you pictures of, let’s say, six men who had raped and murdered little girls or boys, would you kind of enjoy watching them run in terror for their lives? If a person killed someone in your family, would you tune in to watch them suffer?
On the flip side of that, would you want everyday people to have the opportunity to do a Running Man type of show where they could win big money for their family? Our nation of people would have the choice whether they paid to watch or not.
I personally don’t want to watch anyone die, but the people who are on these shows do have a choice. They sign release papers. They know there is a chance they could get hurt or scared. I mean, let’s get real here; when you sign up for a TV show called “Fear” what do you think is going to happen?
I believe way in the future, books and movies like The Running Man and Death Race could very well become reality TV.