Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Blinks

You know you want to look away, but you can't.
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It has long been a staple of Japanese TV. Those weird shows where people are subjected to cruel and unusual punishments, to test their resistance to pain and suffering.

There has also been a massive upswing in the popularity of voyeuristic TV... Big Brother, The Bachelor, Extreme Makeover, etc.

This idea is the natural outgrowth of these two, hitherto separate, genres.

The usual suspects are lying about the Big Brother house, minding each others' business when a man dressed in black latex and a white leather codpiece arrives. A team of ninja types straps several contestants to the daybeds, then proceeds to pluck each and every hair from their bodies, with tweezers.

The last one to make a noise gets a cash prize. In other words, the guy who blinks last.

All manner of weirdnesses may be perpetrated upon these exhibitionistic human guinea pigs, for the amusement of the masses. Things haven't changed much since the days of games in the Coliseum, when you think about it.

Stupid? Sure! Compelling TV? Definitely!

UnaBubba, May 22 2006

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       Congratulations, it has taken you only about fifteen years to Identify a Trend. Here, have a lollipop.
jutta, May 22 2006
  

       What, no lasagna?
methinksnot, May 22 2006
  

       Do you mean actual blinking, or making noise? If the former, then the hair-plucking is likely to be fairly incidental.   

       In the case of the latter, the same applies. It's only hair - I'm sure it could be tolerated in silence if the cash prize was suitably tempting.
Texticle, May 22 2006
  

       Gee thanks, [jutta]. You made me feel like a real sucker.   

       There's a trend towards torturing the numbnuts participants in reality TV shows? I must watch more TV. Actually... I don't think even this would compel me to watch Big Brother.   

       [Texticle], I'd like to see the manly silence when hairs are removed from inside the nose and immediately adjacent the anus. Yeah, I know, I'm a sick puppy.   

       Bah! Humbug!
UnaBubba, May 23 2006
  

       I also think there are a lot more ways to inflict pain than simply tweezing hair.   

       After all, this is a TV show about torturing the participants of other TV shows.
UnaBubba, May 23 2006
  

       The closest thing to this is probably, as boysparks mentions, "I'm a celery", where the contestants were deported to some godfersaken place called Horse Trail Ear. How they'll survive that is anyone's guess.
Ian Tindale, May 23 2006
  

       'Reality' shows are shit.   

       Now, if you alter your idea slightly so all participants are unsuspectingly tortured for applying for a god-awful 'reality' program, then I'd send you a bun :)   

       And I'd send you a whole bakery if you can get the television networks to stop airing such mind-numbing, useless crap.
kuupuuluu, May 23 2006
  

       I'm trying to help with that, [kuupuuluu].
UnaBubba, May 23 2006
  

       If 'Reality' shows were to reflect reality then the contestants, being the kind of people they are, would spend their time on the show sitting around watching reality TV shows.
hippo, May 23 2006
  

       Ouch, [hippo] - that's seriously recursive.   

       I've often wondered whether people in the East-end watch Coronation Street.
zen_tom, May 23 2006
  
      
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