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Culture: Television: Food Game Show
What Would You Eat For a Million Dollars?   (+19, -8)  [vote for, against]
A Disgusting New Angle on the Popular Show

Basically, the more disgusting the food is, the more money you get, but you have to work your way up to the more disgusting food. For instance, the $100 level could be "eat a carrot", $200 could be "drink a glass of lukewarm milk", and so on. $1000 could be "eat two raw eggs", and it will keep getting worse and worse. the $125,000 level could be "eat a fistful of earthworms" and the $1,000,000 level could be "Eat your own fecal matter" or something equally disgusting.

The Rules: The food at each level must be consumed in its entirety. The level you reach is based on how strong your stomach is. If you vomit, you can be given the option to eat a portion of your own vomit to stay in the game. Lifelines will appear in the form of friend who you could beg to eat whatever disgusting concoction is in front of you at the moment.

This show would be an insta-hit among American viewers. Their reaction to "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" was huge. "What Would You Eat For a Million Dollars?" would push the buck. Not only would there be exorbitant amounts of money involved, people would also be eating disgusting things (let's not forget "survivor" the #1 show in america, where they ate rats to stay nourished). It would combine wealth with despicable acts, both of which are a prime staple in the American TV Diet.
-- djhotsauce, Nov 23 2000

(?) I'd eat that! http://www.halfbake...That!#974069640-3-1
Same idea, slightly different format. [Monkfish, Nov 23 2000, last modified Oct 04 2004]

Pink Flamingos http://us.imdb.com/Title?0069089
An interesting movie, if you have a cast-iron stomach [Uncle Nutsy, Nov 23 2000, last modified Oct 04 2004]

(?) Ingesting Industrial Pollutant for Cash http://bottomquark....ead&order=0&thold=0
Sort of the same thing, but three orders of magnitude lower. [centauri, Nov 23 2000, last modified Oct 04 2004]

(?) Monsieur Mangetout ("Eat Everything") http://www.guinness....asp?RecordID=48511
Are you really sure you want to take on the French? [DrBob, Nov 23 2000, last modified Oct 04 2004]

(?) I'd eat that! http://www.halfbake....html#974069640-3-1
Same idea, slightly different format. [Monkfish, Oct 21 2004]

I quite like lukewarm milk. And raw eggs.

This would be an easy competition for Europeans to do better than Americans, many of whom (in my experience) will not eat offal, wild mushrooms, the tastier kinds of fish and cheese, etc.
-- hippo, Nov 23 2000


The French would clean up in this show. They already eat anything that walks, crawls, swims or slithers. Whatever you served up, they'd probably add a delicious creamy sauce and devour it with gusto.
-- DrBob, Nov 23 2000


Maybe with gusto, but would they eat it after the first bounce? With a glass of buttermilk?
-- reensure, Nov 24 2000


I think the French would have an easier time participating in this show, but you forget, the American lust for money would more than compensate for the French advantage of eating nasty food.. although many items in this game would not be considered foods, especially at the higher levels of the game
-- djhotsauce, Nov 24 2000, last modified Nov 25 2000


I think eating your own fecal matter would be way over the line for any country. However, raw squid, sheeps eyeballs, or sweetbreads might be an alternative. Another one might be balut (sp?), which is a Philippine delicacy consisting of an egg with a partly-developed embryo inside.

IMHO,the rats weren't the real nasty food bit on 'Survivor'- the grubs were pretty nasty, as was the can of dog food Richard polished off on a later episode (week 6, just before both tribes joined).
-- BigThor, Nov 25 2000


Sorry about the Survivor thing, i didn't follow it too closely, but grubs and dog food strengthen my point more than rats anyway :)
-- djhotsauce, Nov 25 2000


Big Thor: In John Waters' movie "Pink Flamingos," the "heroine" eats real dog excrement, so coprophagy wasn't over the line for an NC-17 theater release in 1972. With today's standards, you could no doubt go the extra mile and have someone eat their own excrement on a scrambled pay-TV channel.

I'm not *advocating* this, you understand. I'm just not sure that this would be something you couldn't show on TV. And, judging from the sickening number of kink-n-fetish websites that show up after doing a search for "coprophagy," I wouldn't be surprised if some perv wouldn't *volunteer* to do it on cable TV.
-- Uncle Nutsy, Nov 25 2000


I'll bet if you used dog poo, they'd let you do it on Network Television, or at least Public Access... Your own poo would probably bump the rating up to USA level or so.
-- djhotsauce, Nov 27 2000


For $1.000.000 I would definitely eat anything that will not make me die, disable me permanently in a serious way, or make me ill for an extended period of time (say more then 10-20 days). Disgust factor is completely annuled by such a sum of money :)
-- danilom, Nov 28 2000


I agree with you danilom, although your idea of extended sickness is a bit short... well, for a million dollars of course! I'd take 6 months of bedridden sickness for a million dollars, i mean, really, a million dollars is a WHOLE LOT of money!
-- djhotsauce, Nov 28 2000


There are many foul things shy of feces that would suffice to make many consider the monetary gratification carefully. Consider the banquet scene in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". I think that the "edibles" should be limited to things that are considered foods in other cultures, albeit the preparation may be altered to make them less appealing (raw for example - provided there is no health risk). Otherwise no matter how much the flesh is willing one might be set before an impossible repast ("Eat this wheelbarrow full of bricks").
-- Cheph, Nov 28 2000


Waugsqueke: I'm aware that eating feces would most likely kill you, however, if you heated it to a temperature of 180 degrees, the E. Coli would be killed, and the feces would then be SAFE to eat, although you would still probably get sick from the taste.

Cheph: Obviously there would be no items on the list that would be impossible to eat. It is very likely that only organic material (contains carbon) would be used on the show as well, for instance we would not make someone eat plastic or glass. The idea is for it to be a game show that the person has a chance of winning. Otherwise no one would watch it. Would you watch "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" if the million dollar prize was unattainable? Probably not. I say probably because there are likely a few people who would still watch the show. But anyway, an impossible task would defeat the purpose of the show, no one would watch it, and it would be a flop.
-- djhotsauce, Nov 29 2000


I think perhaps the best part of this idea is the leveling that mirrors the popular TV show with the annoying host with uncommonly white and straight teeth. You could probably find a whole slew of people who would eat disgusting stuff for a million dollars. I, for one, am one. However, the fact that you have to eat all this stuff in a consecutive manner is what makes it difficult. I would suggest a few more lifelines as well:

(1) Six Tums and a commercial break to just slow things down and settle you out. (2) One Swap of whatever you have to eat for some random item that a computer would pick: could be better, could be worse. (3) Hit the host just to make you feel better.
-- Vecini, Nov 29 2000


Awesome lifeline ideas... although if hitting the host is an option it might be kind of difficult to find a host... although if you found someone who was very masochistic, that would work...
-- djhotsauce, Nov 29 2000


The real question, of course, is not what you would have to eat for a million bucks, but whether or not you'd have to chew it.
-- jhoffa, Nov 29 2000


This could be a fantastic solution in order to redistribute wealth across the globe, because the hungrier you are, the more you can win... Possible Lifelines: 1. A nice glass of water 2. Choice of condiments 3. One stick of Wrigley's
-- dobbsj, Nov 29 2000


hmm.. dobbsj, i didn't think about not drinking any water in between rounds. that would make the show a lot harder... water would also provide a good lifeline like in between some of the higher rounds.
-- djhotsauce, Nov 30 2000


Deciding what is and is not edible can be a tricky task. Frenchman M.Mangetout has eaten a whole Cessna Light Aircraft (I kid you not. See link). By a strange turn of fate, this gentleman was discovered for TV by...yep you guessed it. Chris Tarrant.
-- DrBob, Nov 30 2000


like i said before, only organic material would be used for eating on the show... glass and aluminum are inorganic, therefore a Cessna would not be something to eat on the show.
-- djhotsauce, Dec 01 2000


You know what would be real nasty, take a whole bunch of condiments, and mix them all together in a glass, and make the person drink it! That would be worth at least like $1000 or so!
-- greensroom2, Dec 05 2000


Pesto. Draino. Whatever!

It's funny what different cultures find inedible. I heard a radio program a while back which asserted that eskimo's find the concept of eating cheese (rotten milk) totally disgusting. I don't know how true this is (are there any eskimo's reading this?) but it just goes to show.
-- DrBob, Feb 01 2001


Not having access to a glass of water and being disqualified for vomiting would make it harder. I once saw someone eat 18 Cadbury's Creme Eggs under these conditions. I doubt if I could finish even one of these.
-- hippo, Feb 01 2001


A bucket of toenails.
-- mrthingy, Mar 01 2001


Lick spam off a bear's arse.
-- mrthingy, Mar 14 2001


DrBob: Not too familiar with the eskimo culture at large, but that's certainly true amongst many/most asian culture. Here, cheese is considered pretty nasty, as are most dairy products; It wasn't uncommon in China to call these weird red-headed Europeans "milk drinkers", in a quasi-derogatory sense.

Pass the feta.
-- cswiii, Jul 21 2001


Could I just turn up once a week, eat my carrot, take my $100 and go home? Sounds like a good way to supplement my income (while receiving healthy vitamins) even if it won't make for good TV.
-- st3f, Jul 21 2001


ya know, this is the very first 1/2bakery idea that i ever read.
-- modular, Nov 02 2003


<hand over eyes> I could never bring myself to read this..
-- po, Nov 02 2003


now that i think about it, i was never welcomed to the halfbakery.
-- modular, Nov 08 2003


Who Wants To Be A Millionaire with food +++++
-- Mistress Bling, Nov 08 2003


get over it modular, i wasn't exacttly welcomed with open arms either....probably because i'm a bastard
-- Mind_Boggle, Nov 09 2003


I envision this as more of a "Name That Tune" type of game. 2 contestants try to outbid each other as to what they are willing to eat. The grosser the food you volunteer for, the more $$$ you can earn. But watch out! If your opponent thinks you've gone too far, he can challenge you! Then you must eat the thing you have volunteered for, or the opponent gets the money.
-- phundug, Nov 10 2003


Just by the by... live goldfish were on the menu in the Glasgow University "Iron Stomach" competition a couple of years back. It made the newspapers and everything (on animal welfare grounds as opposed to intellectual acheivements).
-- Jinbish, Nov 10 2003


Does anyone remember an appallingly bad British TV show called The Word? It had a section called 'The Hopefuls', featuring people who 'would do anything to get on the telly'. I all too vividly remember someone eating liquidized raw liver with live worms...<rushes to bathroom with churning stomach>
-- Mistress Bling, Nov 10 2003


i think too many people here would eat their own crap, why not make the million dollar challenge be the entire animal including the intestines with contents intact. And not one of herbivore types. Something that is almost certain to have a few other animals inside. But not in a fetus kind of way, thats just gross.... oh yeah, thats what we're aiming for...
-- gorillatron_9000, Nov 10 2003


//For $1.000.000 I would definitely eat anything that will not make me die, disable me permanently in a serious way, or make me ill for an extended period of time (say more then 10-20 days). Disgust factor is completely annuled by such a sum of money :)//

hey [danilom] you forgot to rule out moral grounds. Would you, for example, eat your grandmother/children etc? (Please don't answer that!). If you want to watch people humiliate themselves by participating in disgusting acts for money then just watch the parliament channel!
-- dobtabulous, Nov 10 2003


I don't think I want to place a million benjamins in the hands of anyone who would eat feces.

Supported by advertising from Exlax.
-- RayfordSteele, Nov 10 2003



random, halfbakery