Creative Intellect

Torture in Television

         Maggot-rita pizza. Buffalo Lips. A springbox stomach. Feet-ucine pasta- with rats' feet. Bush pig testicles. Cud-cake: cockroaches, fly pupae, and parmey worms. Sick shake: a blend of fish guts and goat milk.
         Seven dishes two Australian celebrities consume in the "Twisted Takeaway" version of the Tucker Trials in the Australian reality show I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! Watching the clip will more than likely make you gag. Another trial from a different episode included eating live worms.
         Then why do it? Why would ten celebrities agree to go live in a South African jungle for an extended amount of time and eat these disgusting dishes? Also, why would people at home even watch this?
          These eleven celebrities entered for a chance to win $100,000 to donate to a charity of their choice. Celebrities' loved ones will update the public via social media, thereby drawing in fans as the audience. Every celebrity relies on his/her fans to stay in the show, which is added incentive for people to watch- they don't want to see their favorite celebrity leaving the jungle, do they? In fact, this is a fan-powered show. People vote for celebrities online to choose who goes to do the next trial, and who they want to save. The person with the least votes is then removed from the jungle. At the end of the season, the last person in the jungle receives the $100,000 for the charity they chose before the season began.
         While this is not necessarily torture in the normal sense- it's not an extreme form of questioning to get pertinent information, the conditions they live in could easily qualify. These tucker trials allow the celebrities to win meals for their camp team. Each star they earn is equivalent to a meal for the team. The question now is, if these celebrities signed up for this show, would it still be considered wrong?
          For me, I think this would depend on their contract. If the participants are told "you will be eating live creatures", and contestants still sign the contract, it would be torture, but self-inflicted. They had a general idea of what they would face, and yet agreed to participate. However, if the did not mention what sort of "tucker" the Tucker Trials used, it would be considered unsolicited torture.