Tickled
(David Farrier & Dylan Reeve)
When I first heard about this film, my eyebrows raised from confusion and interest. Then when I saw it available on demand, I made sure to sit my wife down to watch it with me. Her look of complete confusion and the questions she asked during and after gave me a chuckle. This is one weird film.
For those who do not know what it is about, a New Zealand journalist stumbles upon a video online about 'Competitive Endurance Tickling'. Those three words were enough to pique his interest and watch. After finding it somewhat humorous, he knew he had to dive deeper into this odd phenomenon. Big mistake. After finding the company that puts these competitions on, he requested interviews and information and was greeted with homophobic hostility (he's gay) and threats of legal action. Not wanting to be bullied away, he goes head first into the investigation and discovers a world of deceit, fraud and identity theft.
Wow, yes, this film takes some weird turns and leaves you scratching your head over the absurdity of it all. I'll try not to go into too much detail because half the fun in watching this is seeing how depraved the rabbit hole goes, but this film needs some sort of explaining. I'll pose this question to you; if you were looking for some quick cash and a company offered you $2,000, hotel and a flight to the shooting location, would you partake in this tickle competition? How it works is, you are strapped down on a mat. Hands and feet are both tied and another man (they are all men) sits on top of you and....tickles you. Then more men come over and they...tickle you as well. One individual had four men tickling him at once; one for each foot, one for his torso and another under his arms. He laughs and squirms,but he can't go anywhere. This is all filmed as well. Nothing too sexual about it.
Then the video randomly appears online.
When you ask for the company to take it down, that's when things get weird...er. This company then send the video to all your friends, family, co-workers with hateful messages about how perverted you are and how dangerous you are to children, etc. They try to destroy your life and have succeeded in a few cases. It's somewhat tragic.
Farrier interviews a tickle fetishist and he explains how it's no different from a foot fetish. Sure, people have their weird sexual fantasies and what not, but the individual(s) behind these attacks seems to be on another plane of existence. How far will this company go to humiliate people? Will they steal identities? Threaten fake legal action? Threaten lives? The answer to all of these questions is of course, yes.
Tickled is one of the weirdest documentaries I've ever seen and it's the subject matter that saves an otherwise mediocre film. Check it out for the sheer absurdity of it.