So I just got done watching Tickled, a documentary by two New Zealanders about competitive endurance tickling.

So I just got done watching Tickled, a documentary by two New Zealanders about competitive endurance tickling.

Does the idea of young, muscular guys tickling each other seem like someone's fetish? Well sure, of course it does, and frankly, as far as fetishes go it's relatively harmless and kind of adorable. Perhaps a bit embarrassing but nothing too dreadful, right?

The deal here is that a NZ journalist stumbles on one of these sites and is like "tickling...huh" and posts about it and it goes a bit viral and then the journalist starts getting threatening, harassing letters from the company that runs the tickling website telling him to back off.

So of course, he does a documentary. Turns out that when young men want to stop doing the videos, those videos start appearing all over the internet and harassing letters go out to the performer, his family, potential employers...everyone. The stick is pretty harsh, but the carrot is pretty good too -- there's serious money for these performers, but you've got the boss from hell breathing down your neck.

I'm not going to say much more about this, it's opening June 17th and I'm hoping one of the local art houses will pick it up for a few screenings. It's well worth your time to check out. But until you get to see it, you should just know that all across the country, all across the world, there are "tickling cells" where young men are filmed being tickled in exchange for cash and prizes. That's a thing happening right now and when you see how it all works, you'll be dumbfounded.
http://tickledmovie.com/