Welcome to Screen Gems, our weekend dive into queer and queer-adjacent titles of the past that deserve a watch or a re-watch.
The Stroker: Tickled
Anyone here ever enroll in âcompetitive tickling?â If youâve never heard of the âsport,â youâre not alone. In 2014, New Zealand-based queer journalist David Ferrier stumbled on several videos of competitive tickling and decided to investigate the origins of the clips. The production company associated with the videos replied with homophobic insults, which only made Ferrier more determined. He journeyed to the US in hopes of finding some of the âplayersâ who participated in the clips, as well as the mysterious producers behind them. Little did Ferrier realize, heâd stumbled on an obscure fetish community, and one eccentric gay man determined to bully Ferrier into silence.
Tickled begins as a playful look at an oddball fetish, but quickly turns dark as Ferrier discovers a group of men intimidated into silence, and a very homophobic producer who seems to get off on explicitly homoerotic imagery. Moreover, what looks like good, clean fun at first glance begins to reveal itself as a form of real torture: the men in the videos giggle, but the real appeal of tickle torture seems to be the forced subversion of their will. Weâll not reveal the final twists to Tickled here, other than to say what begins as a goofy romp ends as a portrait of journalistic determination, and a glimpse into a very disturbed mind. Weird and captivating, Tickled runs the gamut from titillating to terrifying. You wonât be able to look awayâŚeven when you want to.
Streams on Amazon, YouTube & iTunes.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
This article includes links that may result in a small affiliate share for purchased products, which helps support independent LGBTQ+ media.
Mandrake
“Tickled” is 5 years old. I think you can find it on Netflix or Hulu. Disturbing film.
Harley
Nope. Not on Netflix or Hulu.
WashDrySpin
The only reason this movie is being showcased is because of the FLESH on display
Mattster
You obviously havenât seen the documentary. There isnât much if any flesh on display, itâs really about the shadowy producer of the videos and the story gets very dark very quickly.
Itâs pretty good, not great. I think they were being extremely careful about what they said in the doc as the subject has a history of filing many lawsuits.
The subject/producer has since died; Iâm curious if they will do an update with material they couldnât show in the first installment.
gaiety69
Tickliung is not news. Been goin on forever and still is. You can find vids of it everywhere. No need for pay. People do it for free.
squinney7007
This story is about about WAY more than “tickling”. Worth watching.
ray444
I just now went to plain old YouTube, typed in “hot men tickled” and a bunch of videos for which that is an accurate description popped up. No dick, of course, no full frontal, but it’s YouTube so how much scintillation can you expect?
edwardnvirginia
HELLO! Queerty does a story encouraging people to watch this POS movie about a DISTURBED, DELUDED, DANGEROUS fetish …. while … in another story mocking QAnon fetishes?! WOW!
barryaksarben
Probably because Qanon people are f**king nutjobs who need to have lobotomies to prevent them from destroying this country. Hardly a fetish when they are promoting violence. Tickling isnt violence. Looks like just another far right radical trying to “own the libs” cant stand the heat.
Creamsicle
Please tell us more about QAnon fetishes.
4greg
Only a complete idiot would conflate Qanon with a fetish – much less a tickle fetish! Sad….
Creamsicle
Tickled is a great film, but why post about it 7 years after it was released? Just got around to it in your latest quarantine binge watch?
I watched the film on hoopladigital a few years ago. Not sure if it’s still on the platform now, but if your public library has a subscription to the service, I highly recommend it.
Liquid Silver
Call me when they make one about back scratching.
tdnte
That movie is boring. I see David around and he has a face like a sad mince pie.
davidstarr
Thank you Queerty for the article. Yes, this is the real David Starr đ
OhHellNo
The picture above isn’t of the people in the “competitive tickling” scheme, it’s of a benign tickle-fetish-clip operation in Florida that is briefly covered in the film showing the non-evil side of the coin. It’s misleading to put it at the top of the article when it’s barely a footnote in the film. What, Queerty, too afraid of the evil people to put THEIR picture at the top? Snowflakes.