You just couldn’t make this up.
After stumbling upon a bizarre “competitive endurance tickling” video online, wherein young men are paid to be tied up and tickled, reporter David Farrier reached out to request a story from the company.
In a Facebook message, he wrote, “Hi there — is anyone on here that’s competed a New Zealander? I want to talk to you. DM me please.”
Here is the response he got:
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.
It reads, “So far, about 5 New Zealanders have participated. But, to be brutally frank, association with a homosexual journalist is not something that I will embrace. We desperately do not want a homosexual participant base applying for this project. My concern is that your “journalistic style, reputation, and fan base” in your own country [sic]. This is offered in earnest and strictly professional.”
What could possibly seem gay about it, we wonder?
The bizarre response was enough for Farrier’s journalistic spidey sense to start tingling, and what was intended to be an off-beat profile piece wound up with more nefarious twists and turns than an episode of Scandal.
Now he’s turned it into a documentary (opening Friday June 17), which we could try to explain, but really you should just watch the trailer and marvel at the strange things that happen in this world every day. But we will give a special shoutout to the poetic perfection of the line, “This tickling wormhole was getting deeper.”
Watch below:
Billy Budd
Human sexuality never ceases to amaze me. It goes from A to Z, from good to evil, from nice to nasty with all shades in between.
barkomatic
Bizarre. So this company promotes “endurance tickling” and somehow attractive young men are paid large sums of money to touch each other–but wait. They only want straight participants–and no gay journalists. Lol
Then some of the guys get blackmailed? By whom? The company that set it up? I agree with Billy, human sexuality–and this is sexual–is often surprising.
Kieran
Chilling. Disturbing. Let’s hope none of these impressionable red blooded all-American boys were turned gay by these sinister, same-sex tickling sessions.
jkb
This just tickles me….sorry, someone had to type it
Nahald
What’s next….endurance S&M? Sheesh !