Zip Zap Rap!

July 5, 2006 3:24 PM

Pay to shock a man, or to prevent him from being shocked.MeFi's own bleucube wears an electric dog collar for a study in...well...shocking a man, or preventing him from being shocked. Shall good or evil prevail - charity or malice? It's all on the line. And by "on the line," I mean "available for $1-4 a pop." 10% of the proceeds go to charity. The other 90% go to being awesome. Via Projects.
posted by Sticherbeast (50 comments total)

What percentage of the proceeds go to Stanley Milgram?
posted by keswick at 3:30 PM on July 5, 2006

I predict widespread brownouts in Holt, Michigan.
posted by Flashman at 3:34 PM on July 5, 2006

I had a great idea.

We could use a similar idea. Only it could be pay money to get a guy laid or pay money to cock block him. I'm sure there is a lonely single Mefite up to the challenge.
posted by tkchrist at 3:42 PM on July 5, 2006

his thankyou.html page is not found.
posted by wumpus at 3:42 PM on July 5, 2006

meta
posted by crunchland at 3:43 PM on July 5, 2006

I wish we could pick who we choose to shock.
posted by tastybrains at 3:44 PM on July 5, 2006

The problem is, how do you know the shocks are real? He could just have a light or something telling him when and how to react.

Plus it's stupid.
posted by Paris Hilton at 3:55 PM on July 5, 2006

crunchland - i don't really see how this is cyber begging when there is a service rendered in exchange for money. Not only that, but it's a social experiment; and it's marginally charitable.
posted by wumpus at 3:56 PM on July 5, 2006

meta

sigh... you should change your nick to grumpland.
posted by jonson at 4:06 PM on July 5, 2006

No wait, GROUCHland. That's better. Now... where's the edit post button...
posted by jonson at 4:13 PM on July 5, 2006

sigh... you should change your nick to grumpland.

i'm thinkin' that was a joke. the callout was for another thread a few days ago.
posted by sergeant sandwich at 4:15 PM on July 5, 2006

"No wait, GROUCHland. That's better."

Grouchland is already taken. My wife lives there for four days every month.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:15 PM on July 5, 2006

"Hey, I'm gonna jump in front of this bus. But you can stop me for $1..."

Pass. I prefer my bail-outs nice and institutional.
posted by abulafa at 4:21 PM on July 5, 2006

I have that exact shock collar. Hurts like a motherfucker, but doesn't affect a big black lab all that much.
posted by puke & cry at 4:24 PM on July 5, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Grouchland is already taken. My wife lives there for four days every month.

Say hi to her aunt Flo, wouldja?
posted by cortex at 4:26 PM on July 5, 2006

I don't get it... how does he video tape himself "preventing" a shock from happening?

And also, does this mean I have to spend upwards of $500 to shock him b/c so many people have paid to prevent? I'm not that bored.
posted by noble_rot at 4:42 PM on July 5, 2006

Who would pay to prevent? I smell a rat because people like to see blood, just look at everything on Fox.
posted by mathowie at 4:54 PM on July 5, 2006

Ah. The famous "Fun with Dick and Jane" party trick. How original.
posted by psychomedia at 4:56 PM on July 5, 2006

tkchrist: I volunteer.
posted by ®@ at 5:25 PM on July 5, 2006

This lazy retard has been spamming MetaFilter with two Projects and a now-deleted AskMe focused on panhandling his way through an MBA, and you think this merits an FPP? There are about 27 different ways the idea is stupid, but mostly it's another deadbeat trying to shortcut his way to business success — and I find it ironic that MeFites are taking time away from pissing on Ken Lay's grave to pat this schmuck on the back.
posted by cribcage at 5:28 PM on July 5, 2006

Seems like the shock money should go to an animal charity, and the prevent money should go to the Red Cross or something, for thematic purposes.

Also, I agree with noble_rot and mathowie. It should be a bidding system. Say twelve shocking slots a day, and two bidding pools for shock and no-shock. Higher bidder wins.

Hell, we get together a new color scheme, write some eBay clone back-end and call it PainFilter. Who's game?
posted by mmcg at 5:34 PM on July 5, 2006

If I didn't have to pay I'd be shocking this dickhead at 4 all day. With a purely altruistic motivation, of course. Namely, a strong desire to give the immensely valuable lesson that only a naive arseclot trusts in the kindness of strangers.
posted by Decani at 5:35 PM on July 5, 2006

Of course that lesson ceases to be valuable if the kind stranger is also a naive arseclot.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 5:56 PM on July 5, 2006

This really is just some douchebag looking for free money. "I'll shock myself if you pay me!" Social experiment my ass. This guy is just a dickhead.
posted by puke & cry at 6:06 PM on July 5, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

According to his blog page, he's had at least 4 people pay to shock him and nobody to prevent one - at least from the little I read.

He also posted one of his shock videos to youtube.

4 doesn't look that painful. This sucks. It would be awesome if he wasn't able to brace himself for the shocks. But he gets to administer them to himself.

more blood! more pain!
posted by b_thinky at 6:10 PM on July 5, 2006

The only way to make this cool is a shock collar with a cellphone attachment or wifi connection that constantly checks for updates and shocks him.

Shocking yourself is pointless. But man, if I could shock him in line at Starbucks or in a public restroom or something, I'd totally 'donate'.
posted by graventy at 6:26 PM on July 5, 2006

Heh. This is like "crowdsourcing" the Milgram experiment?
posted by hattifattener at 6:36 PM on July 5, 2006

grouchland. that's pretty funny. heh. grouchland. heh heh. grouchland. heh. yeah. pretty damn funny. grouchland. heh. I only wish I were that clever. heh. grouchland. heh heh.
posted by crunchland at 6:39 PM on July 5, 2006

If I can use the (commercially available) stun gun and bodily location of my choice I'll pay 5 bucks a pop. No, make it 10.

There is no way that anyone could cram enough voltage or amperage in that little box to get the job done right.
posted by loquacious at 6:42 PM on July 5, 2006

There is no way that anyone could cram enough voltage or amperage in that little box to get the job done right.

Sure about that?
posted by Kwantsar at 7:12 PM on July 5, 2006

Sure about that?

Absolutely positive.

Sorry, this GeoCities site is currently unavailable.

The GeoCities web site you were trying to view has temporarily exceeded its data transfer limit. Please try again later.

posted by loquacious at 7:41 PM on July 5, 2006

Lansing? I'm going there the weekend after next. Y'all can pay to have me slap him or prevent a slapping! Just register a sockpuppet in my name and lemme know either way!
posted by klangklangston at 7:43 PM on July 5, 2006

Klangklangston... lets do it. If you are coming here... you pay me $4 and you can shock me, that is press the button. We will get it on the video podcast. Email me your contact # [e-mail]

As for the rest of ya. Thanks for visiting. I know it seems like a joke, but it's not. It's a bunch of little things rolled up into a project. Yes, I do hope it adds money to my school fund, but hope it helps the local animal centers too.

It is painful, there are a lot of factors in each shock too. Physical factors. How am I feeling. How much charge is in the collar...etc.

There is a flow chart in the faq section on how prevention works. The only thing I need to add is that only one prevention can be in the queue.
posted by bleucube at 8:26 PM on July 5, 2006

grouchland. heh. I only wish I were that clever

Don't feel bad, dude. It took me two tries.
posted by jonson at 8:39 PM on July 5, 2006

people in ann arbor and lansing just don't get along for some reason
posted by pyramid termite at 8:53 PM on July 5, 2006

PepsiBleucube.
posted by CRM114 at 9:06 PM on July 5, 2006

The option "Make dance like chicken" seems to be missing. Please see that it is corrected.
posted by ninjew at 9:29 PM on July 5, 2006

eh. i found it fairly interesting over on projects. i don't think it warrents we call him a dickhead.
posted by nadawi at 10:14 PM on July 5, 2006

i don't think it warrents we call him a dickhead.

Dear God. If this doesn't, then what on earth does?
posted by Optamystic at 1:09 AM on July 6, 2006

I'm curious how many males under 25 are going to pay to shock him.
posted by rottytooth at 5:35 AM on July 6, 2006

his thankyou.html page is not found.

Yeah, there's a slash missing at the beginning of the link. It's supposed to go here.
posted by rottytooth at 5:39 AM on July 6, 2006

I don't see why anyone would pay this guy to not shock himself.
posted by myeviltwin at 6:07 AM on July 6, 2006

Heh. I just might do that.

(Though if you really wanna see him get shocked, post this at Something Awful or Fark.)
posted by klangklangston at 6:23 AM on July 6, 2006

I did it. I fully expect his non-shocking will give me $4 worth of entertainment.
posted by rottytooth at 6:29 AM on July 6, 2006

He really does need to wear the collar 24/7 - on his neck, not wussing out with it around his ankle, and if not his neck it needs to be on his crotch - and have it embedded with wireless/cell access so people can shock him wherever he's at.

Zapping him while he's at work or asleep would be so much cooler.

Hell, maybe I should do that. Maybe I'll make next months rent.
posted by loquacious at 6:42 AM on July 6, 2006

10% of the proceeds go to charity. The other 90% go to being awesome.

How about I give whatever money I would have donated to this guy directly to a charity? That way, 100% of the money goes to charity, and I get a tax write off, which is like getting 120% value for my money, and all 120% is awesome.
posted by orange swan at 6:42 AM on July 6, 2006

posted by Blazecock Pileon at 7:22 AM on July 6, 2006

Thank you page has been fixed.

:)
posted by bleucube at 9:41 AM on July 6, 2006

Considering how many of the biggest assholes in this place absolutely hate it, he must be on to something. I gave him the inaugural shock, and I've pledged to purchase some shock prevention in the future to counter that bad karma. I fear for his sanity if it ever gets traction in the really high profile circles, though.
posted by nanojath at 2:28 PM on July 6, 2006

Some animal shelter needs to do something like this for each animal it plans to put down - hold a money-vote once a week. If more money weighs in on the "keep alive" side, then the animal gets a week's reprieve, otherwise it's curtains, live, on the internet. Sounds cold, but they're offing these animals anyway. I bet the horrified masses would not only contribute to spare an animal, but would rush down to adopt the animal they saved. Shelter gets more funding, more animals are adopted, fewer killed, more people discover they like having pets, more of the perverse sort of entertainment the internet thrives on gets generated. An all-around winner.
posted by gregor-e at 9:11 PM on July 6, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]