Stunt Cars and Reality TV Ain't Real, but tells us a lot about people

April 11, 2021 4:28 AM

This is an old one, about even older stuff (2006-2008 ish?), but here's John Ficarra talking about providing stunt cars for TV and other productions, and one of them was for the TV Show "What Would You Do?". The results are pretty interesting.

A couple of interesting factoids to take away:

* When they put a fake baby (with crying sounds) in a real locked car, very few people reacted. But a panting dog in the same car? People reacted right away. (No dog was harmed in the production as there's a hidden AC. Can't say the same about the trainer). However, in post-prod, the story was apparently edited to make it seem that people reacted to the baby more than the dog.

* When they put in a car in a park and have it "vandalized" by "white kids" (actors), one or two citizens called the police. When they have their "black kids (actors)" approach the car, not even "vandalizing" it yet, 911 got lit up across the board.

Featuring a Karen cameo back in 2006ish

posted by kschang (9 comments total)

I only happened across What Would You Do? once and, after sitting through about five minutes of it, determined it was about the most evil, mean-spirited, and manipulative shows evar. I've successfully avoided it ever since.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:49 AM on April 11, 2021 [11 favorites]

On the "What would you do?" *social experiment* side (for which I confess I have an extreme dislike), I wish I could say I was surprised by the reactions to the set ups he talked about. The tidbit about the post-production editing is no surprise, either. Is it really a social experiment if you are going to pick and choose what results you show (probably to generate maximum outrage)? on preview: what thorzdad said.
But don't mind me, I'm just cranky and cynical sometimes.
I can appreciate the engineering and design that goes into the quick turnaround reversible damage, though. And that you tube channel does have some interesting first-hand, behind-the-scenes, auto racing history stuff.
posted by coppertop at 6:56 AM on April 11, 2021

John Ficarra is a great storyteller.
posted by djseafood at 8:37 AM on April 11, 2021 [2 favorites]

Just a heads up if you're, like me, catastrophically allergic to adverts, the main video appears to have video overlay fly-in ads encoded into the actual bitstream, so they're and unavoidable and part of the video. I guess. I bailed at that point.
posted by glonous keming at 10:33 AM on April 11, 2021 [2 favorites]

Just a heads up if you're, like me, catastrophically allergic to adverts, the main video appears to have video overlay fly-in ads encoded into the actual bitstream, so they're and unavoidable and part of the video. I guess. I bailed at that point.

I use an ad blocker and did not see any ads
posted by RustyBrooks at 1:24 PM on April 11, 2021

OK there was an in-video ad at the very end, after all the content, but you can just stop watching at that point without missing anything.
posted by RustyBrooks at 1:28 PM on April 11, 2021

I only happened across What Would You Do? once and, after sitting through about five minutes of it, determined it was about the most evil, mean-spirited, and manipulative shows evar. I've successfully avoided it ever since.

Seconding. It's the "clubbing baby harp seals" of cringe social horror.
posted by rhizome at 4:07 PM on April 11, 2021

> I use an ad blocker and did not see any ads

I won't derail further but 2 minutes in there's a huge overlay for some product that's also linked in the description of the video.
posted by glonous keming at 5:48 PM on April 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

For the other nineties kids who grew up watching Nickelodeon: it's a different What Would You Do
posted by DoctorFedora at 8:10 PM on April 11, 2021 [3 favorites]