Everyone’s heard, by now, that NBC’s Fear Factor was the basis of a lawsuit filed last week by a 49-year-old paralegal, who found himself vomiting at a scene where the contestants had to eat rats.

Personally, I have a love-hate relationship with Fear Factor. When they do something that actually does appeal to fear, it’s a good show. Got people doing some outrageous stunt 90 feet in the air? I’ll watch. Exposing people to some kind of creepy crawly (in the sense that the thing’s creeping and crawling, and not lunch)? Great. Eat worms? No, thank you.

That last thing’s just stupid. No one fears eating worms. I don’t not eat worms because I’m afraid of them, just like I don’t not eat Spaghetti because the idea terrifies me. I don’t eat those things because they disgust me. Watching other people do it doesn’t much appeal to me either.

That said, it’s not like Fear Factor hides the fact that it’s got a lot more to do with disgusting situations than truly fearful ones. Mr. Aitkens was a fan of the show. He knew what kinds of crap they eat on there (Possibly literally, though I don’t watch the show enough to know if that’s true or not.).

This case is ludicrous, and I imagine that it’ll be thrown out quickly. In any sane world, it would be.

I may have a real post to write later. This post is mainly just a quick plug for Captain’s Quarters Blog’s World Relief Day fund raising drive, which technically is tomorrow, though I think many who planned to give have already done so.

Also, so that this post isn’t a total rewrite of things I’ve already said:

Will Wilkinson comments on a Slate piece on Feminism:

Wouldn’t you think that if heterosexuality is your Achilles heel, you’re in big, big trouble. This isn’t far from saying, “My ism would work out great, if only people didn’t like eating and laughing.”

(Via Ipse Dixit)