Naked and Afraid

[ewth8tr]

Anyone watching this? It's on The Discovery channel and is a reality show where people are put into the Costa Rican jungle naked, with only a single item they have chosen (the guy picked a fire starter, the girl a machete.)

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[SandYFan]

Anyone watching this? It's on The Discovery channel and is a reality show where people are put into the Costa Rican jungle naked, with only a single item they have chosen (the guy picked a fire starter, the girl a machete.)

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So... either they have a perimeter set up so no jaguars or whatever can get through, or these people will get mauled to death pretty soon.

Reality TV is pretty depraved, but we're not to the point where we broadcast death, yet, right?

[BigFatMeanie]

This is turning into one of my preferred shows on TV although it's quickly moving into lame "After the Catch" territory with tweets during the show, and interviews with the survivalists in the studio after the show.

Last week it was a Mormon dude from Idaho paired up with some new-age chick in Madagascar. The dude was pretty over the top with the prayers and stuff, which I thought was lame. I mean, why couldn't he just pray silently in his mind? Praying vocally in front of the cameras was just too much for me. Also, his refusal to share bodily warmth with the chick because his wife made him promise no cuddling at night. Very lame. If you're going to get naked for 21 days on TV in the wilderness of Madagascar the least you can do is keep your partner from freezing at night.

Despite my criticism of him, he deserves overall props because he did manage to survive naked 21 days in Madagascar even though he twice botched cooking a snake. Also, the new-age chick was pretty lame. She backed off her "love and kindness for all the world's creatures" stance pretty quickly after a few days:

Day 1: "We shouldn't kill the black widow spiders that are sharing this cave with us. We should respect all creatures".
Day 4: "Die spiders, die!"

The survivalists are generally pretty impressive. A few people have been DQed for medical reasons; mostly due to drinking impure water. The weakest pair was the couple in the Peruvian Amazon that tapped out after only 3 or 4 days because of the mosquitoes.

Spoiler for Spoiler Alert:

In this week's episode the dude tapped out after 13 days in Panama. He was actually medically DQed but it was under mysterious circumstances. We never really found out what happened to him. The chick stayed the last 8 days all by herself. Definitely impressive.

[RC Vikings]

Out of all the areas they have done I think the Louisiana bayou would be the worst. Madagascar looked tough also. Getting on this show is a sure fire way to lose some weight, they all drop somewhere between 20 to 35 pounds in 21 days.

[Donuthole]

This is turning into one of my preferred shows on TV although it's quickly moving into lame "After the Catch" territory with tweets during the show, and interviews with the survivalists in the studio after the show.

Last week it was a Mormon dude from Idaho paired up with some new-age chick in Madagascar. The dude was pretty over the top with the prayers and stuff, which I thought was lame. I mean, why couldn't he just pray silently in his mind? Praying vocally in front of the cameras was just too much for me. Also, his refusal to share bodily warmth with the chick because his wife made him promise no cuddling at night. Very lame. If you're going to get naked for 21 days on TV in the wilderness of Madagascar the least you can do is keep your partner from freezing at night.

Despite my criticism of him, he deserves overall props because he did manage to survive naked 21 days in Madagascar even though he twice botched cooking a snake. Also, the new-age chick was pretty lame. She backed off her "love and kindness for all the world's creatures" stance pretty quickly after a few days:

Day 1: "We shouldn't kill the black widow spiders that are sharing this cave with us. We should respect all creatures".
Day 4: "Die spiders, die!"

The survivalists are generally pretty impressive. A few people have been DQed for medical reasons; mostly due to drinking impure water. The weakest pair was the couple in the Peruvian Amazon that tapped out after only 3 or 4 days because of the mosquitoes.

Spoiler for Spoiler Alert:

In this week's episode the dude tapped out after 13 days in Panama. He was actually medically DQed but it was under mysterious circumstances. We never really found out what happened to him. The chick stayed the last 8 days all by herself. Definitely impressive.

They ran a marathon of Seaon 1 a couple weeks back and I recorded it. Mrs. Donut and I are through the first season and a couple of episodes this season. We just watched the Mormon dude praying episode, and had pretty much the exact same thoughts as you re: praying silently and her completely flipping on her environmentalist philosophies.

Regarding the Peruvian Amazon couple, I thought it was funny how the second couple (the re-uppers, if you will) had pretty clearly been informed that they would need to find something far from the prior couple's camp, and had been coached to find the first couple's shelter and offer a laundry list of reasons why the shelter wasn't well thought out. That said, the shelter the re-uppers ended up building was very impressive, and the raft was even more impressive.

Out of all the areas they have done I think the Louisiana bayou would be the worst. Madagascar looked tough also. Getting on this show is a sure fire way to lose some weight, they all drop somewhere between 20 to 35 pounds in 21 days.

The bayou has been the worst of the living environments, and I don't think it's close. They were freaking surrounded by poisonous snakes, and had little to no dry land at their disposal. They pretty much had to sleep sitting up with their legs dangling in snake-filled water. But they did find that pot, so they had no trouble keeping hydrated with purified water.

One pervy observation, I was wondering why some of the women had their asses blurkled, while most of them don't. Then I realized that the women with big asses never need blurkling from behind because their ass is big enough to completely hide their lady parts; the skinny girls don't have enough ass to conceal anything.

[BigFatMeanie]

It's interesting to consider the survival items they choose. Everyone goes with a machete. That's pretty much a must-have and I can't fault the choice. The real question comes down to second item: fire-starter or something different. So far, the only two non-firestarter items I recall seeing on the show are a pot to boil water and a pair of swim goggles for swimming in the ocean.

Sometimes I think the fire-starter is a wasted item because when dry tinder is available it's not too hard to start a fire without it and when dry tinder isn't available it's difficult to start a fire even with the fire starter. So, I think I would probably go with the pot for boiling water. But then I see those that didn't choose firestarter struggle for days to start a fire (sometimes even those that did choose a firestarter struggle for days) and I begin second-guessing whether they should have gone with the firestarter. It's a tough choice.

[Donuthole]

It's interesting to consider the survival items they choose. Everyone goes with a machete. That's pretty much a must-have and I can't fault the choice. The real question comes down to second item: fire-starter or something different. So far, the only two non-firestarter items I recall seeing on the show are a pot to boil water and a pair of swim goggles for swimming in the ocean.

Sometimes I think the fire-starter is a wasted item because when dry tinder is available it's not too hard to start a fire without it and when dry tinder isn't available it's difficult to start a fire even with the fire starter. So, I think I would probably go with the pot for boiling water. But then I see those that didn't choose firestarter struggle for days to start a fire (sometimes even those that did choose a firestarter struggle for days) and I begin second-guessing whether they should have gone with the firestarter. It's a tough choice.

Exactly. If it ends up raining on the first day, it probably won't matter if you brought a firestarter, anyway, but at least you'll have a pot to collect rain water.

[Sullyute]

Having never seen the show, do they have to remain naked or could they make an apron of leaves to cover their nakedness?

[Donuthole]

Having never seen the show, do they have to remain naked or could they make an apron of leaves to cover their nakedness?

They do not have to remain naked. Some of the habitats afford them time and/or materials to make clothing out of leaves, etc. One girl even found some clothes washed up onto the beach.

[RC Vikings]

It's interesting to consider the survival items they choose. Everyone goes with a machete. That's pretty much a must-have and I can't fault the choice. The real question comes down to second item: fire-starter or something different. So far, the only two non-firestarter items I recall seeing on the show are a pot to boil water and a pair of swim goggles for swimming in the ocean.

Sometimes I think the fire-starter is a wasted item because when dry tinder is available it's not too hard to start a fire without it and when dry tinder isn't available it's difficult to start a fire even with the fire starter. So, I think I would probably go with the pot for boiling water. But then I see those that didn't choose firestarter struggle for days to start a fire (sometimes even those that did choose a firestarter struggle for days) and I begin second-guessing whether they should have gone with the firestarter. It's a tough choice.

I've never seen a couple bring the same thing so it makes me wonder if the show makes them aware of what the other is bringing.

[ewth8tr]

I still laugh about the Mormon guy who claimed to be an expert hunter, then while cooking the snake, cooked it for hours until it had absolutely no nutritional value left.

[Pelado]

I still laugh about the Mormon guy who claimed to be an expert hunter, then while cooking the snake, cooked it for hours until it had absolutely no nutritional value left.

What does cooking have to do with hunting?

[ewth8tr]

What does cooking have to do with hunting?

I would assume that if you are a hunter, you would have at least a basic understanding of cooking meat, no?

[Pelado]

I would assume that if you are a hunter, you would have at least a basic understanding of cooking meat, no?

Killing and cooking seem to be very different skill sets.

[BigFatMeanie]

So, a Malaysia episode was on last night. The nearly 10 consecutive days of rain made things interesting. The girl got a leech in her vaginal area and the guy got a leach on his scrotum. It seemed like after a while he gave up on the leeches on his back and just walked around with them.

If it hadn't dried out after 10 days I would have put their environment right up there with the Louisiana swamp in terms of difficulty; however, once the sun came out things weren't nearly as harsh. Food seemed somewhat available although the episode never really did show them eating anything of substance. Water wasn't a problem because of the rain.

Spoiler for Spoiler Alert:

The whole eating a mushroom and then calling in the medics was a bait and switch as far as the buildup of the episode goes. We never really found out if the mushroom was the cause of his fever or if it was drinking bad water or just overexertion/starvation. All the medic did was put him in the river to cool him down and then he goes on with the challenge for 3 more days so that was anti-climactic.

In thinking more about fire starters, a 9-volt battery and some steel wool is probably better than anything I've seen used on the show so far. Small, lightweight, will start even if wet. You just have to conserve your steel wool and keep it separated from the battery in a plastic baggie or something. I'm having a hard time thinking of any downside to the battery/steel wool trick.