Tickled

Hilary Barry:
It's been a

harrowing week in the news,

so now it's something much

lighter and more fun.

It's time for New Zealand's

favorite pop culture reporter,

David farrier.

David:
What do you make

of New Zealanders so far?

Me? Uh, I think that they're...

They've been nice.

Everyone has been cool so far.

David:
What's the main thing

you're trying to achieve here?

Because obviously

you've created a bit of a--

survival.

He's dead.

- Now we're gonna spin around.

- Yeah.

Whoa! Holy!

It's so tiring. Whoa!

David:
And what's your nickname

that you've got now?

The donkey lady.

Lady:
Look out!

Oh, look, we're going

- to have a reporter kicked.

It's quite a kick.

David:
I can't say I've ever

interviewed anyone

that looks

exactly like you before.

Really?

David:
I've made a career out of

looking at the weird

- and bizarre side of life.

So when I discovered a strange

video online,

I knew I'd found

my next story.

Man:

It's good. It's good.

David:
An American company

called Jane o'brien media

was running a monthly event.

Young athletes from anywhere

on the planet could apply.

If selected they got

free flights to la,

four nights in a really

nice hotel and $1500 cash.

It was called competitive

endurance tickling.

Man:
You're with the cet,

a competitive endurance tickling

group we got here.

And, uh, first of all I'd like

to give a shout to you,

Jane o'brien media,

for making this happen.

- Thanks, Jane.

- We all appreciate it.

F*** off!

Guys! Oh, my god!

David:
Their Facebook page

was popular,

with thousands of likes.

And with everyone in

Adidas gear,

it seemed to be some

kind of tickling league.

David:
It was one of

the strangest sports I'd seen.

Man:
No!

David:
So, of course,

I told Jane o'brien media

I'd like to do an interview.

Instead of getting a

yes or no, I got this.

Woman:
"To be brutally frank,

association with a

homosexual journalist

is not something

we will embrace.

We desperately do not want

a homosexual participant base

applying for this project.

My concern is that your

journalistic style, fan base,

and reputation

in your own country.

Regards, Debbie kuhn,

Jane o'brien media."

David:

It was a strange response,

especially considering the

sport did seem slightly...

Gay.

And over the coming weeks,

Debbie and Jane kept e-mailing.

Woman:
"The competitive

reality tickling

is a passionately

and exclusively heterosexual

athletic endurance activity.

We have recently read a googled

article about the knowledge

of your living with a

homosexual partner

becoming quite a stir

in New Zealand."

"The remainder of the globe

does not in all corners

share some of the more liberal

acceptance of your lifestyle."

"To me anything concerning

homosexuality

is at best

an objective disorder."

"Shame on you!"

"Little gay kiwis." "F*ggot."

David:
It was hard to take

the insults seriously,

given what Jane was producing.

If anything, it made me

more curious than ever.

Woman:
Your call

has been forwarded

to the voicemail for

Jane o'brien media.

David:
With no one picking up

the phone,

I got my geeky friend Dylan

to do some digging

into this mysterious company

and this overly

aggressive woman.

Dylan:
So, I'm going to just

scroll up. So here we go.

So, it's janeobrienmedia.Com.

It's registered to nederdietsen.

David:
He discovered that while

Jane o'brien media

seemed to be

operated out of America,

it was owned by a company in

Germany called nederdietsen,

which owned nearly 300 domain

names all related to tickling.

This tickling wormhole was

getting deeper,

so Dylan and I

blogged about what we'd found.

Man:
So, the pay's good.

Man:
What? Okay, hold on.

David:
Our story

got a lot of attention,

being picked up

on websites like reddit

and an American podcast.

- Man 1:
Back up. Back up.

- Man 2:
When I say

competitive tickling, what do

you think I'm talking about?

Man 1:
I mean, I think you're

talking about, uh,

some sort of organized sport--

- man 2:
Yeah.

- ...Of tickling.

Man 2:
Basically what happened

was this kind of blew up

on the Internet this week,

because a dude in New Zealand,

a reporter, like, happened

across this Facebook page.

Man 1:
But is it just for fun?

They just...

I mean,

obviously it's just for fun?

Man 2:
Is it just for fun?

- It's tickling.

Man 1:
Sorry, I don't think that

question's ever been asked

about tickling before.

It's like a martian question

- about tickling.

- "Is it for fun?"

David:
People were so interested

by what we discovered,

Dylan and I decided to make

a documentary

about this

utterly bizarre subject.

Two weeks later,

we heard from Jane o'brien's

New York attorney,

Romeo salta.

He'd recently made

headlines in a case

involving a gay porn star

who chopped a man up

and mailed his body parts

to some politicians.

Things certainly weren't

getting any less weird.

His letter told us to stop

what we were doing, or else.

Soon we were receiving e-mails

from salta telling us

that legal action

had been filed in the us.

I had no money to hire a

New Zealand lawyer,

let alone face

the American justice system.

Then, to top it all off,

Jane o'brien media told us

they were flying three people

across the world from New York

to New Zealand to see us.

They're clearly serious about

stopping this documentary.

Jane wouldn't tell us what

flight they were arriving on,

but she did tell us the day.

So from 05:
00 am,

I waited at arrivals.

Not sure what to expect,

I figured I'd disarm

the situation

with a rainbow-colored sign.

David:
How's it going?

I thought I'd make up

a good welcoming sign.

Good. How are you, sir?

That's all right. I thought

I'd arrive. How was the flight?

Oh, good.

Air New Zealand?

Oh, good. Hey, guys.

Kevin, nice to meet you, sir.

David. Nice to meet you.

You can. I gift this to you.

As a sign, I thought

it was pretty good.

Well, look, let's line up

a time to meet this week.

Marko:

David:
Tomorrow?

- Adam:

- Marko:

David:

Okay, tomorrow works well.

- Kevin:

- Marko:

David:
Oh, that's okay. It's the

New Zealand hospitality.

- David:
You can get me there.

- Kevin:

David:
Yeah, we're just rolling

from the beginning. Yeah, yeah.

Okay. We've got a thing

in New Zealand,

we're okay to film

in public spaces.

So I'm just following

the journey.

Okay, all right. Well, we're--

Adam:

It's not--

David:
Okay. Well, I mean,

we're shooting a documentary,

so we'll keep... it's a--

David:
Mm.

David:
Okay.

Okay. We're okay to film in

public spaces in New Zealand,

so we're doing that here.

David:

All right, we'll see you soon.

- Marko:

- David:
Okay, sounds good.

All right, see you soon.

David:

No worries. We'll talk soon.

Marko:

David:
Hey, Marko.

It's Dave farrier. How are you?

Yeah, good. How are you

settling into Auckland?

Okay. No, that sounds

good to me, I think.

Just, Dylan and I both talked,

and we just weren't confident,

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