Does your country have similar shows to “What Would You Do?”

10 comments

1. [The Tourist Trap.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BmJni9bBOA) Groups of British, German, American and Japanese tourists stay at a hotel in Turkey and are subjected to various awkward moments to see how they react.

2. I cannot think of a single show that uses the entire “street prank” or social experiment thing often seen in the US. It’s a shame, because I love it! It would honestly be cool to do the same prank and see how people reacted differently in different countries.

3. Not a TV show but a youtube channel called “theShow” years ago made a small series of videos with the same premise and name, called [Tu Cosa Faresti?](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRYQoyD_yKxK83wSH1Iz6pJuzPmoCLNwe).

   Unfortunately the videos have no English subs.

4. [Gente Maravillosa](https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gente_maravillosa_(programa_de_televisi%C3%B3n)) (marvelous people) It does not have an english wikipedia article, btw

   ​

   Actors recreate social injustices (racism, discrimination, machismo, etc.) around unaware people that confront the awful situation

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHGePZNGpIo

5. Sounds like Verstehen sie Spaß?, a TV show on air since 1980.

   It’s based on a Swiss show called Teleboy which ran in the 1970s and was hosted by a Swiss couple for a decade. IIRC it’s also a Eurovision show being co-produced and shown in AT and CH.

   There was a predecessor aired in the 1960s in West Germany which was an adaption of the us show candid camera.

6. I can’t think of anything to be honest, but my guess is that most people wouldn’t want to engage, because: a) they don’t care, b) they are too shy to do that, c) they know it’s not their problem so they will be told to mind their own business anyway.

7. We had a show like that some years ago called “E se fosse consigo” (what if it was with you?).

   It definitely wasn’t the funny/prank kind of show, though. It was mostly about moral issues (racism, homophobia, drunk driving, bullying, etc.).

   However, it came off as preachy and the actors would often talk and behave in very unrealistic/theatrical ways.

8. *Verstehen Sie Spaß?* has already been named. Another show that reminds me a liiiittle of this is the German show [*Mein neuer Freund*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mein_neuer_Freund) (“My new boyfriend”). It was produced by ProSieben, a large private German channel, in the mid-2000s and ran for several years. Basically, it was a reality show where young women (usually in their 20s) could apply to live with a “new boyfriend” for 48 hours. This boyfriend was a professional actor whose mission it was to act as frustratingly as possible. Some boyfriends would be extremely neurotic, others would have super gross hobbies etc. The catch was that the girl was not allowed to inform anyone she was participating in a TV show. She had to introduce her new boyfriend to various people such as her best friends, her siblings and her parents and always had to act as though she was dead serious about this and he was in fact her new boyfriend. Of course the actors always tried to get the girls into super uncomfortable, awkward and embarrassing situations because no matter how insane they boyfriend acted, the girl always had to defend him (since that is what you would do with a romantic partner). So in one episode for example the girl introduced her boyfriend to her parents and they were at a restaurant. The boyfriend then began to ask the parents all sorts of rude, personal questions, would tell them about his toilet habits (in great detail of course) and at one point he got naked, jumped on his chair and started singing some cringy song. Of course the “girlfriend” was almost dying inside but she couldn’t let her parents know in any way. The actors also made sure to look extra ugly or unkempt. At the end of the 48 hours, the boyfriend would initiate a big fight (in public), scream at the girl that he’s going to break up with her and storm out of sight. If this happened, the candidate knew she won the challenge and got 10,000 Euros. She was then allowed to inform all of her friends and parents that it had only been a prank. If the candidate failed the challenge and informed someone before the 48 hours were over, she didn’t win any money. I’m reminded of this show because the pranked participants (friends, parents etc.) also reacted in vastly different ways. Some were bemused, some had a major crisis because their sister or friend turned out to be a completely different person than they had thought she was.

   Anyway, it was a pretty fun show. A bit trashy like all reality shows are but fun.

9. Is WWYD real? I have seen a couple of videos and i always assume it was staged.

10. There were “classical” hidden camera shows, but the most modern incarnation (that I know of) would be [Echt Fett](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echt_fett), it ran from 2003 to 2007. Their scenarios were quite absurd, therefore it was hilarious. The actors were not anonymous but already well-known before and real celebrities after, so for the last season some of them had to be changed because they were already too recognizable by the end; some are still very well-known comedians nowadays.

    Clips and sometimes whole episodes can be found on [YouTube](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLH2Hpc6BWO_kIR61n6FsshCv7CLVtaQX7) (or just search for “Echt Fett”), and people reacted like everywhere I guess: first confused, later incredulous, but as always in these shows, there was heavy editing and definitely a selection of showing only the most hilarious reactions, also the camera was not always really “hidden”.

    For those reasons these shows can normally get quite cheesy, with bad acting and stupid pranks, and have a reputation to be only semi-funny, but this one was different. Because of the creative and really absurd scenarios and the good actors it was really beloved by many, at home we still talk in their quotes.