You will never lose betting on human stupidity

Every so often I mention to people that I haven’t watched television, for the most part, in somewhere around a decade or more. In today’s mass-media-fueled society, that often gets responses ranging from surprise to out and out shock. I’ve got a whole host of reasons why I don’t bother with television — and today, I just got one more.

A game of Russian Roulette with a real, loaded gun is slated to be broadcast live on British television this Sunday in what is being billed as the ultimate reality-TV stunt.

“It is a real gun with a real bullet and I am really putting it against my head,” said Derren Brown a self-styled “psychological illusionist.” Brown plans to pull the trigger of a 348 Smith & Wesson several times, sensing which chamber the bullet is in, and plans to point the gun away from his body and fire the killer shot harmlessly into the air. “If I am not 100 percent sure, I will not pull the trigger,” Brown said, admitting, “It would be humiliating but it would be preferable to the other consequences.” Brown said the show won’t glamorize gun violence. “We are dealing with it in the most serious and strenuous way possible. The drama will not come from the gun part, but from the fun and games and entertainment that comes from the selection process.” The show will air on a several-second delay in case Brown shoots himself. If that happens, viewers will not see the gun fire into his head. Instead, the screen will go blank and display a message advising viewers what’s happened.

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p>This just does not seem like a good idea.

Of course, the ratings are going to be incredible.

(via Lane)

Update: The stupid git actually survived (and there’s even a play by play account). He’s lucky. But how about the idiots out there who decide to copy him? Think that they’ll be as lucky?