Sunday Best: Tickled

Sunday Best is returning to ABC2 with another season of feature length documentaries.

It begins with New Zealand documentary, Tickled, with a synopsis that has to be read to be believed.

New Zealand journalist David Farrier discovers “Competitive Endurance Tickling” videos online.

Immediately curious, he begins to investigate. Fit young men from all over the planet are being flown to Los Angeles to compete. Each is tied down to a bed, while the others take turns tickling them.
Farrier contacts the organisers to try to set up an interview about this bizarre sport, but his enquiries are met with a series of homophobic slurs about a previous gay relationship.

Farrier and his friend Dylan Reeve look into this mysterious company; meeting participants who have found themselves subject to online harassment when they refuse to be tickled. The more they investigate, the stranger it gets, discovering secret identities and criminal activity.

As they delve into this underground web of tickling, they find themselves facing private investigators and legal threats. Determined to understand the true nature of this tickling empire, their journey leads them across the United States. Through a series of twists and turns, the pair discover the shocking truth at the bottom of this tickling wormhole.

Sunday 16 July, 8.30pm on ABC2