Discovery Claims It Will Show a Man Being "Eaten Alive" By an Anaconda 164
An anonymous reader writes Have you ever wished that you could watch a man be eaten alive by an anaconda from the comfort of your own home? The Discovery Channel is betting that the answer is yes with their upcoming special, Eaten Alive. The channel says wildlife filmmaker Paul Rosolie will don a custom-built snake-proof suit, and go inside a live anaconda. They've even released a teaser. It's unclear what scientific conundrum will be solved in the process of feeding Paul to the snake, or how he plans to get out.
Oh good (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Oh good (Score:5, Insightful)
If by "formerly" you mean "long gone".
Re:Oh good (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, I have childhood memories of watching the Discovery/Learning channel, and seeing so many documentaries and things about technology, science, and just plain learning.
That went away a long, long time ago.
Discovery = Reality shows targeting men
TLC = Reality shows targeting women
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Oh but you still can! You just have to pay even more hard earned cash to get the Discovery2 channel! And if/when that becomes popular they will turn it into another 24/7 reality station and make the Discovery3 channel which will require even more money.
Keep in mind you won't be able to get the Discovery3 channel unless you also pay for the Discovery2 channel which you also can't get unless you pay for the Discovery channel.
Re:Oh good (Score:4, Insightful)
Everyone who wants A La Carte, well, this is what happens when channels have to compete for your attention rather than being able to specialize because they were included as part of a bundle.
First, the stations are moving their popular shows around - if you want the full complement of good shows requires buying all the channels in the network.
Second, channels having to compete means even the best channels will only cater to lowest common denominator. Because who wants to run a specialized show that'll be interesting to a few when you can run a crap show that'll get millions of viewers?
Pretty much about the only "good" TV left is PBS, and that's because they don't need to compete for viewers (they're forced by law to be carried by everyone) and through funding arrangements and donations, means they don't have to rely on commercial sales. Which is why their programming is practically commercial free and is ridiculously long (an hour show with 55 minutes of content? Compare to traditional TV with 42). And why they can show programs that are higher quality that appeal to fewer people - they don't need to compete for eyeballs and ads and thus don't have to dumb down TV for ratings purposes.
Discovery, History, etc. - they're all suffering because they know their specialized channels will no longer be viable because the programming appeals to too few, so they'll have to dumb it all down just to appease the masses. So see more stupid reality drama shows and less intelligent programming.
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Everyone who wants A La Carte, well, this is what happens when channels have to compete for your attention rather than being able to specialize because they were included as part of a bundle.
I don't understand how you can hold up Discovery/TLC as an example of the problem with A La Carte programming, instead of being part of a bundle, because... that's exactly how the system is now. TLC and Discovery are both "basic cable" channels, and are bundled, along with MTV, Comedy Central, Food Network, etc. Yet, despite being in this bundling where they should be able to continue their educational lineup, subsidized by other more popular stations, they too are being changed in content and degrading in
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Does any channels show stuff? Even PBS doesn't do much either. :(
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I was shocked the last time I was in 'Murica. The fucking Weather Channel wasn't even showing weather anymore. It was all reality shows.
They have another show coming (Score:5, Funny)
They have a comedy show coming called: "Ow! My Balls!"
It'll be broadcast opposite ABC's version - "America's Funniest Home Videos"
Oh good (Score:2)
Discovery is crap for years. I remember it was OK long long ago.
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Now I can literally watch another formerly decent channel turn to shit.
"Literally." I don't think that word means what you think it does.
Re: Oh good (Score:5, Informative)
I think he did, and was making a joke. We're talking about watching an animal ingest a human. The next step is digestion, which leads to feces. The actor doing the transformation is a representative of the channel in a way. Thus, we would be watching the first step of the channel (its representative) turning to shit.
Doesn't explaining a joke make it hilarious?
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You must not have received the memo. Literally now means [merriam-webster.com] both in a literal sense, as well in a not so literal sense.
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Re:Oh good (Score:4, Informative)
He can literally watch it turn into figurative shit.
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Now I can literally watch another formerly decent channel turn to shit.
"Literally." I don't think that word means what you think it does.
I guess you didn't hear about their new reality show. "Little people swamp loggers taking a big shit in a pawn shop.
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Now I can literally watch another formerly decent channel turn to shit.
"Literally." I don't think that word means what you think it does.
I guess you didn't hear about their new reality show. "Little people swamp loggers taking a big shit in a pawn shop.
Not enough Alaska or gold.
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It does now.
Jumped the shark... (Score:2)
I'd say Discovery has now truly jumped the shark, except snakes can't exactly jump, and aren't sharks.
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No, they did that when their Shark Week got so ridiculous that shark experts have now reached an informal agreement never to appear in a Discovery show. The channel has had to resort to lying about their affiliation to get interviews, or settle for less-respectable experts without any actual qualifications who'll say anything to get on TV.
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Now I can literally watch another formerly decent channel turn to shit.
I propose they rush straight to rock bottom...
"Kim Kardashian being eaten alive by an Anaconda."
I'd watch. No scientific justification required.
Re:Oh good (Score:5, Funny)
"Kim Kardashian being eaten alive by an Anaconda."
Gives a different perspective to the line: "My anaconda don't want none unless you got buns, hon"
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That might be the greatest thing I will read today.
Also, AC's proposal would likely solve any ratings issues that they might have....
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Darwin Award (Score:3, Funny)
And this year's Darwin Award goes to...
Disgusting (Score:5, Insightful)
There is no way for the Anaconda to survive this. There is no good research that can come from actions like these and the Discovery channel has really reached a new low. Used to love hard-facts documentary channels but now it's just hype and reality tv rubbish.
Re:Disgusting (Score:4, Informative)
Constrictors are able to regurgitate their meal in a danger situation. If they succeed in getting the snake to swallow an uncrushable prey item in the first place, it's pretty easy to corner it, provide a visual threat and have it regurgitate him.
Youtube clip of one getting rid of a dog. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1Ge4Xsuijs [youtube.com]
Re:Disgusting (Score:5, Insightful)
Regardless, it should be pretty obvious that survival of the Anaconda is a secondary concern.
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Discovery also obtained the rights to Miley Cyrus' new video.
Re:Disgusting (Score:4, Funny)
Four men in a giant mongoose costume.
Re:Disgusting (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, but doing so puts the snake's health at risk. A snake regurgitating a meal could injure itself and so only does it in an emergency situation. This person is putting the snake's life at risk. This isn't for scientific advances or to somehow help other snakes around the world. This is just a publicity stunt. What's next? Holding a shark still while a guy climbs inside its mouth and videos the way down? I'm sure Discovery could play this next Shark Week alongside their latest "documentary" featuring CGI footage being passed off as real proof that a long-extinct species of shark is swimming around our oceans.
Re:Disgusting (Score:5, Insightful)
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Yes, but doing so puts the snake's health at risk. A snake regurgitating a meal could injure itself and so only does it in an emergency situation. This person is putting the snake's life at risk. This isn't for scientific advances or to somehow help other snakes around the world. This is just a publicity stunt. What's next? Holding a shark still while a guy climbs inside its mouth and videos the way down? I'm sure Discovery could play this next Shark Week alongside their latest "documentary" featuring CGI footage being passed off as real proof that a long-extinct species of shark is swimming around our oceans.
If you watch the youtube video for this special, you'll see that a few years ago Discovery already did the "eaten alive" bit with a shark. Allegedly it was a real incident, but I'm not going to watch it to find out.
Discovery has been pure shit for over a decade. The only nugget of gold in that pile was Dirty Jobs. (Hint: Mythbusters is trash, and no, it didn't encourage interest in science.)
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One of those times I wish we had the "true, but still disgusting" moderation options.
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If PETA were involved they would shoot the same video, but with a naked woman being fed to the anaconda.
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You misogynist! Women are not objects to satisfy the lust of turgid members.
Discovery? (Score:4, Insightful)
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You're better off reading a book than watching this stuff.
Outside of a snake, a book is man's best friend.
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Outside of a snake, a book is man's best friend.
So I don't waste my time watching this show can you tell me what man's best friend is inside of a snake?
Bzzt, no secret spy handshake for you. The correct response being sought was, "Inside of a snake, its too dark to read."
Re: Discovery? (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe if you buy 500 channels there might be one or two...
When cable rolled out those hypothetical 500 channels, it seemed that there might be all kind of niche programming available. Unfortunately, every one of those 500 channels ended up chasing the same demographic after learning the financial meaning of 'niche'.
Re: Discovery? (Score:5, Insightful)
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When cable rolled out those hypothetical 500 channels, it seemed that there might be all kind of niche programming available. Unfortunately, every one of those 500 channels ended up chasing the same demographic after learning the financial meaning of 'niche'.
And now they are learning the meaning of opening the 500th pizza shop in a small town with 499 other pizza shops.
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Because sadly this garbage gets better ratings then their previous science stuff. People would rather watch whale wars and ice truckers than learn something. Pathetic
I don't think it's the number of watchers - it's the cheap. Pay some hillbilly a few grand to follow him around while he hunts for ginseng in the woods, a cameraman and editors, and boom - ultra cheap fecal matter to fill the dead space between catheter and maintenance medicine commercials.
Are there any channels left that actually are entirely devoted to educational programming? Maybe if you buy 500 channels there might be one or two...
I'm almost entirely on Youtube now. Obviously they have the low order trash, but lately I've been watching the Nurdrage stuff. It's about chemistry, and reasonably enjoyable. That will keep me entertained for a while.
Poor animal. (Score:5, Interesting)
How are they gonna get him out again? Cut the snake open?
How about giving the beast some real food and/or just leave it alone?
Or film it from a distance and watch it eat some of its natural prey.
Isn't that what discovery channel usually does?
And, btw, AFAIK boa constrictors - which include anacondas - prefer their prey not breathing anymore. And they don't really care if it's bottled air you're breathing or not. They constrict you 'till you stop breathing. Hence the name. Duh.
To be honest, I kinda hope this snake teaches the guy a lesson and get's away with it. Now *that* would be some news. :-)
Re:Poor animal. (Score:4, Interesting)
Same thing I'm thinking. There's no way to do this that isn't a serious violation of ethics standards. If you want to give people an inside look feed the poor critter a small camera it can just shit out later.
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>Or film it from a distance and watch it eat some of its natural prey.
>Isn't that what discovery channel usually does?
This bullshit is offcourse a new low, but a friend of mine who worked a biologist in africa witnessed Discovery filming a 'documentary' about snakes about 10 years ago which involved catching (endangered) snakes and throwning them out of a tree (sometimes killing the snake) to film a 'hunting snake jumping on it's prey from a tree'. Or killing pisonous snakes and then wiggling them aro
Re:Poor animal. (Score:5, Informative)
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Yeah, somehow 'death of defenseless creature' as entertainment feels really crummy.
Sure, it's an unethical way to treat a TV presenter, and yet, if the Anaconda does crush him before swallowing, I'll feel somehow satisfied.
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Nothing wrong with your english, and definitely better than this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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You have been playing a bit too much Kings Quest IV
SHOCKING FOOTAGE (Score:5, Funny)
I've already had all of this sort of thing I could take with this horrifying video of a man being eaten alive excruciatingly slowly by an arctic fox. (NSFW)
http://youtu.be/43dAN0C4J_0 [youtu.be]
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It's not NSFW - it's a video of a baby arctic fox (I'm not sure if it actually is one or not) nibbling and pawing at some guys toes.
pointless (Score:3)
And some people wonder why I don't have cable-TV service.
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I'm sure this is a prerecorded event, but if it were live, I'd be rooting for the snake to win in the style of Grizzly Man.
Getting out? Easy. (Score:2)
How's he gonna get out?
"That's not a knife. This is a knife."
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Well played, but wrong continent entirely.
PETA (Score:5, Insightful)
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PETA is mostly composed of people who just like animals and want to see them treated well - but all flocked around a band of hardcore crazy that actually runs the organisation.
This is more educational than Discovery (Score:2)
Skip Discovery and learn more from about anacondas from a music video parody:
http://www.collegehumor.com/vi... [collegehumor.com]
Sure not all the facts are correct, but still more accurate than Discovery.
Reason #14 not to intern at Discovery Channel (Score:2)
Has anyone mentioned yet that this sounds like a stunningly poor idea?
I'm less disgusted by the people responsible... (Score:3)
It turned out when they actually filmed it (Score:4, Funny)
that it turned out that the anaconda had a fondness for bread products, and would not eat anything without at least some in.
The handler turned to the director, and said 'My anaconda don't want none unless she's got buns hun'.
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Comment removed (Score:3)
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Honey Boo Boo is canceled. Or more accurately, not being renewed after the current production season.
HBB's Mother has started dating her old boyfirend, who just got out of a ten-year jail sentence for rapeing HBB's older sister and is not going to be living alongside HBB herself. There are some levels of shame - and more importantly liability, if they should end up filming child abuse for the sake of entertainment - that even TV executives won't brave. Yet.
Weirdest (Score:2)
What next? (Score:2)
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The Learning Channel used to feature shows that had some educational value. They've long since dropped that and changed their name to TLC. Perhaps Discovery Channel will do the same and change their name. They might not be able to use "DC" though, because the garbage they show is completely different from the garbage that takes place in Washington, DC.
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Becareful what you wish for, the BBC has basically gone down the path of doing shows you can learn something from and apart from a few good Attenbroughs and a few good Brian Cox's every few years you basically have 3 choices:
1) Generic medical drama #125423523
2) Generic cooking show #35263463
3) Generic 1800 - 1930 show #43634633
I swear the BBC lost their costume cupboard in their move to Salford and all they could find afterwards were the 1800s clothes because if you turn the BBC on nowadays you'll either g
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It's called "The Discovery Channel", but if they show us a man being eaten by a large snake, what is the discovery there?
The discovery is that if you try to do commercial educational programming on cable, this is what happens. I'm waiting to see if it ends up as 24hr pro wrestling. So the whole thing's gone meta. Don't watch the Discovery channel. Observe it.
um... (Score:5, Insightful)
So they fired Kari Byron.
And now they are showing the poop shoot of a snake?
Man... they're on a roll.
Watch The Man Eating Chicken!!!! (Score:2)
It sounds to astonishingly outrageous that one has to expect that it is simply a variant of the old joke about the 'Man eating chicken': Sounds like 'Man-eating chicken', but is actually 'Man, eating chicken'.
The only discovery (Score:2)
Perfect reason for canceling cable (Score:4, Informative)
On the bright side, I am saving $1020+/year for not having cable.
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Deadliest Catch. [wikipedia.org]
Which, while being part of the whole reality-TV craze, I did enjoy when I caught it now and then. It was at least a bit educational, in how they do their job and handle problems, but mainly because it was narrated by Mike Rowe and I really enjoy his voice. (Speaking of Mike Rowe, Deadliest Catch started after his Dirty Jobs show, which was psuedo-reality-TV.)
Honestly, whatever channel turns into 24 hou
How else do you jump the shark? (Score:2)
Execs in this case know what they're doing... (Score:4, Interesting)
Many people will complain about this. I initially thought along the same lines as many of the above posters when reading the blurb about what's about to happen - and also think it's terrible. What will happen, though, is the extremity and sleaziness also strikes enough interest that people _will watch it_, even if they hate Discovery channel while doing so. They'll get the viewers. They'll get attention. It'll be passed around. They surely know already that they have a reputation dive akin to GT Advanced's stock dive, so when you're deemed a channel with momentum diving downward so quickly I suppose they thought along the lines of: Embrace It...there are enough people who eat this shit up that it'll likely be their best ratings in recent memory.
I guess it can be too much of a good thing. (Score:3)
Freedom of the press, I mean.
This is not what it's for.
Here's the way I figure it. If the man survives, it's homicide. If the man suffers serious injuries (you, know, from being crushed by a giant snake), it's felony maiming (or whatever it's called in whatever non-jurisdiction they're planning to do this). If he survives without harm, it's reckless endangerment. If the snake is injured or dies, it's animal cruelty.
PETA! HELP! (Score:5, Insightful)
Nothing can be gained from this. We already know the snakes can eat a person. We can already send far less obstrusive sensors safely through a snake if we really need to see what's going on in there.
c'mon a show in which ted nugent would kill and eat an anaconda before our eyes would be more on the up and up than this crap.
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We do not know that they can eat a person. We know they can kill a person however our shoulders cause issues for any snake trying to swallow us whole. Beyond that they tend eat things smaller than us. Consuming a 200 pound animal makes it very difficult for the snake to react defensively or flee from any threats.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E... [wikipedia.org]
Relevant passage:
Many local stories and legends report the anaconda as a man-eater, but little evidence supports any such activity.
Regardless, this is stupid and it
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I also find it hard to believe that you could coax a snake into swallowing a guy in a big suit too. I've been bi
Hold my beer (Score:3, Funny)
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- Pawn shop guys
- Restoration guys
- Alien shows
- Ancient civilization shows
- Anti-Nazi propaganda
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A: The public will be interested in.
and
B: Can be made into something that can be shown on TV.
Combine that with documentary format shows falling out of favor in g
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"Drunk History" [wikipedia.org] disproves both A and B.
Comedy Central again indirectly provides better information than the channels dedicated to providing information.
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I think they've done a good job with some of the recent miniseries they produced. On History, they made the Mankind: The History of all of us, The Men who Built America, one about the Bible that I didn't watch, and a few others.
For the most part though, its reality tv and profession following TV. They only ones of those that I've found to be really enjoyable and well done in the past were Dirty Jobs and River Monsters.
The channel that dissapoints me the most is definitely National Geographic. They used
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Exactly right! Clearly, the Nazis are just misunderstood dreamers. Sure, they got a little out of hand, but how dare we show them in a negative light. Where's the balanced view?
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