moriaritytk
TMF Poster
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2001
- Messages
- 127
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A fairly new member--footsietickle--has made a very interesting nomination on the Special Contribution part of the Golden Feather Award thread. The suggestion is that Howard Stern deserves recognition for getting tickling more mainstream attention than anyone in the past year or so.
There are two ways to look at the nomination. It's certainly a legitimate choice on it's merits. The important thing to note about Howard's tickling escapades is that HE did the bulk of the tickling. When Howard wants to make fun of someone or something, he finds a target for humiliation. That gives him the chance to bring something from "out there" to his audience while staying personally distant from the behavior. Since Howard's popularity is based on him being the surrogate for "everyman", he is clearly saying that an activity is worth engaging in when he does it, whether it's tickling or giving breast exams or watching 'Survivor." By doing the tickling rather than bringing in one of us to do the tickling, he gave his stamp of approval to the activity. The fact that he tied the models up--however loosely--also showed that he was supporting tickling that went beyond playful and edged into the gray area of non-consensual. For God's sake, the senario was even set up as "tickle torture". It was pretty watered down, sure, but I'm betting it was the most aggressive presentation of mainstream tickling ever.
Behind the legitimacy of the nomination, there is a selfish consideration. Recent calls and e-mails to Howard to do another tickling segment have fallen on deaf ears. But, what if we gave him an award for his contributions and let him know that he's won our award and undying gratitude? That would be grist for his comedy mill and possibly trigger him to do another tickling segment in conjunction with the award. Maybe some very brave NYC member of the TMF could even go on the show and give him the award and paticipate side-by-side with our hero in the tickling. Maybe a bunch of us chip in and give Howard a nice set of stocks for his studio as part of the award so he retire that ineffective chair. I'd contribute to the "stocks for Stern" fund.
We can't know how this would play out, of course. Howard is nothing if not volatile, and he could turn on us in a flash if he thought it would jazz up his audience. We could be setting outselves up for some grief.
On the other hand, nobody gets to Howard's position without an ego, and what person's ego doesn't like some positive strokes. Howard has a history of lashing out at those who frustrate him while giving a soapbox to those who treat him well. There is probably a greater likelihood that he'd ignore the award than that he would use it to make wicked fun of us. For all I know, one group or another may be offering him awards every day and ours might not even register.
I'm emboldened by the fact that Howard tickled four different stars in three different sessions. If he and his producers thought it was lame, they would've retired the tickling chair after the first time. Somebody there either liked doing it, or thought it was popular with the audience, or both. They only stopped after the fourth victim, Brande Roderick, proved not to be ticklish.
I'm not saying we should stack the ballot box in Howard's favor just to get him to tickle some unsuspecting supermodel. If he wasn't a legit candidate, it wouldn't do any good because he would know we were just trying to scam him. It will have a chance to advance our cause, however, if enough of us ARE legitimately appreciative of his efforts.
It's for YOU, the voters, to decide. I just wanted to frame up the potential implications so we can start getting a plan together to alert Howard about a possible award at a time when someone we would like to see tickled happens to be scheduled.
Here's a link to Howard's nomination.
http://www.ticklingforum.com/showthread.php?threadid=6190
What do the rest of you think?
There are two ways to look at the nomination. It's certainly a legitimate choice on it's merits. The important thing to note about Howard's tickling escapades is that HE did the bulk of the tickling. When Howard wants to make fun of someone or something, he finds a target for humiliation. That gives him the chance to bring something from "out there" to his audience while staying personally distant from the behavior. Since Howard's popularity is based on him being the surrogate for "everyman", he is clearly saying that an activity is worth engaging in when he does it, whether it's tickling or giving breast exams or watching 'Survivor." By doing the tickling rather than bringing in one of us to do the tickling, he gave his stamp of approval to the activity. The fact that he tied the models up--however loosely--also showed that he was supporting tickling that went beyond playful and edged into the gray area of non-consensual. For God's sake, the senario was even set up as "tickle torture". It was pretty watered down, sure, but I'm betting it was the most aggressive presentation of mainstream tickling ever.
Behind the legitimacy of the nomination, there is a selfish consideration. Recent calls and e-mails to Howard to do another tickling segment have fallen on deaf ears. But, what if we gave him an award for his contributions and let him know that he's won our award and undying gratitude? That would be grist for his comedy mill and possibly trigger him to do another tickling segment in conjunction with the award. Maybe some very brave NYC member of the TMF could even go on the show and give him the award and paticipate side-by-side with our hero in the tickling. Maybe a bunch of us chip in and give Howard a nice set of stocks for his studio as part of the award so he retire that ineffective chair. I'd contribute to the "stocks for Stern" fund.
We can't know how this would play out, of course. Howard is nothing if not volatile, and he could turn on us in a flash if he thought it would jazz up his audience. We could be setting outselves up for some grief.
On the other hand, nobody gets to Howard's position without an ego, and what person's ego doesn't like some positive strokes. Howard has a history of lashing out at those who frustrate him while giving a soapbox to those who treat him well. There is probably a greater likelihood that he'd ignore the award than that he would use it to make wicked fun of us. For all I know, one group or another may be offering him awards every day and ours might not even register.
I'm emboldened by the fact that Howard tickled four different stars in three different sessions. If he and his producers thought it was lame, they would've retired the tickling chair after the first time. Somebody there either liked doing it, or thought it was popular with the audience, or both. They only stopped after the fourth victim, Brande Roderick, proved not to be ticklish.
I'm not saying we should stack the ballot box in Howard's favor just to get him to tickle some unsuspecting supermodel. If he wasn't a legit candidate, it wouldn't do any good because he would know we were just trying to scam him. It will have a chance to advance our cause, however, if enough of us ARE legitimately appreciative of his efforts.
It's for YOU, the voters, to decide. I just wanted to frame up the potential implications so we can start getting a plan together to alert Howard about a possible award at a time when someone we would like to see tickled happens to be scheduled.
Here's a link to Howard's nomination.
http://www.ticklingforum.com/showthread.php?threadid=6190
What do the rest of you think?
