Can You Feel It?

[rionaleonhart]

I watched Derren Brown's The Heist yesterday, and it was excellent. For those who do not know the premise: Derren Brown offers a motivational seminar to a group of respectable businessmen and women. The seminar is a cover for manipulating them into robbing a security van. It is a fascinating study of what people can be persuaded to do, and of the little-known danger that the song 'Can You Feel It?' by the Jackson Five poses to society.

I think my favourite part was the shop assistants becoming increasingly frustrated by the endless parade of people in suits coming in and stealing sweets. Hee! (I can't believe people did that. Derren Brown says 'steal from this shop! :D' and people - people who clearly haven't been hypnotised, although they have been manipulated somewhat - actually do it? I would probably have assumed he was joking.)

The replication of the Milgram experiment was just disturbing. HUMAN BEINGS. WHY SO CREEPY?


Here is a Heist-related quote from Tricks of the Mind that I rather enjoyed:

Had the final armed robberies not worked - though I had no doubt they would - I had a very vague plan B and C up my sleeve to ensure that the show would come together in some form. But I didn't need to go down those routes. (Let's just say that I had a lot of dancers tucked around corners, waiting for a signal.)


It looks as if you can watch the entire awesome thing here! It is fifty minutes long, and it is so interesting, so please do watch it if you have a spare hour right now. If you enjoy it, you could consider buying Derren Brown's DVDs.

Alternatively, if you do not have the time to watch the entire thing, here is a two-minute cut-down, speeded-up version set to 'Yakety Sax'.

Comments

[sideshow-meg.livejournal.com]

The Heist is my favourite one. It's fascinating!

[culf.livejournal.com]

Okay, I didn't see the whole one, but isn't a replication of the Milgram experiment terribly unethical? Because there's no way in hell psychologist would have been allowed to do it today.

[moogle62.livejournal.com]

I watched that on Friday! He was ridiculously attractive in that, I found. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME. Why is he suddenly more attractive when convincing people to steal? That was another one of those moments where you kind of want to see the people being fine afterwards as opposed to just being told that they were.

Also, that experiment: I've heard about another form of it, where the people had to do essentially the same thing but were split into two groups. One group had to ask the questions and press the electric button of doom in the same room with the test subject while the other group were, like here, in a different room but they could still see the subject through a window of some sort. The people with the distance from the subject were more likely to take the experiment further. I did find the one here disturbing though. AUGH HUMANS SUCK.

I will never be able to hear that song again without expecting to be held at gunpoint for my slightly childish purse (what, it was a present about five years ago and I've just not got round to buying a new one yet. So what if it has a cat on it?).

Edited because my html skillz are weakened even further when flu-like.

[dots.livejournal.com]

I have the same question about the Milgram experiment recreation (I recognized what it was going to be as soon as they showed the NEXT: with the guy screaming over the mic), but I found this so absurdly fascinating that I pardoned it.

I'm really surprised more people hadn't heard of the experiment. Is it only common Psych 101 discussion over here? Did they just never take Psych 101??? I DO NOT KNOW.

[amy-wolf.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of Derren Brown wandering around with packs of cleverly hidden dancers in case things go wrong. In my head, they're all wearing spangly costumes and crouching in the alleyway (people don't notice them, obviously, because Derren Brown has hung "There is no dancer" signs around their necks and used his Jedi mind-tricks Neuro-Linguistic Programming to make it work). When tricks fall apart, he blows a whistle and they all rush in and dance for dear life while he makes a fast get away.

As I seem to be writing the "Derren Brown erases the memories of the Top Gear Presenters as part of a joke, and the Stig turns up to rescue them" as well as the one where Richard turns up in Mongolia with no memory and mistakenly concludes he's a spy, I may use the Emergency Backup Dancers.

[the-wanlorn.livejournal.com]

Shoot, which experiment was the Milgram one? I MEAN, I CAN THINK OF AT LEAST SIX THAT FALL INTO "WHY SO CREEPY" CATEGORIES.

[thrennion.livejournal.com]

Riona, this is very, very important. You see, I've been wondering who Derren Brown looks like all this time, and I've just figured it out.
He looks like, and may well be, my poetry seminar leader. D:

[make-a-move.livejournal.com]

I adore him so much he makes me want to burst into song, like some sort of strange Disney film.