You read that right – ‘dark’ and ‘competitive tickling’ one after another in the same sentence.

While home sick from work, I stumbled upon ‘Tickled’ on Netflix. When I clicked on the documentary, I expected an entertaining look into a niche sexual fetish. Instead, it took a far more conspiratorial turn – reminiscent of how the original Catfish documentary played out.

a scene from one of the competitive tickling videos
A still of one of the ‘competitive tickling’ videos.

The investigation into this weird phenomenon took the brains behind the operation, David Farrier and Dylan Reeve, took their Kiwi accents around the globe, looking for answers to the endless questions that continued to appear throughout their investigation.

The invention of the internet has done a lot of good, but when you give an inch, people will take a mile. And that’s what happened in this film. I don’t intend on ruining the ending for potential viewers, but as the sub-line says – “it’s not what you think”.

Watch the trailer for ‘Tickled‘ below

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