Derren Brown – The Gameshow: Tonight at 9pm Ch4
Just a little reminder that the second episode in ‘The Experiments’ series airs tonight at 9pm on Channel 4.
Leave your thoughts on the show in the comments section below, or click here to watch a sneak preview 🙂
Fascinating portrayal of Crowd Psychology.
A couple of comments,
FIrstly, as Andy has mentioned, voting is the fulcrum element of the ‘show’ and if this data is going to be published I would be really interested in the demographics of voting after each of the ‘persuader’ segments. Obviously the audience or ‘crowd’ were given convincers / incentives as to how they would vote.
Secondly, and with reference to, but more over, from the first point there appeared to be a couple of levels of artifice: The audience members who instigated the goading of the crowd – stooges? Also, the constant shots of applauding each degoratorive stage of Chris’s experience – editing? It is worth remembering this experiment was also aimed at us, the viewer, to elicit a response and make an opinion…
Incredibly broken looks on the audiences faces says it all really – and my mind was blowing right along with theirs, a frightening glimpse into mob psych that as you said were all guilty of to some degree.
Incidentally does he get a replacement X-Box too ? lol as it caught a glancing blow from that alu. bat lol ?
Simply wow – keep up the good work Derren, always fascinates and intrigues though sometimes it also scares the pants off the audience hehe
just caught the end on +1 again to hear the reactions, gotta say well acted too “i cant hear ,… thers too many of you talking” let them stew, and drop the bomb on them hehe
Their hearts are in their mouths, very well played 😉
This has certainly sparked a spirited debate in our house. We are all appalled and are guessing at the information we don’t know. Would love to see the data on the voting. Did anyone try to leave?
very uncomfortable to watch, I have previously loved all of Derren Brown’s shows, at the end of it all I’m not sure what the point is?
Hopefully now people will realise the importance of standing up and being counted for what they genuinely believe in. Really enjoyed watching the show, would dream to someday take part myself. Until then… congratulations to you all
Absolutely brilliant, well done Derren and team. It reminded me of the earlier stuff, emotionally charged, not just for the participants, but for the viewers. I was hooked throughout, and the accident at the end was genius. Such a potent message. I also loved the humor, hysterical laughing at the beginning from me, ‘Sausages filled with farts’ XD. More like this please 😀
This has to be his most disappointing show – reactions were totally predictable – the most surprising thing was how many at times picked the other option – B being only 60% on one vote.
Sorry, but that’s the first of your shows that I’ve found to be very flawed: you can not create a mob mentality in a game show – there is no element of right and wrong because it is a protected environment; TV show which we all know is monitored. It’s done through fun and most people would have a laugh – there was no end consequence because he wasn’t losing his job etc etc. In the same way people would be mock mean to friends but protect them to the hilt if it was real. I’m not sure it’s possible to test this theory without making people actually attack a shop or the like – but no-one is going to want to be filmed doing that!!
Assassin was good, Guilty looks great but today was very poor and not at all a ‘fair test’ or an accurate way of showing mob mentality.
Just showed how sick we can be! What does this mean for all of us?
Lick his sheets? Said Dave Aww XD. Despite the humor, have to say Dave looked genuinely upset after he’d smashed the TV, such a nice guy.
I’m so very pleased that I disagreed with the audience I wasn’t goaded into putting another person through so much stress!!! What are people like?? why do they love hurting and upsetting people??? but yet it’snot so funny when it goes wrong!! eh?? thank god it was just a set up…but lets hope all those human beings with feelings in the audience will think twice if they see or hear of someone that is having a bad time will not just stand back and do nothing!!!!! if u see a person that is being harrassed….intervene…even if it is to say hiya..u ok?? even if u don’t know them…. someone being given a hard time is never funny!!! would you have such a laugh if it was your father, sister, brother or mother or your mate!!! I think not!!!! we need to look out for each other!
What an amazing show;) I didn’t believe that dude was hit, he didn’t face the camera:/
This clearly shows all of us could have a dark side..
Look forward to the next series:D x x
I thought the show was pretty awesome. It really creeped me out near the end when they demanded for the television to be smashed. I totally thought at the end the would choose the crash price for him.
Scary Shit
The Xbox took a bashing! hope the harddrives ok :S
Mums are right. It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt…
Something about the whole game show and riley crowd reminded me of the Arnie film “The Running Man”, scary stuff.
Great show but I wanted to ask one question:
Can we know any more about Jenny? Was she aware of the overall idea of The Experiment or did she believe that Remote Control was a real programme? Her willingness to participate in the events which befell Kris confused me somewhat. Was she genuinely that willing to tell her friend he’d been made redundant?
One of the most entertaining pieces of telly I’ve seen in ages. Derren is a legend. Brilliant stuff!!
As part of the audience of the show, i began by first picking the nicer option, however as the show progressed i began to feel more comfortable being part of a group. Anyone saying that the guy chris is an actor..i was there and we were watching it live, he is not an actor as my friend was one of those also interviewed for possibly being in derren browns future shows before we went to film this in the studio but several are picked out and interviewed and only one chosen. Also the main aim is to outline how easily our behaviour can change and cybe bullying. Derren brown is trying to make a point that is very true and relevant to today, even if it was a set up its still outlining a vital problem. i would have voted differently watching at home.
Some decades back I was with my usual group of friends & a few other groups from the same village plus a few new faces.
Among the mix was a friend who was liked and known by all groups. However, he had the label of ‘Village Idiot’ due to his schooling with special needs pupils. He became the focus of our ‘expression of bonding’ by becoming a target. The large group of friends spat on & burned holes with their cigarettes in his puffy body warmer whilst he was still wearing it. He was encircled and ‘mobbed.’
He was scared, confused and desperate. To my horror I impulsively spat on his clothes. He saw me and was astonished I had done it. He was angry only with me & could not believe I joined in with the crowd.
I experienced unforgettable shame & loss of self. One of my greatest regrets.
I’ve always found the Derren Brown shows amazing and the psychology very interesting
Tonight, I find the show very odd. What were the actual statistics of the 2 options? Were any of the results faked? It seemed like the audience had no morals whilst I was screaming to choose A!
Interesting stuff 🙂
I’ve been a fan of Derren’s stuff for a few years now, but this one… It just seems wrong… The production company allowed this guy’s house to be trashed, his stuff violated – who knows what could have happened if he had, for example, not deleted his internet history and had something embarrasing on there, or if he’d reacted violently to the girl’s confrontational boyfriend or the man in the shop?
Surely nobody would like to be mocked on national tv, having their house searched and with events happening to them which could potentially psychologically damage them.
It just seems like Chris was put through mental torture for Derren’s show and then given a free tv and a letter at the end to ‘make everything better’?
I love the work Derren does. It is fascinating and immensely informative as well as entertaining. Tonight’s programme however, I believe is arguably one of his most important and instructive shows and possibly one of the most important and revealing shows ever to appear on television.
It is vital people understand how easily people can be manipulated and overwhelmed amidst a crowd.
At the end of the programme whilst the audience sat aghast in silence, I was clapping very loud.
It would have been an even more amazing show if the crowd had voted to give Chris a super positive evening out !
I agree that we should see the data. Any chance of that?
Show was amazing as ever. Producer Dave is cute.
I thought tonight’s program was fantastic, thank you for making outstanding, intelligent entertainment, you are a legend.
Dan
I can agree that it seemed a bit silly because it was a gameshow and Derren was co-ercing the crowd but if you really were watching, then you should of noticed the change of atmosphere in the crowd when they were filiming in his bedroom, you can really see the mob mentality take over. One person starts shouting over derren talking to take tip his pants drawer out (WTF??) and within the next minute the majority of the audience are yelling random violent ideas which culminates in them celebrating at his TV getting smashed to pieces. You could see that some peoples reactions were uneasy but still clapping and going along with it. So If you watched the whole thing you can realise that derren is trying to show how mob mentality can take over and have a mind of its own regardless of the context.
The more the show carried on, the more sickening my stomach felt. It was the laughter from the audience that really got to me. The audience knew the cause and effect they had on Chris, yet through a little encouragment and some studio lights they became sadistic.
Yet I couldn’t stop watching what would happen! Another strange behaviour- finding some sort of interest from cruel behaviour between people.
It was lovely to see every one of the audience members clearly in shock; the act of taking their masks off was incredibly moving. You could see them pulling back, away from the mob identity and back into their own.
I reckon your best series Mr Brown! How wonderful and weirdly human you are good sir! I wish you, with all the success you have achieved, a stupendous amount of love & happiness
Exactly Nathan 🙂 Alot of people are missing the point on this one. Regardless of the fact it was a gameshow Derren DID NOT suggest in any way for the TV to be smashed and he was working within boundaries of A)postive Action or B)Negative action. So he was at worst just fuel yet the audience, or whatever small majority, light the match and took it on themselves to set fire the house (so to speak). So the data regarding percent of people who chose a or b is not that important because the fact that some chose a positive action yet were happy (I didnt hear any boos or anyone making any vocal disagreements) to follow along with the crowd was disturbing. Also the fact that they wore masks meant that they could anonymously voice or show their disagreement if they voted for A) but B) was chosen.
Thought it was slightly contorted to disclose past shortcomings of the target (Him cheating on his girlfriend).
Surely, this immediately gave the viewers and audience a negative preconception of his character. Perhaps it would have been more scientific, interesting, and fairer to all concerned if you ran a mirror experiment showing how people reacted to someone they had a positive preconception of.
I understand that the experiment would not have worked as well if a preconception of the character was not induced, but I think both positive and negative preconceptions should have been represented.
(HELLO I NOW IT HARD TO READ PLZ DONT GIVE UP IT MEANS A LOT IF YOU READ IT)
its funny how people mirrer or get ifuwensed by the people that are around you.
it like working with some one and you turking to them your steps sudeny go insinck oh and by the way i am exstreemly sorry about the spelling im dixlegsic or dislegsic oh well you now wot i meen
sorry again im only 17 but you rilly help me and support me becouse i all ways wotch people thats y i now a lot about body langwige (sorry again about spelling) it like a hobey of mine lol i now it souns weyerd but is there eny way i can lorn more like sicolijy it fasinates me
AND I NOW THE COMMENT IS LONG THANK YOU FOR YOUR VERY VERY VERY YOU VE BEEN VERY PASHENT I NOW I CART READ OR WRITE VERY WELL SORRY AGAIN
I am concerned for Derren on this one as I dont think all the feedback is going to be most welcoming (I hope I’m wrong), however that being said I thought the show was fantastically put together as I always expect from his great mind and team of producers. My Idol, a true inspiration. Cannot wait for the next show. 🙂
I get the point of it but what a load of pathetic sheep!
The only thing I can say in their defence is that they MAY have:
1) felt like they had to go with the spirit of the show because there seemed to be a lot more encouragement, by way of suggested gratification & approval, from DB each time they responded negatively.
2) looked on it as entertainment that wasn’t really real because of the setting & faith that it was a controlled environment.
I also don’t think it proved the point of behavioural anonimity, although I’m sure that this behaviour would & has happened in reallity
Much as I like Derrens shows,this wasnt one of the best. Nothing was proved,the audience had no choice in what they chose,the banal,or the entertaining,what do you think they will go for? Also,I cant believe the audience believed he had really been hit.They were on a tv show,a Derren Brown show,they knew everything they were watching was fake,why then believe the fake ending? The whole thing was fake,I dont believe Derren was even talking to any of the actors,it was clearly already filmed. Anyone taken in by that ending is very sad,sorry.
The high level of audience manipulation was completely legit in this experiment. It deftly confronted the decade of abusive TV we`ve been collectively degraded by since Big Brother`s UK debut.
But I`m not sure we were witnessing true mob cruelty in Remote Control. The reward for the victim in these Beadles About-esque shows is for the victim to find out that life`s not as awful as they thought it was.
I love being hoaxed. The moment of realization is always worth it. The audience knows this.
An experiment where the audience could actually believe they are making him lose his job for real would have been a more powerful experiment to try and pull off.
The most interesting moment was the smashing of the TV set in his invaded house – which crossed the line from hoaxing into true malice.
Don’t really believe in commenting as who am I to judge but have few things to say. After watching everything derren has ever done tonight was the first time I’ve been disappointed. While the idea was good the content and references felt a little insulting. The test was also significantly flawed because of the crowds reassurance that everything would end up ok. For example if they knew he was actually going to be hurt would they have voted? Forgetting all that it just seem to lack the unexplained magic of derrens usual shows.
Any chance of a follow up (or dvd extra) with more of Chris – what he thought of nightmare night out and if possible more footage of the aftermath of the events. We only seen what happened and not what he said to his mates.
Ok I am nosy.
Great show Darren, close to the edge and the audiences faces at the end :O mirrored mine,.
Reading all your comments I feel Derren has got to everyone of you, even those who think it was all fake and actors throughout!
This was a brilliant insight into how groups of people can escalate into mobs or gangs just like a pack of Hounds chase a fox and egg each other on.
He is fantasic at what he does be it real or set up, and I think its real for the record, and can’t wait for next week!
I found tonight’s show slightly disappointing and unfair. Derren compared the act of the audience choosing to bestow the participant with bad things to that of the riot mentality. What wasn’t considered in this show was that the audience were in a very different state to those of rioters. They were in a TV studio and knew that people wanted to watch good TV. They knew that the show would be boring if they only chose the nice things. It was almost expected of them that they would choose bad things. You can’t compare this ‘experiment’ to anything else fairly, as this was conducted in a very different setting with people on different emotional levels and with prior expectations.
It was also unfair, and incomparable to anything else, as some of the audience would have know that it wasn’t a si
It was also unfair, and incomparable to anything else, as some of the audience would have know that it wasn’t a simple show they were watching. People who know of Derren know that there’s usually a twist and that things aren’t as simple as they perceive. Some of the audience would have been ‘playing the game’, knowing that in real-life no one was being hurt.
I think it’s unfair how this show was used to show the mentality of groups of people. You can’t compare this show to anything else-real world.
Having said this, I am a huge Derren fan, and am really looking forward to the next show.
As always your shows manage to delve into the depths of the human pysche, only this time I was really disturbed as to what was found there – I hate to see the worst in people , but seeing the crowd slowly condemn this stranger to so many things and actually voting to have him kidnapped was terrifying; it made me feel sick to watch as they unwittingly ruined poor Kris’s evening without thinking of any consequences and made me start to doubt humanity – if he really had been kidnapped, it would have been a traumatizing experience for the rest of his life. It’s hard to say what I’d have done in that crowd, but I think I would have been one of the few people to choose option A – even from the start I was uncomfortable with what was happening.
Another brilliant insight into the mind – thank you!
Derren, I’m 14, and that just blew me away. Having been a victim of mob mentality in a similarly anonymous situation, I can appreciate how these things spiral out of control. I didn’t understand how you had a TV ready to wrap up for Chris after someone spontaneously suggested the producer destroy it. I assume this was staged – the guy yelling ‘Smash the TV” but the real brilliance of your show was how fast that one, apathetic concept spread from a half hearted joke to something they were all clamouring for.
You have me hooked.
@Luke, I think you’re missing the
Point; (with all due respect). Put simply how do decent people become so “un decent”? By a little manipulation (Derren brown) and by being egged on (stooges). The point is, that’s all
It takes!!!! That’s shocking in itself. I think of the school teacher that was arrested for his part in the London riots. How did he go from respectable to a hooligan? Quite easily if “remote control” is anything to go by…..shocking
you got him a new tv fast
I think Derren is doing a fantastic job. Over the years he has progressed from an entertainer to a much needed educator of social problems. Not so long ago I found myself a victim of the “mobbing Syndrome” much like what was portrayed in the games how episode.
It is a serious and growing problem in modern culture and needs to be taken seriously as the psychological consequences can be devastating for the victim. I implore every reader to educate themselves on this phenomenon.
Keep up the good work Derren.
I really liked the show.
It was interesting to see the (majority of the) audience pick the cruellest option just because that provided the most entertainment.
The saving grace is the 20/30% of the audience who towards the end wanted to see him gifted with a good outcome. Although some of them may have chose that option just to break the pattern/feel individual.
Like the previous reply we as a household would like to know how the voting went . We are divided some believe that all agreed and others that some did not. to stop this difference of opinion please give us the data
For those who thought it was supposed to be entertainment, it wasn’t it was an experiment, that’s why it is called ‘The Experiments’! Anyway, I thought it was a really interesting show, whole household were shocked, though I suppose we can’t really judge, because if we’d been in that environment, with secured anonymous votes, then maybe we would have done it differently. I have loved all of your shows, and I can’t wait for next week!
Although, do agree with Abi Roads comments, there was something fishy about the voting, else why did he stop saying the percentage!
A very interesting experiment though l found it hard to watch at times. The positive aspect would be that a minority of audience didnt vote for negative option. Felt sorry for chris but at the end felt some sympathy for the audience as they may have felt they were being made a fool of, even though they ‘wished’ that on chris. I would have been interested in hearing some of the audience members views on what they experienced and how it affected them.
Two thing frightened me about this programme:
1. How easily the audience was led into shocking acts.
2. How much Derren seemed to be enjoying his role as gameshow host. (I vote we get him to reprise Blind Date)
PS. Derren – Were you behind the Hackney Riots?
I thought it actually proved the opposite of what it set out to achieve. The audience chose the bad option as it was a candid camera style GAMESHOW they thought they were participating in. The minute they thought the car had hit him had they truely been affected by mob rule cruely they would have still cheered at his misfortune. But they were unanimously horrified and the majority removed their mask immediately as if to want to take responsibilty rather than carry on hiding behind it. To me it showed that actually the majority of us are decent and know when things have gone too far.Doing things for a laugh in a gameshow is very different from the reality if the mob rioting behaviour we saw so tragically back in July.