Tickle wrestling encompasses a variety of activities, ranging from playful matches to more structured competitive events. While the concept may seem lighthearted, the world of tickle wrestling has also been the subject of controversy and legal scrutiny.
The Tickle Stick and Its Effects
In some variations of tickle wrestling, a "tickle stick" is used. The tickle stick has two attack methods, the first is a strike where the victim is simply hit by the stick. The second one initiates a "tickle" grapple where the attacker is relentlessly tickles the victim. The victim starts laughing due to the effects of the stick and ends up "bowing" to her attacker in a rump in the air position.
The incredible destructive power of the Tickle Stick becomes too much to bear and the victim proceeds to bow to the superior attacker to stop the tickling. The tickle stick is capable of increasing humiliation at a rather high rate. It also does high amounts of body damage to the victim. The stick leaves the opponent in a "downed" state so successfully tickling an opponent can let the aggressor to take advantage those benefits.
Reversing the hit of the stick while standing means the would be victim simply grabs the tickle stick and takes it away from her opponent.
If a Rose loses a Queen's Match one of the penalties is tickling. Since this is a Queens Match penalty only the human females are eligible for this consequence (and being the winner by extension). The winning rose starts off with the tickle stick and simply tickles the loser, in this case unlike a wrestling match the aggressor continues to tickle the loser even after they fall and they are in the ground.
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Tickled: A Documentary on Competitive Endurance Tickling
Tickled is a 2016 New Zealand documentary about "competitive endurance tickling" and videos featuring it, and the practices of those producing the videos.
Competitive Tickling | The Bizarre Controversy Surrounding Documentary
David Farrier, a New Zealand television reporter whose beat focuses on "quirky and odd stories," encounters online videos depicting "competitive endurance tickling", an activity in which young athletic men are restrained and tickled by each other. He begins to research it for a story and requests an interview with the videos' producer, Jane O'Brien Media. After their initial blog posts about the story go viral, Farrier and Reeve receive legal threats from Jane O'Brien Media, who send representatives to New Zealand to meet with them.
Researching the phenomenon further, Farrier and Reeve uncover information about a person known as "Terri DiSisto" (alias "Terri Tickle"), who pioneered recruiting and distributing tickling videos online in the 1990s. They interview independent tickling-video producer Richard Ivey, whose operations are comparatively low-key, and also acknowledge a homoerotic aspect.
Former participants in Jane O'Brien Media's videos describe coercive and manipulative treatment by the producers, such as defamation campaigns against them, exposing their personal information, and contacting associates to discredit them as homosexual or as sexual deviants, all in retaliation for speaking out against the company.
Farrier and Reeve discover documents on a defunct tickling video web site that link Jane O'Brien Media to David D'Amato, the former school administrator behind the "Terri Tickle" alias. From two journalists who had investigated Terri DiSisto years earlier, they learn that D'Amato served a six-month prison sentence for disabling computer systems at two different universities in retaliation against an 18-year-old male student who attempted to terminate an online relationship, which began when the young man was 17.
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After considerable effort to locate D'Amato, they confront him on the street, and he responds with additional legal threats. Before returning to New Zealand, Farrier contacts D'Amato's stepmother for comment. She implicitly confirms her stepson's "tickling" past, and Farrier informs her that he believes D'Amato is still involved in it.
Reception and Legal Challenges
On 27 May 2016, the film was released theatrically in New Zealand. Tickled received critical acclaim. In a review headlined "fetish documentary goes from giggly to grim", Nigel Smith of The Guardian gave the film four stars out of five. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times named it a Critic's Pick, writing that "Farrier and Mr. Reeve have made a disturbing, at times frightening, movie about power, privilege and the Internet."
Following the film's premiere screening at Sundance, in March 2016, D'Amato filed a federal lawsuit against the filmmakers for making false accusations, including the implication that D'Amato used extortion and abused minors, and stated that he had no relationship with O'Brien Media.
D'Amato attended the screening of the film at the Nuart Theater in Los Angeles on 18 June 2016, and confronted Dylan Reeve, saying, "You need to lawyer up. You need to get criminal counsel." Clarke argued with Reeve during a public question-and-answer session after the film, saying, "The film is a piece of garbage full of lies. Release the audio tapes that show you're lying."
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