Why Do We Love Grueling Travel Shows? Other People’s Misery Is the Best Entertainment
When you think of travel shows, you probably picture beautiful scenery, hot springs, and local cuisine. The presenters exclaim, “Delicious!” and end the show deeply moved by a spectacular view.
That is perfectly fine in its own way.
But the travel shows I like are the ones where the cast becomes exhausted, starts complaining, and sometimes gets into genuine arguments.
When I think about it, that is a rather mean-spirited form of entertainment.
The prime example is How Do You Like Wednesday?, a Japanese show that once became a nationwide sensation.
How a Single Roll of the Dice Ruins Everything in How Do You Like Wednesday?
How Do You Like Wednesday? is a legendary travel show that began as a local program in Hokkaido before becoming popular throughout Japan.
My favorite feature was “The Dice Journey.”
The cast rolled a die to decide where they would go next. That was all there was to it, but the consequences could be terrifying.
They might be trying to reach Sapporo, only for the die to send them in the opposite direction. Just when they finally seemed to be getting close, another roll would put them on an overnight bus carrying them far away again.
The show’s star, Yo Oizumi, was utterly exhausted, as were the crew. Gradually, everyone became increasingly bad-tempered.
The moments that an ordinary travel show would have cut out were the funniest parts.
Another brutal feature had them driving around Europe in a rental car.
They fell behind schedule and could not find a place to stay. The atmosphere between the cast and the director became tense.
That was when the director delivered one of the show’s most famous lines:
“We’ll make this our campsite.”
On a conventional travel show, failing to secure accommodation would be a production disaster.
On this show, however, every failure made it more entertaining.
It was a truly groundbreaking invention.
When Did the Bus Journey Become an Ordeal?
Another show that inherited the appeal of grueling travel in a different form was TV Tokyo’s Local Bus Transfer Journey.
The show became popular with the pairing of Yosuke Tagawa and Yoshikazu Ebisu, who had three nights and four days to reach their destination.
They could travel only by connecting local bus routes, and they had to work out the route as they went. They were not allowed to use the internet, so they had to rely on local timetables and ask people along the way. If there was a gap between bus services, their only option was to walk.
What is interesting is that the show began as a much more relaxed travel program.
In its early days, the cast sometimes took taxis. Eventually, however, strict rules prohibited every form of transport other than local buses.
As a result, when the routes did not connect, they had to walk 10 kilometers and sometimes nearly 20.
The cast members were older adults, but what they were doing was practically a forced march.
Ebisu would get tired and complain. Tagawa would keep trying to find a way forward. The female celebrity guest, who began the trip smiling, would gradually fall silent.
That was what made it entertaining.
I was more interested in watching the smiles disappear from their faces than in seeing the local specialties they ate along the way.
As Ebisu grew older, the cast changed several times, but the program itself remains on the air today.
Viewers Want Human Nature, Not Sightseeing
What the two shows have in common is that they force their cast into situations they cannot control.
Even celebrities who are usually friendly become irritable when they are tired. When plans fall apart, they complain. Sometimes they argue with one another.
That creates a kind of entertainment that no scripted travel show can provide.
In other words, it may look as though we are watching a journey, but what we are really doing is observing human behavior.
And we are doing so rather maliciously.
When a bus arrives, we celebrate and say, “That’s great.” But when there is no bus and the cast has to walk 10 kilometers, a part of us thinks, “Oh, now this is getting interesting.”
It is a disaster for the cast but a reward for the audience.
Why Is It So Entertaining to Watch Other People Struggle?
When you think about it, this kind of entertainment appeals to a rather unpleasant side of human nature.
I would absolutely hate to spend hours being tossed around on an overnight bus or to be made to walk 20 kilometers under the blazing sun.
But watching someone else do it is fun.
What is more, the greater their suffering appears, the more exciting the show becomes.
If they reach the destination in the end, it is moving. But if everything goes smoothly from the beginning and they arrive exactly as planned, it is probably not very entertaining.
Ultimately, although we claim to be cheering for the cast to succeed, we also want them to struggle properly along the way.
“Keep going! But don’t succeed too easily.”
That is probably what viewers of grueling travel shows truly feel.
And so today, once again, I sit in a warm room drinking tea and cheer at the exhausted people on the screen: “Come on, keep going!”
It is, I must admit, a wonderfully human hobby.