Thursday, January 28, 2010

What's Up With Bear Grylls?



If you have ever watched Man vs. Wild on the Discovery Channel, then you are probably familiar with Bear Grylls. He is a British ex-military dude and survivor expert. The first season I watched this show, I thought it was very entertaining and insightful for anyone interested in survival skills and techniques. Bear has been criticized and accused of staging parts of his TV show. I don't have any problem with that. It's obviously just a TV show teaching people how to survive in the wild so I try not to take it too seriously. It's not like I have any money riding on the authenticity of everything he does.

What I do have a problem with is his willingness to do some of the most disgusting things ever. I think what he does is more for ratings and shock value than for actual survival technique. Some of the more disturbing things he has done are eating raw snakes, spiders, scorpions, squeezing the water out of elephant crap and camel dung into his mouth, climbing into a dead camel carcass, drinking his own pee, etc. It's not like he does these things reluctantly either. He can't wait to do some of them. How is he going to top himself next season? I suppose he could always institute cannibalism and eat a member of his camera crew.

It's one thing to eat a giant beetle or a hairy spider and choke it down, but when he comments on the benefits of protein and vitamins and say things like "not bad", then that really bugs me (no pun intended). I wonder if Bear Grylls ever complains about his food when he goes out to eat. Can you imagine if you were a chef and you saw him come into your restaurant. You could get away with murder! This is a guy has eaten some of the most disgusting things ever so I doubt he would complain if his ranch dressing wasn't served on the side like he requested.

If you ever find my dead body out in the desert, despite an abundance of scorpions I could have been feasting on, just know I decided it wasn't worth it. I consider myself a fighter and a survivor, but I have do draw the line somewhere. On second thought, drinking your pee may have some merit. I'll have to check that out and get back with you before I'm so quick to judge. Not!

5 comments:

Kelly said...

I shouldn't admit to this because I am a happily married woman and all. But Bear is so handsome I would watch him do just about anything. Even drink his own pee. That does ward off any temptation I may have to kiss the man though- so all is well, all is well.

Kristina P. said...

I'm pretty sure I did a whole post about drinking your own pee. I'm sure it's awesome.

Mary said...

Jared loves that show!

Eric said...

Yep, a bit too interested in all the bizarre stuff.

Little Lovables said...

I love this show and I love Bear! Of course, some of the sequences are staged, it says so in the disclaimer that items are "presented to Bear" to show what could be done in a situation.

Now, he is not starving mind you, and he knows he will be picked up in a day, but his eating habits would come in handy for someone who truly was stranded and starving and not knowing when they would be picked up, so that's what it's all about.

Much more "appropriate" to me I suppose, than the reality game shows that were so popular a few years ago.