FIRST ADDITIONS FOR 2009 - TICKLISH MALE CELEBS LETTERS A-K
TICKLISH GUYS 2009
Alan Alda (actor/TV presenter/writer) The popular explanation holds that tickling is a social interaction, so by definition, you can't do it alone. In "A Ticklist Question," Alan Alda visits with psychologist Christine Harris, who uses her tickling "machine" to turn that conventional wisdom on it's head. A blindfolded Alan has the sole of his foot tickled by Harris' tickle machine, rating the sensation a 7 out of 7 on the Tickler scale. The machine (actually a well-hidden grad student) shows that people can be tickled even by what they think is an inanimate object. Therefore, Harris reasons, tickling has little to do with social interaction. The tickled often laugh even while trying to escape She is also investigating another popular notion - that tickling makes us laugh because we think it's funny. As all stand-up comics know, laughter begets laughter; that is, it takes a few jokes to get an audience really going. Harris argues that if tickling and humor are related, hearing funny jokes before being tickled should enhance ticklishness. In her experiment, Harris found that people "warmed-up" with a funny video were no more ticklish that those who had watched a nature documentary. What's more likely, she concludes, is that tickling creates nervous rather than humorous laughter. Hence the reason why even people (like Harris) who hate to be tickled will laugh when someone strokes the bottom of their feet.Update: Here's a transcript of the "Ticklish Question" segment, and a link to a video of Alan Alda having his foo tickled (He's extremely ticklish):
CHRISTINE HARRIS And if you'll go ahead and have a seat right here…
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) Despite her being a grown up, Christine Harris still wonders why we can't tickle ourselves. And she's devised, I'm told, an ingenious experiment to help find the answer.
CHRISTINE HARRIS If you agree to participate, you'll tickled twice, once by me and once by my machine. Both times you'll be tickled on the bottom of your foot. I'm going to ask you to wear a blindfold and earplugs while we do this, and the reason for that is so that you can attend to the sensation of tickle without distraction. So I'm going to strap your foot in to keep it roughly in the vicinity of the machine.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) Now, I have my suspicions that all is not quite as it seems here. But before I get a chance to check out the tickling machine any further…
CHRISTINE HARRIS Does that feel snug so it's not going to fall off?
ALAN ALDA It could be a little snugger.
CHRISTINE HARRIS So the first time I'm going to have my machine tickle you. So I'll press the button, it will take a few seconds to initiate, and then it will turn itself off.
ALAN ALDA (Laughs) That was a machine?
CHRISTINE HARRIS That was the machine.
ALAN ALDA How much does that cost?
CHRISTINE HARRIS We'll tell you later. OK, on a scale of zero to seven, how ticklish would you rate that, with zero not at all ticklish?
ALAN ALDA Well, it must be seven.
CHRISTINE HARRIS OK, extremely ticklish. Now this time I'm going to tickle you, and again I'll ask you to rate it afterwards. How ticklish would you rate that?
ALAN ALDA Only around 5.5 to six. I'm sorry to say. I mean, you know, you're a nice person…
CHRISTINE HARRIS OK, OK, I'm going to go ahead and take off your blindfold now. And you can go ahead and take out your earplugs. So did you notice any difference between the sensation when I was tickling versus when my machine was tickling?
ALAN ALDA Yeah, yeah, I noticed a big difference.
CHRISTINE HARRIS In what way?
ALAN ALDA The machine was more aggressive. And relentless -- assuming it was the machine, I was blindfolded, I couldn't tell. It was as if it was reaching inside my foot, it wouldn't quit. And the second one was more courteous.
CHRISTINE HARRIS OK, OK. Would you like to see the machine work now?
ALAN ALDA OK.
CHRISTINE HARRIS So basically I hit that, it takes a couple of seconds.
ALAN ALDA (Laughs) You know that alone is worth the price of admission, just to see that. Hello. How are you? Nice to meet you. Well now, tell me about this machine. It's a complete fraud, right?
CHRISTINE HARRIS Yeah, we call it a mock tickle machine. Mock sounds better than fraud. And it just is a bunch of lights and old time sensitivity things that we thought might look like a real tickle machine.
ALAN ALDA Does anyone ever say, that's a tickle machine? What do you mean, you know?
CHRISTINE HARRIS Only one person figured out that it was not a real tickle machine. What happened is that the research assistant was under the table and she had her hair up in a pin and it got caught in the top of the table, so there was actually this noise as she tried to free herself from under the table.
ALAN ALDA So what did you find out from this test?
CHRISTINE HARRIS Well basically what we were looking at is -- no one really knows why you can't tickle yourself, right? But one hypothesis is that it requires the belief that it's somebody else doing the tickling. And if that's the case, and you put someone in here with a machine and you tickle them with a machine, then they shouldn't laugh and smile. That's what we were interested in.
ALAN ALDA Well it sounds like I completely reversed what you expected.
CHRISTINE HARRIS No, well actually you I think you fit what I would expect. That's one hypothesis. And what I think is, people who believe that tickling is something akin to a reflex or fixed action pattern, they would suggest that it shouldn't matter if it's a machine or a human, that you should laugh and smile regardless of your beliefs. And so I think this does support that kind of thought.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) The idea that a machine can tickle as well as a person certainly goes against most people's expectations. But in fact most of the subjects actually experiencing Christine's mock tickle machine were as tickled as I was -- if perhaps not quite as astonished. Still, the experiment has what seems to me an obvious problem.
ALAN ALDA You haven't really tested for a machine tickling a person, you've tested only for whether a person believes a machine is tickling them. If they believe that, will they have a tickle response? Have you ever had something like a machine to tickle them with?
CHRISTINE HARRIS No we haven't because for us we wanted to test this assumption that there's something about these beliefs, and for us this was the right experiment. Because if you had a tickling machine, a true tickling machine, and you had it tickling the person, and then you had a human tickling the person and you got a difference, maybe the machine didn't cause laughter and smiling as much, you would never know if it was because the tactile stimulation was different or if it was the belief in the machine. So for us it was the right experiment. But we haven't actually built a real machine.
ALAN ALDA Actually it's probably extremely difficult to build a tickling machine.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) Difficult -- but not, it turns out, impossible. In London, psychologist Sarah Blakemore recently built a robot that would tickle people's palms. It doesn't look as much fun as Christine's mock machine, but like hers it did succeed in being tickly.
SARAH BLAKEMORE So could you tell me how that stimulus felt, on a scale from zero meaning not at all to ten meaning extremely tickly?
SUBJECT About six.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) What was clever about this experiment was that subjects could also control the robot themselves. And when they did, it stopped feeling tickly -- unless the robot had a built in delay, when the tickling sensation returned. So you can tickle yourself -- but only indirectly. SARAH BLAKEMORE So you can feel the tactile stimulus on your hand now…
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) Sarah Blakemore then put volunteers into a scanning machine to see if there was any difference in how the brain responds to self-tickling as compared to machine tickling. The experiment suggests that the brain has a self-censor, a damping signal sent from the region monitoring movement to the region reacting to touch -- a useful survival mechanism making sure we don't jump in surprise every time we touch our own bodies. So that's why we can't tickle ourselves -- our brains won't let us. But there's another little question about tickling. How come it makes us laugh? Is it because we find it funny -- funny in the same sense we find humor funny? No less an authority that Charles Darwin suggested a link between ticklish laughter and humorous laughter -- so Christine Harris set up another experiment.
VIDEOTAPE We will work with the customer to give that customer the change he or she needs.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) Her idea was to exploit what comics call the warm-up effect: it takes a joke or two to get the audience in the right mood.
VIDEOTAPE If you come to us with a hundred dollar bill, we're not going to give you two thousand nickels, unless that meets your particular change needs.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) If ticklish laughter and humorous laughter are the same, then warming someone up with a funny video should also make them more ticklish.
VIDEOTAPE We will give you the change equal to the amount of money you want change for.
ALAN ALDA So at what point do you tickle her?
CHRISTINE HARRIS So after she's watched the video, and laughed and smiled at the video, then we'll do the tickling and so Noriko… We're going to tickle you anywhere from the underarms to the waist, and so if you just loosen your arms, you can lean back but just let your arms fall kind of loose. OK?
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) Margaret certainly didn't seem very amused.
MARGARET I'd say that was about a two.
CHRISTINE HARRIS OK
ALAN ALDA First of all, do you find that people are warmed up by watching the video?
CHRISTINE HARRIS No. Actually we didn't find an effect of warm up. So if you've just watched a nature film or if you've just watched a comedy it doesn't affect how much you laugh or smile in response to tickling. And vice versa, if you are tickled and then watch a funny film it doesn't increase the amount of laughter.
ALAN ALDA Did it seemed similar to you to the laughter you had when you were laughing at the tape?
MARGARET Not at all. No, it didn't seem humorous to me. I mean the squirmy feeling is the reaction, but it wasn't the same sensation evoked by the video.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) Which brings us to the biggest little tickle question of all -- just why are we ticklish? Christine Harris thinks it might help develop combat skills.
HARRY I got you. Adam, I got you. You can't get away!
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) The laughter keeps the tickler tickling even while the tickled is trying to escape.
CHRISTINE HARRIS It looks like you're having the time of your life, you look like you're loving it, you're laughing and smiling, but a lot of people don't actually like to be tickled.
ALAN ALDA Do you?
CHRISTINE HARRIS No, I don't. I don't, no.
ALAN ALDA (Laughs) You don't seem to like to talk about it…
http://www.pbs.org/saf/1105/resources/transcript.htm#2http://www.pbs.org/saf/1105/video/watchonline.htm
Alex Zane (TV.Radio host) is very ticklish! His ticklishness was proven, when he got his upper body tickled by the 2009 Comic Relief Tickle Monster, in a video called "Whose Got the Giggles?"
Andreas (Drummer for the band Sibelmond) did an online chat in 2007, and was asked "the question". Only the drummer Andreas answered:http://www.silbermond-wiki.de/Bandchat_(13.11.2007)
Andy Akinwolere (Presenter in Blue Peter) got tickled in the same video, by the Tickle Monster, as Alex Zane did, and was just as ticklish as he was :DUpdate '11: Here's an online chat with Andy, where he admits to being ticklish:
Message 36
, in reply to message 34.
Posted by Loopa (U11099732) on Tuesday, 29th April 2008
funnyfriedchicken says:
I want to know are you ticklish?
Link to this forum: !!!Andy's Web Chat!!!
Report message36
#
Message 37
, in reply to message 36.
Posted by Andy Akinwolere (U5711827) on Tuesday, 29th April 2008
Yeah I am. ;)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbcbbc/NF2697946?thread=5392070
Barry Watson (actor) was tickled on 7th Heaven. Barry was standing under at ree and his girlfriend sneaks up from behind then jump in front of him and starts tickling his sides. He jumps and looks real ticklish. Later on, in a TV.com interview, Barry was asked:
Ticklish?
Yes! My feet
Barry didn't mention his waist, but... he won't be the 1st guy, celeb or not, to try hiding his ticklish spots.
Ben Cohen (British rugby player) was asked if he's ticklish on his official page:Hey BenI'd like to know where you are ticklish?
Hey Sarah
Brad Craig (musician/producer) was messaged on his myspace page and asked if he is ticklish. His answer:
Bastian Schweinsteiger (football player) gets tickled by Lukas Podolski in the 2nd picture. It's obvious he's VERY ticklish!
Brandon Boyd (song writer and lead singer for tha band INCUBUS) gets tickled, while being taken a photo with fans. (1ist picture) He's very ticklish all over his waist, and Interner rumor is: Brandon Boyd is the most ticklish member of Incubus.
C Thomas Howell (actor) gets tickled by Jaime Lee Curtis (above)
Christian Slater (actor) is ticklish! It was reported by actress Bella Thorne, in a StarScoop on-line interview, abut her work on the set of "My Own Worst Enemy":
Clark Bartram (America's Most Trusted Fittness Professional)I recently e-mailed Clark Bartram, who hosts a fitness show on Fit TV, a cable station. He used to be on Kiana's Flex Appeal, a fitness show that is still running on ESPN. He is an extremely hot, extremely well-built blonde guy who I'm sure anyone would love to tie down and tickle. Anyway, I e-mailed him and told him that I was conducting an experiment for one of my college classes regarding "ticklishness" and whether fitness level, age, etc., affect how ticklish people are. I asked whether he is ticklish and exactly where. His response to my question as to whether he is ticklish was:"Yes I am, don't know how much it has to with fitness level because I've been at the same level my entire life, probably even more sensitive as a child. Ribs mostly. Hope this helps, keep watching the show.
Craig Ferguson (TV Host) got tickled on his late night Talk Show, by William Shatner. He was tickled on his upper body, and was very ticklish. On another episode of his show, Craig was tickled by David Duchovny.
Criss Angel (magician) gets his very ticklish sides tickled, in order to smile for a picture - something he usually refuses to do, claiming he'd not be photographed smiling: "Not even if you tickle me". Too bad for Criss his ticklish sides have another opinion! (check also "LETTR "C")
Dickman (KZMG Radio DJ) was asked if he's ticklish in the radio's online site:Are you ticklish?
David Cross (actor/comedian/writer) David Cross and Bob Odenkirk were guests on Space Ghost. Space Ghost asked them "What makes you guys laugh?" and Dave answered "Tickling, being tickled, people who tickle me."
A collage of David Boreanaz having his bare feet tickled in stocks.
Edward Woodward (actor) He keeps his socks on when he has a massage because his feet are so ticklish. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4161/is_/ai_n14485287
Eric Stoltz (actor) Eric Stoltz admits to having ticklish feet and getting them tickled by Patrick Dempsey, while filming a "Gray's Anathomy" episode 
A collage of James Denton getting his very ticklish feet tickled in stocks (above)
Jeffrey Dean Morgan (actor, John Winchester on "Supernatural") sort of admited to having ticklish feet in a TVGuide interview. He was asked to comment on working with Isaiah Washington on "Grey's Anatomy":Interviewer: Give us some dirt on Isaiah.
Jeffrey: That guy really knows how to dress, too. Every day he shows up to work looking good. Because I'm in bed all the time, I don't have a lot of movement, he was big on like, tickling and grabbing my foot. So yeah, he's a little bit of a prankster,that one.
http://jeffreydeanmorganfans.com/Articles/the_411_tvguide.html
http://www.jdmorgan.net/v_int.php
download the TVGUIDE, The 411 interview. May need VLC player to play it.
John Barrowman (actor) gets caucy in an interview:Are you ticklish?
(John Borrowman is tickled on the photo above, and he looks seriously ticklish!)
Jacob Graff (singer) was asked on his official myspace page if he is ticklish and where. He replied:
Jeff Fedak (singer) was messaged on myspace and asked whether he is ticklish, and in what spots. His response:
Julian Velard (singer/song-writer) was asked if and where he is ticklish on his official myspace. He replied:Update, 2011: Julian was e-mailed on myspace and asked to reveal if his feet are ticklish too. He answered:
Really excited you're digging on the tunes, hope to see you at a show sometime soon. And yes, my feet are ticklish.
Hope all is well!
JV
Update II, 2011: Julian Velard was asked if and where he is ticklish on his official fanbridge page, to which he gave a pretty cool answer!
http://julianvelard.fanbridge.com/fan_questions/q/418958
Joel (Blue Peter Presenter) got tickled by the same Tickle Monster, that gave Alex Zane and co-host Andy the tickles, making them laugh for Red Nose Day 2009
Kenneth Knight 'Ken' (TV Presenter) admited he's ticklish on Mishmashtv's official site, in a Q&A for his profile:http://www.mishmashtv.co.nz/mishmash-tvcentral-presenters
Kobe Bryant (basketball player) has extremely ticklish feet, as the 1st photo shows! He gets too ticklish, during reflexology/massage.
Kenneth Seil (bass player of Scar Symmetry) was reported being ticklish by a fan:"It took a while, but we met Scar Symmetry, awesome guys, and their bass player is ticklish."
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