Tickled,  from New Zealand Journalist David Farrier is a fascinating mystery documentary delving into the seedy realm of Competitive Endurance Tickling to uncover a world few are familiar with. Easily one of the best docs of 2016.

David Farrier is an infectiously happy pop culture reporter from New Zealand who has made a name for himself reporting on oddball entertainment since 2006. Covering movie premieres and events like the E3 video game convention, Farrier has a knack for uncovering the strange, the bizarre, the absurd, and somehow finding the humanistic through line that helps us identify with the subject. His most recent sensation, the documentary Tickled, is no different and is probably his best work to date.
Farrier happens across Jane O’Brien Media and their extensive library of Competitive Endurance Tickling videos. This being right up Farrier’s alley in its absurdity, he reaches out to the production company in hopes of covering their niche. Instead of being welcomed, he is subjected to ridicule for being a gay journalist. Farrier notices the irony in a very homoerotic “sport” calling him out as gay and decides to investigate further. What ensues is a fascinating exploration of secrets, repression, money and power that will keep you riveted until the very end.

To explain further would be to take the unnerving pleasure away from this fearless piece of investigative reporting. Recalling the compelling Catfish, Farrier and his team keep the cameras rolling every step of the way. We are made to feel that we are uncovering a conspiracy that has far reaching ramifications. Yes, all this from a tickle fetish video mystery.

The documentary exposes layer after layer of story, making new connections in a conspiracy the literally traverses the globe. We find that, for years, Jane O’Brien Media has been plying young, male college students with money, gifts, and anything else, in exchange for getting a little tickle on screen. When the boys opt out, when they say the dreaded two-letter word, “No,” a torrent of malicious attacks is unleashed fueled by a seemingly endless wellspring of finances. Litigation, verbal attacks, and social ostracism are weapons that Jane O’Brien Media used to keep her boys in check. However, with Farrier, this tactic only makes him more curious. This, in turn, makes for an irresistible documentary.

What makes this film work is Farrier’s knack for being affable and tenacious. You are right along with him as he is threatened, maligned, bullied, and ultimately, well–no, I can’t say anything further. The insanity of endurance ticking is layered with the equally strange idea that it be shrouded in secrecy. Who cares if guys like to be tickled? Jane O’Brien, that’s who.

Unravelling a mystery of secrecy, lies, and shame, what began as a silly expose of a fetish becomes something far more profound. The film becomes a mystery thriller in which a worldwide conspiracy lingers around every corner.

Tickled is one of the best documentaries of 2016. It is a documentary that uncovers, not just a bizarre fetish, but a world of hate and repression, a jaw-dropping, laugh out loud inducing tour-de-force of pop journalism that slides into top notch investigative reporting.

See Tickled as soon as you can.