From the mundane to the heart-breaking: Colombians line up for trial by lie detector

Yury Andrés Narváez had already admitted stealing £2,500 from his family, cheating on his fiancee with one of her friends, and kissing another man. Now came another question: did he want his fiancee to be the mother of his children?

Ominous music swelled as Mr Narváez, isolated on a podium, met the gaze of his betrothed, Viviana, before answering with a confident: "Yes."

The music stopped and from somewhere on the darkened set an electronic voice boomed out the judgment: "That is ... false."

A polygraph had supplied a different answer and Mr Narváez was deemed to have lied, costing him $25,000 (£12,400) in prize money and possibly a lot more, judging by the expression on the face of Viviana, who looked on from the studio audience.

Welcome to Nothing But the Truth, a Colombian gameshow which brings new levels of excruciation to reality television. The format has been so successful with Colombian viewers that it is due to be exported to Europe and the US, cementing Latin America's growing influence on western popular culture.

I'm disgusted. This show, which will allegedly "cement Latin America's growing influence on western popular culture", is a concept created by Los Angeles-based producer, Howard Schultz. It's not "Latin American culture". Of course, there are lots of bad shows and productions over here, but do we really need to import sh*t like this?

The whole concept is stupid; they use a lie-detector, despite the fact that a 2003 study by the US National Academy of Sciences concluded such tests have too many false results to be used in job-screening. In the show, if the machine says you're lying, then you're lying, and you can kiss goodbye the money prize.

Besides, I can't see what's so amusing about watching people being humiliated and violated. Yes, it's wrong to lie to your loved ones and to your friends; but no society would work without lies, that's for sure. I'm not making an apology to lie, but I don't understand why would you step into a stage and confess your lies (big and ugly lies) in front of a TV audience. Mr. Narváez probably has exchanged his marriage for money, even though the machine is not accurate, and the money wasn't that much. How stupid is that? Why would you put yourself in such a position?

The article is right when it says:

Latin America's most famous cultural export, after salsa, used to be writers such as Gabriel García Márquez and Mario Vargas Llosa. But increasingly its influence is on television, from lurid soaps to Ugly Betty, a remake of Colombia's Betty La Fea.

So sad that we went from brilliant writers to a TV show based on public humiliations, isn't it? But wait, there's more!

The US network NBC is planning to remake another Colombian hit, Without Breasts There Is No Paradise, about a teenage prostitute who worries she will remain impoverished without Breast augmentation.

Are you serious?? "Worries she will remain impoverished without breast augmentation"?! When you think you have seen all kind of cr*p on TV... This "plotline" is so ridiculous and delirant I can't even write about it. Por Dios.

Via: Latin American Princesa