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As we've previously established and regularly highlighted, Japan is pretty weird. And as it turns out, Germany's kinda weird, too: m2-res_720p.mp4 The above video has been making its rounds on social media, and the simplest description of it is that it's a game where they are trying to cut an object (here, a pretzel) EXACTLY in half. It's pretty amazing that the person actually succeeds, but the fact that this is a game at all (on TV, no less) is fascinating. Schlag den Henssler ('Beat the Henssler') is a short-lived German game show reboot of Schlag den Raab ('Beat the Raab'), and was briefly succeed by Schlag den Starr ('Beat the Star'). The conceit is pretty simple - contestants play a bunch of mini-games to earn points and try to beat the (insert person here). To be clear, most of the games are not quite so weird. But there are some truly weird ones: Cardboard box Jenga? I suppose the other thing that I find quite amusing is how German some of these games/challenges are. It's not really about creative problems solving or funny slapstick conceits (Japanese gameshows, I'm looking at you). It seems that for a lot of these games, its really about doing one very precise thing, extremely well. The most important "skill" isn't necessarily intelligence or athleticism, but rather precision and mechanical repetition. That's so German. Stay weird, everybody.

Outrageous new TV dating shows cut straight to chase Once upon a time in a more coy era people made an effort to get to know each other -- perhaps learning each other's names -- before hopping into bed together. But for the swipe-right generation raised on dating apps like Tinder that is so last century, television executives believe. A new dating show is helping time-pressed millennials save on the unnecessary preliminaries by cutting straight to the chase. "Making Love" has jaws dropping at MIPCOM, the world's biggest TV market in Cannes, by having contestants have sex first before deciding if they like each other. Its French producers WeMake said it has brought together "scientifically-matched singles" to ask the essential question, "Could making love make you fall in love?" They billed the show -- which is being sold at MIPCOM -- as "a ground-breaking experiment into how humans fall in love. "Behind the (bedroom) door cameras have captured the new couple's every move, every awkward moment," the producers said, before pulling away at the last minute only to reappear in the post-coital glow -- or gloom. Contestants can then hurry into the bathroom to debrief the audience on just how their new partner performed. - Friends-with-benefits - "We will follow the daters over the next few weeks to see if the pair remain friends-with-benefits only or will they chose to get to know each other and start a relationship," the show's trailer promised. Although the producers are French, the contestants for the pilot show were British. The format is one of several new series which are likely to pop up on TV screens across the globe in the next few years. Analyst Virginia Mouseler of The Wit database said the new age of dating was not for prudes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imbERhnIoYM