->''"Let's say you're flipping through your 8,479 cable channels, and you come across a program called ''Eat Bugs for Money'', where in they bring out a large live insect, and the contestants secretly write down the minimum amount of money they would have to be given to eat it, and whichever one has the lowest bid has to actually do it. Admit it: YOU would watch this program. In fact, right now you're saying to yourself: 'Hey, I wonder what channel that's on.'"''
-->-- '''Creator/DaveBarry''', "Beetlejuice"

In many {{Reality Show}}s, the contestants will at one point have to eat something [[{{squick}} absolutely disgusting]]. This will usually be bugs (sometimes ''living'' bugs) or even worse. This is commonly cited by the MoralGuardians as evidence that Reality TV is pure trash ("We're eating worms for money!" a character complained in ''Series/Studio60OnTheSunsetStrip''). Occasionally survival-type shows will attempt to vaguely justify it as the equivalent of searching for food and getting whatever is necessary, but in those cases contestants might be doing that anyway and never need to resort to eating or even find anything as gross as what the show forces them to eat. Another common justification is that the food is actually ForeignQueasine; something that the locals do, in fact, eat (although not usually in anywhere near the same quantities as the contestants have to.)

Contrast ReducedToRatburgers, in which it's typically the eater's survival rather than bank account that's at stake. Not related to IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten. Presumably, this is where these shows would draw the line. We hope.

Not to be confused with TakeThat. Although "eat" is the most commonly used verb, it is also not a subset of VerbThis.

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!Examples:
[[foldercontrol]]

!!Live-Action Television

[[folder:Game and Reality Programs]]
* ''Series/{{Survivor}}'' had a gross food challenge OnceASeason in its first few years. They stopped doing it after the ''Samoa'' season (2009), save for occasional use as a CallBack in seasons with returning contestants.
* ''Series/FearFactor'', the TropeCodifier. Buffalo testicles and pig rectums were bad enough, but the Championship episode was where it arguably got abusive (maggoty cheese). In the new series, one stunt in particular -- the chugging of [[spoiler:donkey semen and urine]] -- was so nasty that Creator/{{NBC}} refused to air it.
* ''Series/ElGranJuegoDeLaOca'' was doing this in Spain long before Americans got a hold of it; various challenges included contestants having to eat the "eyeballs" and "brains" from characters dressed as zombies, being strapped to a torture chair and being force-fed hot peppers for getting questions wrong, and in the second season being forced to eat what would become typical ''Fear Factor'' fare at the "Chinese Restaurant" to avoid losing all their money.
* Venezuelan sailing-themed game show ''El gran navegante'' has a challenge named "La comida imposible" (The Impossible Meal). As the name implies, the contestant has to take at least three bites from a disgusting meal to win.
%% * ''Series/RoadRules'', in later seasons.
%% * ''Series/SilentLibrary''
* ''Laura en América'': In [[http://blogs.elcomercio.pe/santalima/2008/11/14-laura-bozzo-y-las-axilas.html one episode]] of this famous and [[GuiltyPleasure ridiculous]] Peruvian PointAndLaughShow, someone was forced to eat a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsicum_pubescens rocoto]] for $20, among other humiliations. The name of the episode was “Haría cualquier cosa por dinero” ("I would do anything for the money").
%% * ''Series/TheAmazingRace'' (always the "local delicacy" version.)
* ''Series/ImACelebrityGetMeOutOfHere'': Bush tucker trials have included kangaroo penis, live crickets, cockroach smoothie... and anything else gross the producers can think of.
* Discovery/History Channel
** Les Stroud of ''Series/{{Survivorman}}'' does this, as he has a minimum amount of food with him.
** Ditto with Bear Grylls of ''Series/ManVsWild'', though in this case it usually has more to do with ratings than necessity, since he doesn't bother to cook his finds even when he can.
*** Of course, the premise of Man vs. Wild precludes stopping to cook food: Bear focuses on ''escaping'' the wilderness. ''Survivorman'', on the other hand, focuses on ''surviving'' the wilderness, so Les has time to build a fire and cook any food he's found, as he tends to stay in one location longer than Bear. Les also tends to try and get fish or birds or fruit, in preference to creepy-crawlies.
** ''Alaska Experiment'' contestants survive and travel in Alaska. With little food, they make the most of and prey they hunt, usually having organ stew.
** ''Series/DualSurvival'' a military survivalist and a survival minimalist show how to reach civilization when stranded somewhere. The minimalist finds local plants and bugs, which the military survivalist absolutely detests.
* ''Series/{{Solitary}}'' uses this trope in a different way. Instead of eating disgusting food, the contestants eat normal food as a challenge. The catch is, they have to [[ForceFeeding keep shoveling it down]] until it comes up.
* ''Series/HellsKitchen'' has made the losing team on various challenges (usually blind taste tests or identifying cuts of meat) forced to eat such offal as beef tongue, brains, intestines, etc. Expect a VomitChainReaction to happen. Additionally, contestants that have cooked something poorly but refused to own up to it have sometimes been sent out into the dining room to eat their mistakes.
-->'''Dave''': You're not supposed to drink duck.
* ''Series/TheJoeSchmoShow'' had exactly ''one'' real contestant; all the others were actors. The real contestant had been promised before the show there would be no challenges of this type, and nearly walks off the show when they spring one on him. This was entirely intentional-- they ''wanted'' him to threaten to walk off so that they could set up a plot where he used his skills of having studying law in college to negotiate with a fake network executive.
* Even ''Series/RupaulsDragRace'' got in on the act. The Season 2 "country-fried" episode had a mini-challenge called "Chicken or What?", where the queens had to eat a mystery fried food blindfolded and say if it was chicken or "what." When it came down to a three-way tie, the winner was the one who could finish a basket of various fried goods - chicken, rabbit, alligator, and cow brains.
* In one episode of ''Series/MythBusters'', testing whether you literally "got cold feet" when you were scared meant the Build Team had to confront their phobias. Poor Kari (a vegetarian who got squeamish around meat) had to choose two things to eat from a selection of items the guys prepared specifically to gross her out. She ended up eating the live bugs.
-->'''Kari''' (''very'' distressed): Why is it that I am a grown woman and boys are still trying to make me eat bugs?
* Sometimes invoked with {{Zonk}}s on the current version of ''Series/LetsMakeADeal'', which has had mayonaise-flavored mouthwash and "bug candy" come up as joke prizes. In both cases, host Creator/WayneBrady was coaxed into giving them a taste; of the two, he had a relatively positive response to the bug candy.
%% * ''Series/AKBingo''
* '' [[Series/TheLateLateShow The Late Late Show with James Corden]]'' has "Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts", where the guest has to choose between eating something disgusting and answering an embarrassing question.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Non-Reality Programs]]
* During a discussion of this trope on ''Radio/TheRickyGervaisShow'', producer [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Pilkington Karl Pilkington]] commented that eating a kangaroo penis in the morning would be too difficult. His clarification, "I could eat a knob at night," became an internet meme, spawning VoiceClipSongs, t-shirts, public graffiti, and a story in the New York Times.
* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', Dr. Keller is offered a local (dead) bug to eat by Teyla. She initially refuses, commenting "This was my least favorite part of ''Series/{{Survivor}}''" and "Eating gross food, sorry, but that's where I draw the line". She eventually eats it, but only because they were trapped on an alien planet with no escape and no food.
* On ''Series/{{Lost}}'', Jin offers Hurley sea urchin, and is offended when Hurley refuses. Later, Hurley eats (and throws up) sea urchin in order to apologize.
* Parodied on ''Series/ChappellesShow'', where homeless crackhead Tyrone Biggums goes on ''Series/FearFactor'' and wins handily due to his normal living conditions being far more gruelling than anything the show can throw at him. The final challenge is to eat elk penis topped with diced pig bladder and "a light cream testicle sauce", with horse hooves for dessert. While his opponent is too grossed out and drops out of the challenge, Tyrone is just happy to have a meal. While eating it, he jokes, "this is not the first time I've tasted penis", and implies that he frequently gives blowjobs in exchange for crack.
* On ''Series/TopGear'''s American South special, the presenters were told to spend the night camping, and that dinner would be whatever they could find by the side of the road. Jeremy Clarkson (somehow) found and brought back an entire dead cow[[note]]It had died of natural causes that day and he asked the farmer if he could have it[[/note]]. James May promptly announced he'd decided to become a vegetarian.
* ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' reveals that Dee once made a kid with a crush on her eat [[RoadApples a horse turd]] in exchange for a kiss. He did... and then she refused the kiss him because he'd just eaten shit.
* Happens to Ryan Styles occasionally on ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway''. During "Helping Hands", Colin forces Ryan to eat some unappetising things. Fairly mild example for this page, but enough to make the audience squirm.
* In one ''Series/TheKidsInTheHall'' sketch, two guys in a bus start singing the campfire song "Think I'll Go Eat Worms". Everyone else in the bus thinks they're just starting a singalong to pass the time... until they pull out a large plastic bag full of live worms. The guys are rather confused about why everyone then freaked out and threw them off the bus.
* In ''Series/ModernFamily'', Alex dares Luke to eat sugar that was spilled on the floor for a dollar. Phil tells Luke not to do it... [[DoWrongRight for so little money.]]
* Series/JustRollWithIt: With the show having the audience picking things for the actors to do, this sometimes gets used. Examples include Blair making sandwiches for someone else to eat, snail smoothies, Rachael and Byron having to feed each other blindfolded, donuts with disgusting fillings, etc.
[[/folder]]

!!Other media

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* In a series of ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' strips, Calvin offers to eat five worms in front of Susie for a quarter. His mother shows up, and drags him away; he complains, then, when they're out of hearing distance, thanks her.
%%* Much of the humor of ''ComicBook/{{Chew}}'' is built upon this trope.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action Films]]
* In the Creator/LaurelAndHardy movie ''Film/WayOutWest'', as they go to retrieve a deed from swindlers, Stanley vows if they fail he'll eat Ollie's hat. They fail. Ollie makes him keep his promise - at first Stanley faces his task with whimpering distaste, but seems blankly contented by his third bite.
* The second task of ''Film/ThirteenSins'' involves eating a fly that has just been killed.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* The children's book ''How To Eat Fried Worms'' by Thomas Rockwell. Kid bets he can eat fifteen earthworms in fifteen days to win some cash; HilarityEnsues.
* In the schlock-horror novel ''Creepers'', an undercover cop has to eat a roasted rat in order to be accepted as one of them by some paranoid homeless drifters.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Stand-Up Comedy]]
* Creator/RodneyCarrington relates to how he and his friends started playing card games where the loser would have to eat pet food, and eventually live insects. He maintains that there's no better form of entertainment than watching your buddies throw up.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireII'' has a scenario where the local prince and his imposter are pit in a cooking contest to determine who the real prince is. Because one of the recipes the real prince makes uses an extra-rare and especially sumptuous ingredient, the royal chefs have a hard time maintaining the facade of supporting the imposter (to be fair, they were blackmailed into it). The princess throws a hissy fit amidst the stalemate and orders the party to eat it up. Oh, did I mention that everyone who wasn't at the party at the time is a frog? The pointman (or pointgirl) will be wishing for a paper bag soon enough.
* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' allows you to "sample" alchemical ingredients. Said ingredients can range from a bee to a giant's toe.
** In the Dark Brotherhood questline, you get to murder an emperor. Due to the importance of this mission overshadowing the budget, your mentor gives you Jarrin Root, an extremely rare and extremely deadly poison. Indeed, any player character without hundreds of HP will die instantly - except as the Dragonborn, you can level up enough to barely survive eating it, and since it's the only Jarrin Root you'll ever pick up in the entire game, that ingredient entry is looking awfully unfinished...
[[/folder]]

%%[[folder:Webcomics]]
%% * ''Webcomic/SurvivorFanCharacters'' (based off Series/{{Survivor}})
%%[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''WebVideo/HotOnes'' combines this with BlazingInfernoHellfireSauce. Guests are given a succession of wings to eat, dabbed with increasingly fiery sauces, and have to suffer the heat while answering the hosts' questions.
%% * ''[[http://www.thesneeze.com/steve-dont-eat-it/ Steve, Don't Eat It!]]''
* One episode of ''WebVideo/EightiesDan'' revolved around Dan unearthing a UsefulNotes/McDonalds MCDLT he had buried in a time capsule 20 years ago, which had rotted away into an ugly green mush [[note]]Actually cream of mushroom dyed green[[/note]] save for the bun. What makes it hilarious is that no one is making Dan eat it at all(in fact, the other characters were emphatically trying to warn him ''not to''); Dan simply refuses to accept that there's anything wrong with it, to the point that when he takes a bite, he ''actually tries going for another one'' before finally giving in to run off and [[VomitDiscretionShot puke it back up]].
* Two ''[[LetsPlay/AnalogControl Analog Control Showdowns]]'' revolved around the challenge's loser consuming some ghastly thing. MJTR lost both matches, describing the "dollar store ribeye" as SoOkayItsAverage and a shot glass of apple cider vinegar as "foul".
* When a guest episode of Podcast/ChuckleSandwich is filmed in person, there's a good chance the hosts will make the guest drink some thick water. Judging from their reactions, it's pretty disgusting.
* "Put it in your Mouth" is a web series hosted by ''WebVideo/{{Smosh}}'' where Noah, the resident PickyEater, and his occasional guest stars are given a random selection of mostly disgusting foodstuffs to eat.
* There is a video out there where purely for scientific interest, two willing volunteers prepare and consume a twelve-year-old [[UsefulNotes/RamenAsDehydratedNoodles Pot Noodle]] found in the forgotten dark depths of a food cupboard. What worried them was that while it ''looked'' grey and unappetizing, it still ''tasted'' broadly as if it were still fresh. Preservatives are there for a purpose, it seems...
* An episode Mexican web animation ''Vete a la Versh'' had the IdiotHero main character Darkar finding a magic lamp. The first wish he asked was that the genie make his roommate ([[ItMakesAsMuchSenseInContext a humanoid made out of semen]]) explode. The second is that he repair his bathroom. The third is that he gets a new remote control because he lost the other. When the genie starts complaining about his inane wishing Darkar changes his wish to "I wish that you eat that thing" pointing at the exploded roommate. The genie gives him the remote.
* ''WebVideo/HowToBasic'' has the video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5e1HPeusiA How To Make a Krabby Patty]], which is done in a pretty standard way... for him (that is, adding stuff like chocolate cake, pickles and ''a'' ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' ''DVD'' on the thing). However, at the end there's an invitation to see a video in which user maxmoefoe [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNSPw3ykA68 has to try and eat the culinary abomination]]. Warning: it results in a VomitIndiscretionShot
* WebVideo/StuartAshen is often given horrifically out-of-date food (so far ranging from 12 to 180 years old) to examine. He usually tries everything that he is given, albeit in very small amounts so that he doesn't die. He has also tried several ForeignQueasine foodstuffs such as a century egg and surströmming.
* ''WebVideo/SmoshPit'': "Eat It or Yeet it!" Where something that may or may not be disgusting is presented and everyone has to decide if they'll ring the bell and eat it (and try not to throw up afterwards). Anyone who hasn't eaten something by the end gets stuck with ''The '''Big''' Bite'', which will either be the best or the worst item.
* The premise of all Creator/BDylanHollis's [=TikTok=] shorts are incredulously cooking and eating a PovertyFood recipie from the Great Depression, or a "We have cheap refridgerators now" dish from the '50s. These can be either a hit (in which case, we get [[WhenSheSmiles a big, happily-surprised grin]]), or a miss, in which case, we get some amusing commentary on how vile it is (for example, that a corn syrup and peanut pie tastes "like crunchy diesel.")
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': In "Card Wars", when Finn and Jake play the eponymous game, Jake whips up a disgusting "dweeb drink" (a mix of cola, coffee grounds, beetle butter, grape jelly, kimchi, and "ham chunk juice") that the loser has to drink.
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'', Danny Fenton was forced to eat Dash's underwear for losing a contest. It had holes, smelled bad, and looked very dirty. It was bad enough that Danny looked sick. Wouldn't we all be sick anyways?
* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures''. The Chan team entered a Survivor-style contest and one of the tests was to eat a bowl full of bugs.
* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'':
** Most seasons have an eating challenge where the contestants must consume gross foods or nonfoods. The show being a satire/parody of reality shows, this is virtually a requirement.
** One of the first season's staple jokes was to play up Chef Hatchet's LethalChef traits. After all, it ''was'' a [[SummerCampy summer camp setting]], and fictional summer camps always have nothing but disgusting slop to eat. He's actually a pretty good cook when he's making food for the ''staff''.
** The first season's dare challenge has several instances of the players having to eat gross things, or normal foods under gross conditions, e.g. drinking powdered fruit punch mix from a toilet bowl.
--->'''[[TheHost Chris]]:''' Is there nothing these freaks won't do?
* Parodied on ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'', when Timmy goes up against a race of aliens called the Yugopotamians. The aliens have polar opposite values and tastes of humans, and to get to speak to the king, Timmy must eat a piece of the foulest substance known to Yugopotamians: chocolate. The entire audience promptly passes out in horror.
--> '''Yugopotamian Queen''': I don't get it! He's not bleeding OR burning!!
* During the TV movie "Win, Lose, or Kaboom!" from ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'', this is one of the challenges on the intergalactic game show they're on, where contestants spin a wheel to see what they have to eat. Carl gets an alien food and finds it delicious. An alien contestant ''also'' gets alien food... as in he was served banana cream pie from Earth. [[YourHeadAsplode It made his head explode]].
* In TheMovie for ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansTroubleInTokyo'', an angry Japanese sushi chef tries to chase [[BigEater Cyborg]] away from his "all you can eat" buffet by offering him some of the grossest foods he can imagine, including an old shoe stuffed full of wasabi. Fortunately, circumstances intervened before the chef got angry enough to serve fugu.
* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', where the Simpsons run into the losing team from a Survivor-style reality show who were left on the island after one of their members simply couldn't eat any more kangaroo testicles. Ironically, now that they've been ReducedToRatburgers and scrounging for survival for real, he suddenly can't get enough of them.
* Happens to ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' in one episode when he's drawn into a Who Can Eat The Most Disgusting Thing?" contest with the MonsterOfTheWeek. Only problem? Said monster is a giant insect and obviously used to disgusting fare. The things they eat are, in order; Broccoli, old, rancid broccoli, and old rancid broccoli the insect had between his toes for a week. Courage fails the third one, and the insect eats his portion as well.
* On ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'', the boys gather at the cafeteria to play "Will Dizzy Eat It?" Being an ExtremeOmnivore, the answer is always yes.
* On one episode of ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', Dale criticizes Bill for being in a hot dog eating contest. Dale then confesses that as a kid he would eat things for money because he felt it made him popular. He stopped when he realized that people were just laughing at him.
* Creator/CartoonNetwork's ''Staylongers'', a interstitial ''Series/{{Survivor}}'' parody from 2000, had a few shorts based around this:
** In one, the network's stars were reluctant to eat a fried rat, and were disgusted when [[WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog Eustace]] gladly went for it.
--->'''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo:''' You know, maybe there's a reason [[WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry Tom never caught Jerry]].
** In another, [[WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo Daphne]] faints when challenged to eat a bowl of grubs, while [[WesternAnimation/SpaceGhostCoastToCoast Brak]] digs in with gusto. This leads to Daphne's team-mates voting her off the island.
* The episode ''[[Recap/SouthParkS4E15FatCamp Fat Camp]]'' of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' has Kenny start out eating disgusting things for money, such as (in order) a manatee spleen, the half-digested remains of that same manatee spleen after it made him puke, and a fresh dog turd. This eventually evolves into him ''doing'' vile things for money, culminating in his [[TheyKilledKennyAgain customary demise]] (or, rather, a lookalike Stan and Kyle blackmailed).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* The last emperor of China wrote in his autobiography that he once forced one of his eunuchs to eat a piece of dirt.
* Goldfish-swallowing as a fraternity initiation or dare is practically a trope of its own.
** And that would be a ''very tame'' initiation stunt. Ask Dartmouth alumnae about the "vomlet".
* Peter Beck, the CEO of commercial rocket enterprise Rocket Lab (of Electron rocket fame) has said frequently that he would eat his hat if his company ever did certain things; such as build a rocket bigger than their Electron smallsat-class rocket, or make plans to launch humans. When he announced [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agqxJw5ISdk a medium-class rocket]] called Neutron, he put pieces of a Rocket Lab hat into a blender, and proceeded to eat it.
-->'''Peter Beck:''' In avoidance of all doubt, this hat is not tasty.
[[/folder]]

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