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YMMV / What Would You Do?

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  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Are the people who refuse to help being mean or are they (especially when the help would consist of giving money) afraid of being scammed? Also, have any of the people who did help figure out it was a show and were just trying to look good?
  • Hollywood Pudgy: One scenario at a beach had a guy gripe at his wife for carrying too much baby weight for a bikini. You know, in spite of the fact that the actress was actually quite pretty and rather skinny, which was the point the show was trying to make.
  • Informed Wrongness: A few of the marks are portrayed as being terrible for not standing up in the scenario, and while there are a few that truly deserve to be called out for it, more than a few marks have completely understandable reasons for not stepping in. One scenario had a woman unable to afford a promised toy for their kid for getting straight As in school. The marks that didn't step up are portrayed as bad because they thought the situation seemed extremely scam-y; however, most of the comments on said video don't blame the marks who thought it was a scam, as the way it was presented (the mother saying the kid could have anything he wants despite knowing they couldn't afford it, the large amount needed to make up the difference and how the mother got on her knees to tell the kid they couldn't afford it, while both are intentionally being loud enough to easily overhear) did kind of reek of being a scam.
  • Nightmare Fuel: When the show staged a kidnapping, it took two hours before anyone did anything despite the girl screaming that the dad grabbing her was not her father and crying for help. Her mother admitted to being very disturbed.
  • Paranoia Fuel: The opening narration could be interpreted this way. "Hidden cameras, ON. When you think no one is watching...we are. What would you do?"
  • Retroactive Recognition: Some well known actors had appeared in some of the show's scenarios before they went on to star in popular TV shows and movies, such as Caleb McLaughlin (Stranger Things), Meg Donnelly (American Housewife, Z-O-M-B-I-E-S (2018)) and Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day).
  • Suspiciously Similar Song: The intros to segments often include original music in the background meant to mimic that of a song related to the scenario. For example, the background music in a segment on a waiter serving food that fell on the floor is similar to (of all songs) Cee Lo Green's "F*** You".
  • Values Dissonance: The segment has been accused of playing out scenarios in such ways to get a specific response out of the marks, usually to try and line it up with the segment's own views. The most infamous case was when they tried to tackle the issue of adults still living with their parents; they played up the adult in question as an obnoxious, mooching Manchild so that the marks would sympathize with the parents. As many, many people dealing with the recession will attest, most people don't keep living with their parents because they're lazy; they continue to do so because with raising college rates, a dwindling and fiercely competitive job market and raising home rates, they don't have a choice in the matter when compared to the alternative of living out on the streets as a hobo; all of which this segment conveniently ignored.

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