LOS ANGELES - A grown man wearing a diaper is spun around until he can barely stand, then is made to try an obstacle course carrying pitchers of milk without spilling any. Another man, dressed like an insect, flings himself onto a giant-sized 'windshield' with a giant-sized 'splat'.

Is American TV going crazy? No - it is going Japanese.

With the increasing popularity of YouTube clips from Japanese game shows such as Endurance, Hole In The Wall and Human Tetris, United States networks are bringing similar antics to their prime-time schedules.

Americans, used to family-friendly game shows such as Jeopardy! and Deal Or No Deal, will find the shows somewhat jolting. Then again, that is the idea.

'There is a great desire to shock over there,' notes Hole In The Wall executive producer Stuart Krasnow. 'Ironically, we're more puritan over here. But the Japanese will shock to any extreme.'

Hole pits contestants against solid walls coming at them with odd-shaped openings. They must mimic those shapes with their bodies to let them pass through the walls or get knocked into a pool of water.

But for sheer zaniness, I Survived executive producers Arthur Smith and Kent Weed have gone all-out weird.

'We watched hundreds of hours of Japanese shows and looked for the consistent themes,' says Smith, 'whether it's being dizzy, use of treadmills, falling into water. We took those elements and then designed new games around them', with help from Japanese game show producers to make the stunts more... well, Japanese.

I Survived moves two teams of five unsuspecting American contestants - who do not know they are going to Japan - into a house in Tokyo.

They compete in bizarre games, with the winners in each round getting a 'reward', such as a VIP tour around Tokyo, while the losers suffer 'punishment', such as having to haul rickshaws. They then vote their two worst teammates into an elimination game, such as 'Splat On a Windshield'.

It is clear the most consistent themes in Japanese game shows are humiliation and embarrassment, which oddly enough can serve as stress relief for conservative Japanese.

'It's one of the only avenues they have for release, where they can actually let go and not be conservative anymore,' notes Weed.

'It's true escapism,' Krasnow says. 'It allows them to really not be that proper person who just fits in all the time. Their culture is really about not being the loud one in the room and not being noticed. So for them to stand out is funny in and of itself.'

To make it through such torture also reflects well on one's family, Smith says of the Japanese.

'Their games are all about saving face. When you don't do good, you've harmed your family - you don't look good in your family's eyes.'

All these are very different from US game shows, where players are generally treated with respect, no matter how goofily they behave.

The American host, Krasnow explains, 'is there to comfort the losing contestant, to put a silver lining on a contestant who feels bad. In Japan, it's not like that - it's shock for shock's sake. If they feel bad, who cares?'

What is true in the US and Japan - there doesn't seem to be a shortage of people who are willing to do just about anything in front of a camera.

'Ninety-five per cent of the world are voyeurs, and 5 per cent of the world are exhibitionists,' says Krasnow. 'Thank God for the 5 per cent.'

AP