What’s your price?

So I saw a story on Slashdot today about a British television show called Space Cadets, which (if the premise is to be believed) involves people being selected for gullibility and complete lack of understanding of physics and told that they’re in a reality TV show on a Russian space station. (They explain the lack of weightlessness to the contestants: “The Cadets have been told that they will be in "near space" where gravity is still experienced, as opposed to "outer space".”) The contestants are supposedly being paid £5,000 a day for each day they spend “in space”. And the selection process involves “asking the candidates to nominate a friend or relative they trusted implicitly, to make a vital and important decision for them. These friends or relatives were contacted, and fully let in on the hoax, and given the final say of whether or not the Cadet should be included.”

So I got to thinking: if I were someone’s nominee to make such a decision, what would I say? (Not that I think any of you would fall for such obvious fakery, but the principle extends to more thorough and subtle hoaxes.) Normally, I’d say “no”, but it occurs to me that some people might consider the pay a reasonable bargain for being on a TV show like that.

[Poll #633467] I gotta admit: if I were looking at an opportunity to pay off a big chunk of my mortgage for a few days’ effort, I think I could take a pretty big joke.