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Man vs. Wild or Survivor Man

"Man vs. Wild" or "Survivor Man"

  • Man vs. Wild (Bear Grylls)

    Votes: 18 60.0%
  • Survivor Man (Les Stroud)

    Votes: 12 40.0%

  • Total voters
    30
  • Poll closed .
Joined
21 February 2008
Messages
1,465
Location
Nor Cal
Who would you pick? ? ? ?

Bear Grylls or Les Strouds

I vote for Bear simply because of all the gross crap he eats/drinks, places he's been, and his lack of fear of death.
 
Bear.... The guy will down his own urine to survive!!!
 
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Simply for entertainment purposes, Bear Grylls all the way.
But if they were both stuck in some horrible situation I think Les Strouds would last longer.

i duno..... i think bear is more entertaining, but he can also climb shit..... yeah he has a camera crew following him, but being in all those places, he knows a little something. besides, i doubt les actually is all alone..... sometimes he gets some DISTANT camera shots.... does he walk out there, set up the camera, then walk across the screen half a mile away, then get the camera again? doubt it. maybe he leaves that camera there? i duno.

but those camera guys on man vs. wild..... they keep right up
 
Tough choice but I went with Bear. He is pretty entertaining. Besides he made the summit of Mt. Everest.
 
Les is the original, Bear is like version 2.1, with a "media package"

Either one could still make a canoe out of my ass and float themselves to safety :D
 
Both are great but Bear is more entertaining eating all those nasty things......seeing that grub explode in his mouth was something....:eek:
 
I enjoy both shows. I like how Les lives off the land more realistically without help from the locals. I like that Bear will bit the head off of a frog as a tasty appetizer, pull out the guts, and then eat the rest of the body raw. He should have been a guest on Fear Factor.
 
I used to love Bear but it turned out his show wasn't quite as honest as they made themselves out to be.

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Later it was revealed that much of his sequences were faked, staged or that Bear got a lot of assistance from outside sources. For a while they pulled Man vs. Wild from the Discovery Channel. When they finally brought it back on, they put in a lot of disclaimers and edits to say that the show was more of a guide, like "what to do in this situation", rather than a reality show. Now they fully acknowledge that Bear gets assistance from an survival expert and that some of his stunts are for demonstration purposes only. He's no slouch though, he really eats those things and he does put himself in some danger.

But Les is the real deal. He's litterally on his own the whole time which is why he looks a lot worse for wear at the end of his show. Also, he's lugging around a ton of weight in camera gear, and most of his distance shots of him walking toward or away means he needs to make that trip twice just to set up or retreive his camera. That's pretty hardcore.
 
If I want to learn about survival, I watch Les. If I want to watch someone eat weird and crazy things, I watch this guy...

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I always wondered how Bear can instantly make a camp fire on the spot, while Les is pure cavemen style the whole way.

Both guys must get paid a hefty amount of money to do what they do.
 
I saw a behind-the-scenes on Les and he spends several days with locals learning as much as he can before filming his shows - but he is there the whole time cutoff from his crew (except for emergency radio) and really does everything himself. The only time he had outside contact was his adrift-at-sea show where he was tethered to a bigger ship and they actually had to bring him on board because a storm was too dangerous for him to stay in the life raft.

I figured Bear was a fake simply because, even with a camera crew there, I wouldn't be as brazen as he is...you just know he had survival experts there and he was the most photogenic and crazy guy around when they thought up the show. It does make for good, entertaining television though!

Edit: Strange foods is on my top show list as well. My Thai wife loves durian and laughs every time AZ can't get it down! :D
 
If I want to learn about survival, I watch Les. If I want to watch someone eat weird and crazy things, I watch this guy...

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Haha...this is another crazy mofo. Durian (thai fruit) was actually the only food he couldn't swallow EVER (and this guy is a human garbage disposal).
 
Both shows are pretty informative. But from an entertainment standpoint. Bear all the way. Yeah so what if hes got a crew with him, big deal, its TV. But the stuff he does is still pretty hard core. (like drinking his own urine...eating live snakes :eek: )I watch TV to be entertained. Les puts me to sleep and makes me want to kill myself with a coconut if I get stranded on an island.

Oh yeah. I agree Bizarre Foods is an insane show. I was rolling when he went to the Philippines...I was thinking hey I ate that growing up. Then just kinda ducked into the kitchen while my friends that were hanging out just kinda shook their heads lol. :tongue:
 
For the educational value, Les is by far the best. Bear has been on the receiving end of a lot of criticism in survival circles because he does a lot of foolish and dangerous stuff on his show. If anyone were to recreate some of his stunts (like sliding down a waterfall or navigating a glacier) there's a good chance they would end up dead or seriously injured. Not a smart thing to do when you could stay put and have a better chance of surviving and getting rescued.

So, I guess I'll echo what others have already said.....if I want to watch the "extreme sports" version of Les, I'd watch Bear. But if I want to learn about how to realistically survive in extreme circumstances, I'd choose Les in a heartbeat.
 
I hope to never be in a position where any of the information they teach will be needed. I take a toaster when I go camping. LOL

edit, Renee says she likes Bear because he strips down naked.
 
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I haven't seen the Les show, I'll have to check it out. I checked out Man vs Wild after seeing you guys talk about it in the Everest thread. I watched 7 or 8 episodes, it was enjoyable at first but got old quickly. I found Bear constantly repeating the same things over and over and there was just no realism in much of what he was doing for me. I'm not into the fear factor aspect of dining, but good for him to be able to eat that stuff. I wouldn't last a second :).
 
Haha...this is another crazy mofo. Durian (thai fruit) was actually the only food he couldn't swallow EVER (and this guy is a human garbage disposal).

Yeah, I always thought that was the most ironic thing. I have friends that love durian but Andrew thinks that's one of the most disgusting things he's ever eaten. This is coming from a guy who has eaten rotten meat in the desert, buried rotten fish in alaska, rotten whale blubber... Now Anthony Bourdaine does do some pretty sick stuff, too. That episode where Anthony ate seal up in Canada was pretty rank...
 
I think this is going to be the best episode of Man Vs Wild ever...

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