Phobophilia

Phobophilia literally translates to "love of fears" (it is read backwards), from phobo meaning fear and philia meaning love. A person who loves fears is known as a phobophile. [1] The term is most widely connected to a TV series featuring comedian and magician Penn Jillette with assistance from Teller, which aired in 1995 [2].

The series was a ground breaking series, which, essentially, was about forcing people to face their greatest fears. If a person had a fear of snakes, he would put them in a pit full of snakes. If they had a fear of crowded places, he would put them into a crowded place.

All the while, Penn would be laughing hysterically, like a madman, and many people watching it thought that he was really going to do it. His assistant, Teller, played the straight man, although he was a willing participant in the show and went along with what Penn said, almost because he had no choice.

The show ultimately featured magic acts as a key part of its performance. A person who was trapped in a pit full of snakes would find that in fact they were not snakes, and furthermore they were not trapped. Thus, their fears were unfounded. [3]

The show was widely described as "evil", a claim which was supported by Penn Jillette's character in Sabrina the Teenage Witch, which was shown in the same time period, where Penn's character was an evil, sadistic warlock that gave sadistic and humiliating punishment to anyone who broke a routine minor rule.

The show only aired for a single season although it drew huge reactions throughout TV world. It was ultimately cancelled because of fears that it might be a bad role model and lead to dangerous games played by children.

It has undoubtedly affected other show creations later, by the sheer lengths that they went to, although, at least according to Google, there don't seem to be any direct references to it. Wikipedia has seen fit to forget about this year of Penn Jillette's life, and have left it out of his professional resume.