- Oh my God, can you get it off of me?
Can you get it off of me?
(bird flapping)
- [Man] There he goes.
(dramatic rock music)
(screams)
- I'm absolutely petrified of birds.
I hate pigeons, seagulls and geese.
Geese will (bleep) you over,
seagulls don't give a (bleep)
and then pigeons are just like reckless bitches.
- I think rats are pretty gross 'cause they carry disease
and I just, I'm not into them.
Recently I found a mouse in my house.
I didn't eat in my house for a full week.
- I picked a snake.
The fear kinda started with my mom
'cause my mom is absolutely terrified of snakes
and as it turns out, if you're raised like that,
you're gonna become scared of snakes too.
- I picked the black throated monitor
as one of my biggest fears because
it's a large reptile that has super dry skin
and seeing that freaks me out.
And also just the bite that they have, it's terrifying.
The way lizards and reptiles move around, it's not natural.
- I just heard a rumor that the snake is poisonous
and no one will tell me if that's true.
- They milked it this morning.
They said they milk it every day
so that there's no poison left.
- They milk the snake?
That does not make me feel better.
- Fernando has this Shakespearean drama that's been going on
with the entire rodent population of Los Angeles.
- Do you wanna see the picture of the rat that I killed?
- Wait, why do you have it on your phone?
- I'm not someone who's typically open about
what I'm afraid of
and it feels really vulnerable to be put in a position
with people seeing you scared.
- I'm gonna power through.
I'm gonna try to get through this
and not make a lot of noise.
I scream and I'm also nervous about having my scream
on camera 'cause I scream like an elderly woman.
- The best case scenario is
a bird doesn't poop on me and I get a cute Instagram.
- The best case scenario, I get a cool-ass photo
and me and the rat actually become good friends.
- Well, here's the thing, I respect animals,
but when they get in my house
and they poop on my table, where I have dinner,
that's like a whole different thing.
- I think I'm gonna do okay.
The worst thing that can happen today is that I die
and in the end we're all gonna die
so once you get over that, it's all right.
- My name is Daniel, I'm from the Critter Squad.
The Critter Squad is a specialty zoo.
We visit after school programs and different events
and we do educational presentations.
The snake I have today is a red-tailed boa.
He's a juvenile so he is gonna get close to double in size.
He's a constrictor, so those snakes
are snakes that capture their prey with their mouth
and wrap around them and squeeze them
and then swallow them whole.
- Right before the snake came in I said,
"Just pretend that you're wearing the world's worst scarf."
(nervously chuckles)
- If I say to take it off, you'll take it off of me, yeah?
- Immediately.
(rock music)
- Okay.
Oh my God, Oh my God,
can you get it off of me?
Can you get it off of me?
- Yeah, you want me to take it off?
- Yeah.
Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.
Oh my god.
(heavy breathing)
What was it doing?
- Honestly, scared shitless is a really good look on Steven
so he pulled it off.
- It was a couple of pictures in, I was like,
"Oh this is cool." - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He got the hang of it.
And the more he got into it,
the more confident I think he got.
Which is really cool. - For sure.
- I wanna try again, just like...
Yeah, I'm good.
Just in that moment, it seemed to really get me.
Some attitude.
It got a lot better as it went on and towards the end of it,
I definitely got more comfortable with it.
I didn't cry and I didn't even hold back tears,
I didn't have to.
- The bird, his name is Bobby.
Bobby is a Jacobin pigeon, they were bred out
just to have beautiful feathers
and that's the only purpose of them.
Actually, they inhibit their ability to fly
so if Bobby were to go up, he would just fly in a circle
and come back down.
So that makes them really good pets.
- I am being warned that the bird might flap its wings
or fly away in the middle of a shoot.
The main concern that I have going through my head
is staying composed and not freaking the bird out
because I know birds can be really skittish
and I was just trying to stay calm.
- I'm dying because the bird just looks cute to me
but I can see in Sam's eyes that he's getting freaked out.
- I'm just acting like I'm getting a shot
at the doctor's office, I'm looking away
and just pretending that nothing bad is happening.
(squeals)
- Oh, there he goes.
- What the (bleep).
What the (bleep), make sure it doesn't land on me.
- He's gonna come right down. - There is a bird
flying around out there, I am not doing this,
that is terrifying.
- Honestly, if that thing never came back,
I would not feel sorry.
- It flew over my head and I just hear it crash.
- It hit a light.
- No it didn't, the bird's fine.
- I'm experiencing every emotion possible right now.
I need a Xanax.
- So the lizard I have today, her name is Miss Daisy
and she's a tegu, they're omnivores
so they're gonna eat anything from fruits and vegetables
and of course meat.
She has cute chubby cheeks but in reality,
it's a lot of muscle and her bite strength is quite strong.
(yells)
- No, its face is monstrous, what the (bleep).
Sorry, I'm not gonna curse, but holy (bleep)
that looks like a demon.
Wow. - Okay, so this is Daisy.
- It's not as big as I thought it was,
I'm just more concerned with its face.
She freaked me out at first, her face is just like
actually alien, it feels like a monster is coming at you.
His tongue.
- So you can hold her like, out in front of you,
she likes to be held up against.
- Like your body? - Like a baby would.
- Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.
- [Daniel] So just get her more support.
- She's licking me, she's licking me.
She loves the way I taste 'cause she keeps trying, okay.
Oh, just her tongue, okay.
- I feel like Daisy was kind of into Ryan.
We were told that she was tasting him.
- [Woman] Could you like cross your legs?
Yeah, that's better.
(squeals)
- I put my hand on her tail and I felt it underneath me
and I like run because I thought she was gonna freak out.
I'm just waiting for her to hiss at me.
Ooh, her looking at me like that makes me so scared.
Okay Daisy, okay, okay, okay.
Okay, I'm gonna get it. - She's going that way.
- Whoo, okay, okay, bye Daisy.
- The rat, her name is Oreo.
Rats get a bad rap, it's really just because
where you'd find rats.
In reality, rats are really nice
and they're pretty smart as well.
(groans, laughs)
- What was that, was that the tail?
- Yeah. - You gotta look fierce.
- Okay.
The worst part is that she was trying to whisper things
in my ear and I was not about that.
- Fernando is dealing with this very crazy rat
and it's all over his face.
- This rat likes to move.
- It's really hard to pose with a rat on your face.
Go figure.
(screams)
Is she okay?
- Yeah. - I'm not.
Ow, it's biting me, it's biting me, it's biting me.
Ah!
People here don't wanna admit it,
but I know she bit me and I feel like everybody's in denial
because they didn't want me to freak out.
- Did the rat bite Fernando or is he being dramatic?
- Are you accusing a gay man of lying
and being overly dramatic?
- The (bleep) rat bit me, though, that is not a joke.
That rat bit me twice, not upset about it,
I'm not gonna confront her, it's all good.
If this was America's Next Top Model,
I'd definitely be expecting my elimination.
- I'm like so excited to see these pictures right now.
- If nothing else, we conquered our fears
and we're better people for it.
- See, you were like serving looks,
I was scared out of my (bleep) mind
so I have no idea if this is gonna look remotely model-y
at all but I'm excited to find out.
- Are you a changed person after this experience?
- Howdy. - Fernando.
- I have the photos. - Ooh.
- So the first photo that I have is Stephen's,
open your eyes.
(all exclaiming)
- [Sam] If I saw this picture with no context,
not knowing you, I would be like, oh, Stephen's serving face
and he's not going home this week
on America's Next Top Model.
I'm so proud of you.
- [Stephen] You can see I'm like barely touching it
but I do think it worked.
- Next up, we have Sam. - Oh, wow.
- Sam! - Sam!
- [Ryan] Literally there's not a trace of fear in it,
you are just very much like I'm here,
I'm here to serve face, oh this bird?
She's just my sister, it's fine, we're living,
we're getting life, it looks so so good.
And also I love the sheerness of the shirt.
The nipple is probably my favorite part.
- Alright guys, we have Ryan.
- Oh my gosh! - Oh, that's so cute!
- You are like the face of Target's nationwide campaign,
there's so much joy and light and positive energy,
which is so crazy to me because you picked something
that you're terrified and yet you were able to bring out
this really sunshine-y vibe.
- I love it, I'm jealous.
Alright, I'm next.
(all exclaiming)
- It's honestly perfect, like your body composition,
the energy in your face. - It looks so good
and I'm surprised they got pictures of that rat
standing still, I didn't think you were gonna be able
to serve looks because you were terrified, but here we go.
- After posing with the rat,
I hate them a little bit less.
- Should we go to Petco and get you a little rat pet?
- You know what, it's good for now, I think I'm fine,
one step at a time.
(cheerful music)