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[[File:wwyd_3782.png|frame|John Quiñones would like to know.]]
''What Would You Do?'' (also known as ''Primetime: What Would You Do?'') is a hidden camera show that airs on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] in the United States. The premise is, [[Ripped from the Headlines|take a current hot-button issue]], have actors play it out in public, and see if anyone steps in to help.
Unlike most other hidden camera shows, however, this one is produced by ABC's news division, and is hosted by journalist John Quiñones. Comedy is
Not to be confused with the early-90s [[Nickelodeon]] game show ''[[What Would You Do?
{{tropelist}}
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* [[Catch Phrase]]: "Why--" (or "Why not") "--get involved?"
* [[Coming Out Story]]: This is a scenario that WWYD explores quite often, since it's a current hot-button issue in the USA, and WWYD typically uses it whenever they visit other cities. They also mix it up a bit: usually they play it with a child coming out to a parent, but they've also done it with a parent coming out to a child, a wife/fiancée/girlfriend coming out to her husband/fiancé/boyfriend, or vice versa. Usually it's played with the recepient of the [[Word of Gay]] freaking out, in order to elicit reactions from people.
* [[Conspicuously Light Patch]]: A variation. Most of the time in crowd shots, people whose faces are not obscured are usually people who will be interviewed about their action (or lack thereof).
* [[Crazy Prepared]]: Justified. Whenever WWYD stages a scenario, they keep a security guy nearby to keep the actors safe, and they inform emergency services ahead of time just in case someone calls 911 (which people have).
* [[Date Rape Averted]]: Very often, people don't let the drugged/drunk/intoxicated girl walk away with the obviously less-than-unsavory fellow who has made it apparent that he's got one thing on his mind.
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* [[Deconstructed Trope]]: Sometimes WWYD will cite a popular movie or TV show's use of a certain situation, then will go on to show how serious said situation would be in the real world.
* [[Distracted by the Sexy]]: One episode dealt with bike thefts. A Caucasian male in his twenties was stopped. An African-American male in his twenties was stopped. A buxom blonde in her twenties ''got [[All Men Are Perverts|guys]] [[I Have Boobs - You Must Obey!|to help her]]''.
* [[Eagle Land]]: For one scenario, they placed a Type 2 couple in France to test the [[French Jerk|snooty French stereotype]]. Aside from some eyerolls and ugly American comments, no French people spoke up--instead, it was [[Stop Being Stereotypical|another American tourist that called them out]].
** Some of the French people actually found them funny as opposed to obnoxious.
* [[Early Installment Weirdness]]: Back when the show was a recurring ''Primetime'' special, a few WWYD scenarios seemed a ''lot'' more like straight-up [[Candid Camera Prank|Candid Camera Pranks]]. Take, for instance, the [http://abcnews.go.com/WhatWouldYouDo/story?id=6629295&page=1 Five Millionth Customer] scenario, or the [http://abcnews.go.com/WhatWouldYouDo/story?id=6556024&page=1 Rude American Tourists] scenario.
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* [[Hey, It's That Place!]]: Watch the show long enough and you'll notice that they repeatedly use a few of the same neighborhoods and businesses in the Connecticut/New York/New Jersey area. So far, no [[The Mark|marks]] have noticed, but one wonders when they're going to ''start''.
* [[Improv]]: Aside from some background information and some general guidelines on how to act, the actors do the scenarios completely in improv.
* [[Jerkass]]: For some scenarios, the actors have to play them.
* [[Maligned Mixed Marriage]]: Some scenarios involve actors playing an interracial couple getting harassed by other actors.
* [[The Mark]]: Most often, it's just some random passersby rather than anyone specific. Although on some occasions they center a scenario on one specific person or group.
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* [[Rousseau Was Right]]: The show likes to showcase when this trope is played straight, but it has its share of subversions, too.
* [[Special Guest]]: Dr. Mehmet Oz appeared in one episode.
* [[Suspiciously Similar Song]]: The intros to segments often include original music in the background meant to mimic that of a song related to the scenario. For example, the background music in a segment on a waiter serving food that fell on the floor is similar to (of all songs) [[Cee Lo Green]]'s "F*** You".
* [[Take That, Critics!]]: Quiñones started an episode by playing an angry voicemail from a female viewer in Arizona <ref>regarding a previous segment that featured racial profiling against Latinos</ref> , which told the reporter to "go back to Mexico." Quiñones, who is actually a seventh generation American citizen, took the crew to a restaurant on the Arizona/Mexico border and recorded people coming to the defense of undercover actors (and an undercover Quiñones himself) being racially profiled by a Caucasian actor. At the end of the segment, they played back the voicemail and contrasted it with the footage of the Arizonan Good Samaritans, and the rhetoric seemed to convey a huge "screw you" to the naysayer.
* [[Teens Are Monsters]] / [[Kids Are Cruel]]: WWYD has had quite a few scenarios revolving around these.
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*** Sharp-eyed viewers might notice that Traci occasionally gets [[Demoted to Extra]] whenever WWYD runs scenarios in restaurants or stores, and in those cases she usually takes on the minor role of clerk or waitress (or even fellow patron) just in case a customer needs someone to vent to. And from the looks of things, the poor woman actually works the job itself for the day.
** Ditto for a recurring actor named Jeremy Holm, who like Traci participates in a wide range of scenarios, and frequently takes on a waiter role. Quiñones mentioned in one narration that Jeremy works as a waiter in [[Real Life]] whenever he doesn't have an acting job.
** Quiñones [[Lampshade|lampshades]] the trope in one episode, when he identifies one actor playing an anti-
** Taken to ridiculous levels in the Utah episode, where an info pop-up on the bottom of the screen points out that this is the'' '''17th time''' ''the actor playing the abusive husband/boyfriend has played a villain in such a scenario.
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[[Category:American Series]]
[[Category:The New Tens]]
[[Category:What Would You Do]]▼
[[Category:TV Series]]
[[Category:This Index Asked You a Question]]
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