Answer

The correct answer was hypnotism. A student activities group invited a hypnotist to come and put on a show. He started by working with the whole crowd, with breathing exercises and simple commands. Basically, we were supposed to relax as much as possible and then concentrate on something, usually his hand. For the last step, he tried to elicit a physiological reaction to see how responsive we were to his suggestions. In the first round, he said “your index fingers are getting closer and closer, you cannot pull them apart.” Anyone who felt that their fingers were stuck together then went on stage. I did not participate because I had visions of waking up naked in front of a crowd pointing and laughing at me. Also, I wasn’t 100% convinced that my camera would still be there when I came back to reality. 

No one did anything too ridiculous. In my favorite sketch, he played music from iconic films and depending on the genre the “hypnotized” students would laugh, cry, scream etc. . .