Boiling Points is a prank reality television show, much like the format used on Candid Camera. It is broadcast on MTV in the United States. In each half-hour episode, annoying situations are set up and deliberately inflicted on one or more young adults who are unaware that they are being tested. Examples include poor or incompetent service in a store or restaurant, being accosted by a date's ex-love-interest while out together, and unprovoked rudeness from a total stranger.

While being watched via hidden camera, the subject of the show must refrain from displaying a temper or storming off for a predetermined length of time. If he or she passes, a prize of $100 cash is awarded on the spot.

Typically, the Boiling Point time on each segment is anywhere from 3 to 20 minutes. Most often, people lose because they use obscenities in their confusion and/or anger.

The cast includes improvisers Alison Becker, Jonathan Blitt, Colton Dunn, Giselle Forte, Rebekka Johnson, Billy Merritt, Missy O'Reilly and Eric Wippo.

Unusual Occurrences

• In a skit involving Blitt serving pizza slices intentionally flipped upside-down on to a plate, one mark responded to being told to pay again if she wants a new slice by throwing both the drink and the pizza on to Blitt.
• Johnson was playing a cashier at a supermarket who was irritating a customer by talking with a cellphone ear piece while scanning items for her. The customer lunged over the counter and attempted to snatch the ear piece.

Lady Gaga

• A young and then unknown Stefani Germanotta, now better known as Lady Gaga, appeared as a contestant on a 2005 episode of Boiling Points. In the episode, Germanotta and two other contestants would be awarded $100 if they went fourteen minutes without cursing or making a scene in a New York City restaurant when a waitress threw away their food and upon request, returned it with trash on top. Germanotta was the only contestant on the segment to lose when she used profanity 1 minute and 27 seconds prior to the end of the challenge. After a brief argument, she told the waitress, "Who would put that in their mouth? Would you put that in your mouth? It has shit all over it! Clearly you would because you're just, like, fucked up."