The big distinction between what you're talking about and the bum fights guy is that you're doing it with friends for shits and giggles, this guy is video taping it and profiting off of it. Unless your buddies are selling tapes of you doing this stuff, it's not the same.
Maybe it's something more like College Fuck Fest or Girls Gone Wild. People are paid nominal amounts, if at all, to act in ways that can seriously screw with their life later on, but they do it cause they're on camera, and they want the attention.
The fact is, that talk shows largely live on the same level, but they hide behind levels of "self help" and other such BS to show the same displays of dehumanizing someone for profit.