Is Chinese Water Torture a real thing?

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Why: I tried to sleep in the same room as Mike and Lori's full fishtank with no fish in it. Anticipating the erratic glub glub glub of the pump nearly drove me to confession.

Answer: I'm thinking specifically of that type where a person is confined on a table or something and water is inconsistently drippy dripped on his forehead til he is insane. I don't see any proof that it has ever actually happened.

It was invented / first described by Italian doctor / law Hippolytus de Marsilis in the 15th century. He noted how water dripping on a stone eventually created a hollow, and he applied this method to the human skull... or something.

It really has nothing to do with China or Chinese people - that's just a word we tack on to things that are wacky, like Chinese fire drills and Chinese checkers and Chinese fingercuffs. In 1903, Harry Houdini had a Chinese Water Torture Cell stunt in which he was submerged upside down in a tank full of water and locked inside. (He escaped.)

At some point, the names of the trick and the torture became linked, and we've been saying "Chinese water torture" ever since (except yesterday, when - in a foggy state of sleep deprivation - I said "Japanese"). But! there are other forms of water torture:

• Drink and Bust - Victim is strapped down and balanced flat on a fulcrum. Torturers force feed water into victim until he will not take anymore. Then T puts funnel into V's mouth, holds his nose, and pours in more water. When V is at capacity, T puts him on the floor and beats him. Then he either jumps on V or takes a sledgehammer to his bloated belly, rupturing his stomache and killing him.

• Dunking - Victim was repeatedly immersed in water, then pulled out and asked to confess to a crime. Those who failed to confess would be immersed again.

• Forced Ingestion - Torturer forces water down Victim's throat and into his stomach until osmosis causes his cells to explode. French courts used this as a legal torture and execution method in the 17th and 18th centurise. Also, the Japanese did it to Americans and Chinese during WWII, and Americans did it to Filipinos during the Philippine-American War. In 2005, that kid at Chico State also died of water intoxication during fraternity hazing.
  

• Waterboarding - Victim is strapped to board, and usually Torturer places a cloth over his face. T pours water over his face and breathing passages, triggering V's sensation of drowning and gag reflex. It can cause dry drowning, lung damage, brain damage (due to oxygen deprivation), psychological damage, broken bones (due to struggling), and death.

• Whipping - Torturer pours very cold water over Victim's skin, making whipping more painful. The water also makes it easier for the whip to pierce the skin.
  

Source: Wikipedia, The Straight Dope, some crappy Angelfire page

The More You Know: MythBusters tackled Chinese water torture with surprising results: