For more than three decades, British-American documentary maker Louis Theroux has thrown himself into all things weird and wonderful in the name of good TV. Exploring some of the world's strangest people and most dangerous places, it's unsurprising the journalist has had more than a few hairy encounters.

Here, we rank the most uncomfortable moments from Louis's 30-plus years of documentaries, from the painfully awkward to the downright frightening.

6. A punishing pro wrestler workout

After Louis offends professional wrestler Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker by implying that wrestlers aren't proper athletes, Parker orders Louis to call himself a "dying cockroach" and perform a series of exhausting exercises. It's an entertaining scene, but veers into the disturbing when Louis' pleas to stop are ignored, and he's pushed to the point of vomiting.

5. The Boer leader

Visiting South Africa to learn about its pro-separatist movement, Louis meets Afrikaner nationalist and white supremacist Eugène Ney Terreblanche. During their interview, Louis challenges Terreblanche's claim that only white people can be Boers, and things get very heated.

4. A British man and his Thai bride

In "Looking for Love," Louis visits a Bangkok marriage agency that introduces Western men to single Thai women — and meets Lake Palmer. Lake, a British man who has given up on women from his own country and is seeking out a Thai bride, eventually meets a woman through the introduction service and marries her two days later.

In this excruciating clip, we see Lake — whose bad temper and resentment towards women is revealed in glimpses throughout the episode — declare his love for his new bride, who simply replies, "I understand."

3. Meeting a pedophile

@real_life_documentaries Source: Louis Theroux Specials: A Place for Paed0ph!les 2009 BBC iPlayer Part 2 Meeting Mr Rigby former high school sports coach #louistheroux #louistherouxdocumentary ♬ original sound - Documentary Clips

In his eye-opening documentary "A Place for Paedophiles," Louis confronts the ultimate taboo by meeting patients at California's Coalinga State Hospital, which houses "sexually violent predators" to keep them separate from the community.

One of the inhabitants Louis speaks to is Mr Rigby, a former high school sports coach who was found guilty of sexually abusing some of his students. While they're speaking, Louis notices a painting of some male ballet dancers on Rigby's wall and comments that they look fairly young. Rigby disagrees with him, insisting he sees them as adults, but the whole thing makes for very uncomfortable viewing.

2. A murderer in Johannesburg

On another trip to South Africa — this time to explore Johannesburg's severe crime problem, and the controversial private security contractors that have emerged to address it — Louis comes face to face with pure, wanton cruelty in the form of two supposedly wanted criminals.

One of them, named Maleven, coldly describes how he gets people to hand over money: threaten to put their baby in an oven or cut their wife's neck. It's not clear whether Maleven has actually carried out these specific acts, but he tells Louis he has previously served time in prison for killing two men and feels no remorse for his crimes.

1. The Nazis

By far the most uncomfortable scene in any of Louis Theroux's docs takes place during his visit to the home of some American Nazis, who end up interrogating him over whether or not he's Jewish. One of them, Skip, says if the cameras weren't running and he found out Louis was Jewish, he'd "probably kick [his] ass and put [him] in the street somewhere."

Louis refuses to answer the question, and what is already a troubling scene becomes downright chilling when the Nazis ask for the cameras to be turned off.

[Image credit: YouTube]