Post by The Mad Plumber on Sept 19, 2009 16:48:36 GMT -5
I was cutting a neighbor's lawn and I was thinking a little about a thread I wanted to bring up about users' opinions of the best and worst game shows. Immediately, one of my top choices was going to be Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? for seeming to be the genesis of a wave of similar overly-dramatic game shows, such as Deal or No Deal which is my bane and yet my family seems to watch passionately. One complaint I was going to bring on these two shows was being the glorification of uninteresting, unremarkable, unappealing people. My thoughts got me to thinking about all the sorts of other shows that seem to have such people, to where it seems to be a character archetype.
Jerry Springer, countless People's Court knockoffs, American Idol ... many cheap-as-nails programs where people appear on television for the very first time in their lives and make utter asses of themselves. And, though it is of the many reasons I dislike these shows, I suspect that it is the principal reason that people tune in to watch these shows: to watch somebody act like an ass and thus feel better about themselves.
I've met all sorts of scum in my life, yet never anyone who acts like these people do when the camera is on them, lacking humility, lacking reserve. Where do they get these people? It's got to be an act. It's got to be the producers telling these people, "You only get paid if you act like a jackass." And these people must be saying to themselves, "Jesus, you know, I've got a mountain of bills, I've got kids to worry about, these folks are willing to pay me lucratively, and all I got to do is humiliate myself on television for twenty two minutes." So, to stand by and criticize these people who degrade themselves on camera, you ignore what you yourself might do were you presented with the same opportunity. I don't know.
I'll give you a weak example, and it's very weak because I haven't seen the show in two decades. On The Price is Right, you note that none of the contestants ever dress up for the show. I mean, when it's a member of the armed forces, he or she is very well-dressed, but otherwise it's shorts and a t-shirt. If I was appearing on television for the first time, I'd like to think that I'd at least be wearing dress pants and a tie, and maybe even a coat so that I don't look like a high school student. There's an episode of The Daily Show where Adam Sandler was a guest, and Jon Stewart said something to the effect of, "So, when you're on Letterman, you wear a coat and tie, but when you appear on my show, it's a t-shirt and baggy shorts?" By my memory, bad dressing seems to generally be the limit of The Price is Right's embarrassing conduct.
I'll give a more personal example. I got dragged to North Carolina because my sister wanted to try out for American Idol. So, on the critical days, I have to stand in a mile-long line in the dark with my sister. Meanwhile, I'm hearing other girls practicing in the line, and given that I'm not very impressed by my sister's voice to begin with, I'm thinking, "She's got to be kidding me. She's setting herself up for a fall big time." And I secretly did not want her to make it on the show. I thought it was the most degrading venue. Suffice to say, my sister couldn't even pass the screeners, and she was plenty heartbroken about that. She told me that the screener seemed bored with her. Thus, I'm forced to reason that screener felt she was neither too good or too awful to make the show.
Then again, maybe these people are authentic since, after all, there seems to be people willing to publicly humiliate themselves for free. Across YouTube, you have a multitude of people who believe their most attractive angle is a webcam pointed up their nose. And I won't even begin to talk about some of the horrors I've seen posted on art sharing forums.
Are these people authentic or is it an act for money?
Jerry Springer, countless People's Court knockoffs, American Idol ... many cheap-as-nails programs where people appear on television for the very first time in their lives and make utter asses of themselves. And, though it is of the many reasons I dislike these shows, I suspect that it is the principal reason that people tune in to watch these shows: to watch somebody act like an ass and thus feel better about themselves.
I've met all sorts of scum in my life, yet never anyone who acts like these people do when the camera is on them, lacking humility, lacking reserve. Where do they get these people? It's got to be an act. It's got to be the producers telling these people, "You only get paid if you act like a jackass." And these people must be saying to themselves, "Jesus, you know, I've got a mountain of bills, I've got kids to worry about, these folks are willing to pay me lucratively, and all I got to do is humiliate myself on television for twenty two minutes." So, to stand by and criticize these people who degrade themselves on camera, you ignore what you yourself might do were you presented with the same opportunity. I don't know.
I'll give you a weak example, and it's very weak because I haven't seen the show in two decades. On The Price is Right, you note that none of the contestants ever dress up for the show. I mean, when it's a member of the armed forces, he or she is very well-dressed, but otherwise it's shorts and a t-shirt. If I was appearing on television for the first time, I'd like to think that I'd at least be wearing dress pants and a tie, and maybe even a coat so that I don't look like a high school student. There's an episode of The Daily Show where Adam Sandler was a guest, and Jon Stewart said something to the effect of, "So, when you're on Letterman, you wear a coat and tie, but when you appear on my show, it's a t-shirt and baggy shorts?" By my memory, bad dressing seems to generally be the limit of The Price is Right's embarrassing conduct.
I'll give a more personal example. I got dragged to North Carolina because my sister wanted to try out for American Idol. So, on the critical days, I have to stand in a mile-long line in the dark with my sister. Meanwhile, I'm hearing other girls practicing in the line, and given that I'm not very impressed by my sister's voice to begin with, I'm thinking, "She's got to be kidding me. She's setting herself up for a fall big time." And I secretly did not want her to make it on the show. I thought it was the most degrading venue. Suffice to say, my sister couldn't even pass the screeners, and she was plenty heartbroken about that. She told me that the screener seemed bored with her. Thus, I'm forced to reason that screener felt she was neither too good or too awful to make the show.
Then again, maybe these people are authentic since, after all, there seems to be people willing to publicly humiliate themselves for free. Across YouTube, you have a multitude of people who believe their most attractive angle is a webcam pointed up their nose. And I won't even begin to talk about some of the horrors I've seen posted on art sharing forums.
Are these people authentic or is it an act for money?
