So far, at work today, I've just been looking at the amazingly hilarious work of Brad Neely. You may know him from his overdubbing of Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone, called "Dear Readers, Wizard People." He lives in Austin, and is a genius.
Last night I watched some of Jon & Kate + 8 with Leah. I don't know why she watches that stuff. Jon's seems dopey as hell, and Kate is an insufferable shrew. Right after that incredible tripe went off, another show about a family that has 18 kids came on. ARE YOU SERIOUS, TLC?!? Its ridiculous that all you have to do is be incredibly selfish, and/or irresponsible with your breeding and TLC will apparently give you your own show. Oh, it also helps if you're little people. I just told Leah last night that there's probably tons of fertile, awful people out there thinking that they've found their cash cow, and lo and behold, when I got to work today I read that the "Octomom" has a show now. I wish everyone would stop watching these things because then they'd stop making them. These are the kinds of shows that I want to shelter Harper from. Good job America, lets teach our kids that selfishness and vanity are almost always rewarded with money and fame, no talent required.
ugh, amen. and "insufferable shrew" is the absolutely more perfect term for kate EVER.
ReplyDeleteby MORE, I meant MOST. duhhh.
ReplyDeleteUgghh. Jon and Kate. I gave up on that show when I saw the episode where a cupcake bakery opened up on their day off just for the kids and Kate had the worst attitude ever. She was insanely rude to the people who came in just to cater to them and after her kids decorated their cupcakes (it was their birthday) and were getting ready to eat them, she told them they were not allowed to eat them. She didn't want them to get their clothes messy. She yelled the whole way through at them to not get anything on their clothes. It made me sick and I turned it off and said bye bye to Kate. Take that, crazy lady. :-)
ReplyDeleteSorry I have the most awful taste in television ever.
ReplyDeletethis show isn't as bad as anything running on VH1, though the episodes i watch I thought John was a tool for taking his kids to a baseball game and staying in the luxury suite instead of going down to the field. lame.
ReplyDeleteThe 18+ kids show amazed me by the fact that they had a fountain machine in the kitchen, which with that many people is simply practical. having that many children is not the norm, but unlike the octomom i don't know that i would call him "irresponsible" this guy seems to be making money in his business, and seemingly teaches his children self reliance. While I'm sure they get a good check from TLC, they were making it beforehand. I am not sure if this is from abusing fertility drugs, or just making lots of sweet sweet love to that Mennonite looking lady.
I will say that I draw the line in the sand if you talk smack about Little People Big World. Thats just a good documentations of a loving family in a world not built for them. They don't seem to put on for the camera, and again this is a guy who made a way in the world long before he had a tv show. Even when he got DUI they didn't shirk away from talking about their problems (unlike say Dog The Bounty Hunter who is a guilty pleasure of mine)
Reality Television is such a weird term. Basically your either watching a documentary or a elaborate game show in most instances.
I hate the little people big world show but its not the fact that that show exists that bothers me. Its the fact that they're rolling out yet another show with almost the exact same premise that irks me. Seems so manufactured and shameless.
ReplyDeletewhy do you hate little people taylor? you make warwick davis cry.
ReplyDeleteI don't hate little people, and I would never want Warwick to think less of me, I just hate attention whores and people who exploit their families.
ReplyDelete"Dada, dada!" Sorry, that's all I can think of when I hear anything about Warwick Davis.
ReplyDeletebut how are they (the Little People Big World family) attention whores? I've never even seen them endorse anything (not that i think that would be wrong). Would you call any other person in any documentary the same thing?
ReplyDeleteIn the case of John & Kate and the Octomom I'm not sure that they got into their situations to make a buck, but when they arrived at that place saw a way to provide for the family they created. I agree its irresponsible to expect someone else to provide for your family (which i think leaves the 18+ family out of this)
Jon and Kate + 8 is "tripe"? I think calling a reality show a typical vietnamese soup additive is hilarious. I would have chosen a word like "smut" or "dung".
ReplyDeleteI don't know that I'd consider any of those shows to be documentaries. And you can't honestly think its in the kids best interest to spend their formulative years with a camera on them 24/7. If you want to do a documentary, then its a feature and you're documented. When you're talking multiple seasons, then its something else. But hey, that's me, I could be wrong, maybe they're sweet people deep down. And I certainly recognize that the shows on VH1 are doing their utmost to destroy dignity in the world.
ReplyDeleteAnother meaning of "tripe" is nonsense.
A documentary is not always a feature and multiple seasons have nothing to do with it. The purpose of a documentary is to be an objective observer without pressing to shape things to your control. This of course has become a lost art in recent years with guys like Michael Moore creating extreme situations in documentary films. Little People Big World does a great job at letting the film makers just be a fly on the wall and observing how they live.
ReplyDeleteI think the most important documentary ever made is probably the UP series (which started in 1964 and is episodic in nature). It follows a group of children at age 7 and comes back to them every seven years to see what has happend and how they have changed. 7up 14up 21up etc. They are up to 49up. It works on the principle of "Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man" that is attributed to Saint Xavier. If you have never seen it, I highly recommend it.
While I would agree that having a camera in your face 24/7 365 days a year ala truman show would be bad for you, these shows are usually shot only on certain days over the course of time. The film crew stays a few days and will drop in to do interview segments. I would imagine that actual production in the home is less than 40 days out of the year, and that is spread out. I don't know what harm this would cause other than some minor embarrassment in later life (as in a certain marching band photo on a t-shirt).
God, I wish I still had that shirt. I didn't realize you liked TLC that much, Cameron. I also didn't realize that you had a vagina.
ReplyDeleteI don't like that little people show but I suppose they're not the worst of it. I was just noting that it seems that the little people angle is the new fad for the reality show birthing monster that is TLC. And that having 18 kids is wildly irresponsible, it doesn't matter how much money you make.