Recently news broke that the reality show, “Keeping Up With The Kardashians,” was coming to an end. For me, that was the second best news report I’ve seen this year, only second to the Covid-19 Pandemic coming to an end. As far as I’m concerned, both were abject disasters, documented everyday on television and social media. Each plague inflicted untold damage on our society. The difference between the two was the pandemic caused pain for millions of people and forced hundreds of thousand into poverty. The Kardashians also inflicted pain on most of us by making us follow their entitled antics (whether we wanted to or not) but they became filthy rich by forcing us to watch their decadent lifestyle. If they had reality TV during the Roman Empire, “Keeping Up With The Caligula’s” would have been a big hit, and still the beginning of the fall of the Empire.
I guess I should let you know what my qualifications are for making such a statement. Full disclosure, I confess to never seeing one second of “Keeping Up With The Kardashians,” but I was bombarded everyday on social media with Kardashian news as a result of that ugly show. Their out-of-bounds lifestyle became everyday news and created a following that couldn’t live without knowing who Kim is marrying, how much plastic surgery Khloé has had and all news on Scott Disick. Who the hell is Scott Disick? I looked him up and it says he is a media personality and socialite. Translated: unemployed and living off the Kardashians.
As a result of this perverted show, we now have Caitlyn (formerly Bruce) Jenner running for governor. The All-American Olympic star married Kris Kardashian, joined the family and then transitioned into a woman. Now Caitlyn is running for Governor of the State of California. I can see it now. The Kardashians invade Sacramento. What could go wrong there? Plenty!
The Kardashian family is not the only reality TV show forced upon us. I could spend this column listing the crazy ideas that are the foundation for hundreds of these shows, but I will concentrate on just a few.
One day I had nothing to do, so I was channel surfing and came across a show called “Chrisley Knows Best.” It was about a family in Atlanta. I just saw a few minutes of it but felt dirty after a brief glance. The few minutes I saw included the dad, mom and a daughter who was getting dressed for a date. At first I thought the dad was a fashion designer, until it became obvious he was the head of the household. When his daughter came down the stairs to show what she was wearing for her evening out, the dad was very critical and made her change her outfit. He thought her outfit was too conservative and wanted her to dress sexier. My head exploded.
The Bachelor and Bachelorette are mainstream, network TV reality shows and just disgust me. It is basically a meat market. One person is chosen to select their true love from a stable of highly attractive candidates presented to them by the producers of the show. As the show progresses, the Bachelor/Bachelorette vet each possible companion and it appears to get very intimate with each one. I am not sure I would want to be the winner of this competition. They make Hugh Hefner look monogamous, and I would be worried about STDs.
Another outlandish reality series is thanks to the British (In fact, I think most of these crazy ideas started in England). It’s called “Love Island.” The premise of the show is to drop an even amount of men and women on a tropical island and they are to “couple” up, with the final couple standing wins a cash prize. There are a lot of sexually tense moments, shenanigans (yes I’m so old I use the word shenanigans, and spell it right) and conspiracies among participants. All for money. At some point it’s going to be discovered that the producers of these shows sold their souls to the devil in return for the huge amount of money these shows make them.
Do I hate all reality TV Shows? No, there are some I do enjoy. I do like “Dancing With The Stars” and “America’s Got Talent.” They seem fun and the most realistic of the genre. There are a lot of contestants who do have talent and are a joy to watch but I have to admit, I do get embarrassed for the ones with no talent as they crash and burn in front of a national audience.
I am going to make a stretch here, but not much of one. I am going to blame reality TV on our political problems these days. It started with a Reality Star getting elected President and him running his administration as if it was his formerly canceled show. Every day’s news seemed to be an effort to be more outrageous than the day before. Officials were hired and fired as if they were competing to stay employed and it turns out, they were. It didn’t take much to piss the boss off and the next thing they knew, they were fired via Twitter. What a way to run a country. The center of this reality disaster was more concerned about ratings than what was good for the people who elected him. Eventually he was voted off the “island” but the craziness he spawned has yet to wane.
Doing research for this article forced me to watch a lot of Reality TV. As a result, I think I burned my corneas. I also think that I might be a perfect subject for one of these shows. I could see a camera crew following me around all day, documenting my unusual lifestyle. Me eating breakfast, me napping, me watching golf, me napping, me watching football, me napping…now that would be a winner. I’ve already pricked my finger and the blood is flowing. Where do I sign the contract?
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