Amazing what I'll do sometimes to understand my child's world. I watched several episodes of "Surviving Nuge" the other night with him. It was a marathon that lasted three or more hours.
Mr. and Mrs. Ted Nugent opened their ranch to a handful of young adults, under the supervisioin of Ted's rough and ready ranch hand.
The contestants were vying for $100,000 and some souped up vehicle.
To get there? Well, there was the egg race, where the contestants had to move eggs from one place to another, running across an open field, while Nuge hovered overhead in a helicopter, and a net-shooting weapon. He bagged every contestant.
The vegetarian in the group didn't appreciate the deer cleaning stunt, which focused on a deer Nuge killed for the occasion.
Some of the contestants were "chopped" by Ted who found others more interesting; some were voted out by the other contestants; and some failed this or that endurance test.
The winner? The one who kept a low profile.
--------------------------------------------------------------- "if you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got." ---------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 6804 | Location: usa | Registered: 09 February 2006
Sounds like "Nuge" has an over inflated ego. I don't like these reality shows, and can't vocalize just yet what it is that makes me uncomfortable about them. I don't know why I feel sad/disgusted that millions of people are glued to the TV set, to vicariously live through contestants in a game show that encourages back stabbing, cruelity, etc... yet they probably don't know the names of their congresspersons, nor who sits on the Supreme court or the President's cabinet.
Hey, maybe we should have political candidate's campaign runs like a reality show and let the viewers call in and vote for who they like best?
------------------------------------ We cannot control the evil tongues of others; but a good life enables us to disregard them.
Posts: 1855 | Location: here and now | Registered: 22 September 2005
Lisa, I agree, reality television is downright creepy.
Nuge demonstrated all the totally disgusting aspects to it, in spades.
I don't see an application to national politics, except to the extent it's mind candy designed to get people focused on fear and survival and competition and self and other.
There's a newish book on the subject of alignment and rejection:
quote:
what exactly is this seemingly natural tendency to sort others into "kinds"? This question forms the core of Us and Them, which explores the conscious and unconscious ways in which people classify one another—and more important—why.
--------------------------------------------------------------- "if you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got." ---------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 6804 | Location: usa | Registered: 09 February 2006
Andthere are so many different reality soaps... even some that encourage teenage girls to compete with each other in order to become a top model, for women to compete over a man who lied about being a millionaire... teenagers competing for record deals... (instead of attending actual vocal classes or training)...
Thank G-d I haven't seen this "Nuge" thing, but really, enough is enough...
Posts: 1927 | Location: pending | Registered: 18 December 2004
But *why* do we have them? I think it's a fertile topic for discussion.
One of the reasons, I suppose, is that the original "Survivor" made a bunch of money ...
--------------------------------------------------------------- "if you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got." ---------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 6804 | Location: usa | Registered: 09 February 2006
I guess in NL, there's no need for the televised version, ...
--------------------------------------------------------------- "if you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got." ---------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 6804 | Location: usa | Registered: 09 February 2006
I think it was MTV's Real World that was the big starter.
People love being online, they love reality tv shows, they love tht which allows there to be something other then the world, the present, that they are living in.
In a 'reality' tv show, that often has little or nothing to do with real-world interactions, helps ones ego at times, helps them think they could do better, also it does show them that side of win/loose competing mentality.
What bothers me is not just how unreal they are, it is beyond the soaps. It is this fake reality that is promoted as real, involving many acts that are not ideal (IMO often deplorable and the reverse of what is needed today), that then people for some reason begin to think is real and how they can act/behave with others.
They get ratings because they are an escape also perhaps - and while soaps, general shows (like CSI, Law & Order, Ghost Whisperer), and game shows exist these give reason to think they are more real and represent how society is or should be.
Achieving Perfect Balance, Inc. "Old-Time Neighborhood ..New-Time World" www.apbctr.com
Posts: 174 | Location: Tampabay Region of Florida | Registered: 10 May 2006
I admit that there is one reality show I watched this year. It was called The Biggest Loser, but it was amazing to see the contestants transform their lives and their health.
------------------------------------ We cannot control the evil tongues of others; but a good life enables us to disregard them.
Posts: 1855 | Location: here and now | Registered: 22 September 2005
By jove you've got it, douglaslee, that's what's creepy about this stuff, the human humiliation. It's a version of spanking, wrapped up into a voyeuristic little boob tube.
Interesting comparison to soap operas, Debra. The appearance of reality in the reality television is an important point. In the Surviving Nuge marathon, one of the stunts was a game of chicken, where the contestants were assigned to run toward a speeding mega truck, the further along the more money they'd get (marked by bales of hay with $$ increments). One of the contestants didn't yield in the game and wound up glancing off the truck's windshield and being carted off in an ambulence, to the horror of the other contestants.
Lisa, The Biggest Loser, I saw parts of that, and I was appalled, truly appalled, at the way the celebrities were under the spot light telling detailed stories about their personal lives and backgrounds, crying and carrying on like children. If the idea of human humiliation is what drives people to watch these things, The Biggest Loser pushed many of the right buttons. But I think this show was even more intrusive than some of the others, because of the details about personal lives that were the central focus. Where are the personal boundaries? Completely gone, evaporated. Is it a way of "selling" 24-7 surveillance that is becoming more and more technologically possible?
To update the health of the Nuge contestant, I fell asleep before the grand finale, when Nuge revealed that it was a stunt man who doubled as a contestant. Now, what was real?
--------------------------------------------------------------- "if you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got." ---------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 6804 | Location: usa | Registered: 09 February 2006
There are some reality shows I enjoy, in the Queen for a Day genre: Pimp My Ride is one. Our (this is a son and me project) favorite one is the one we saw this week, when an ice cream truck got a makeover.
I also like the HGTV segments where rooms are made over, or landscapes are cleaned up. I was actually disappointed to miss the ending of the landscaping episode I was watching last night, when my family whisked me out of the house. The thing I enjoyed was watching the landscape designer create ... discussing the plants she had selected, and why bamboo was a good choice for construction, why things were ugly and what would make them better, and so on. She had energy and creativity and subtle grace, with a lot of smarts, all the elegance of a ballerina really.
--------------------------------------------------------------- "if you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got." ---------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 6804 | Location: usa | Registered: 09 February 2006
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
Posts: 8264 | Location: Fl | Registered: 05 July 2001
But I think this show was even more intrusive than some of the others, because of the details about personal lives that were the central focus. Where are the personal boundaries? Completely gone, evaporated. Is it a way of "selling" 24-7 surveillance that is becoming more and more technologically possible?
Yes, it was intrusive, and the contestants did carry one a bit at times. I was drawn by the transformative aspect, similar to the HGTV room makeovers and landscape transformation (which I also like to watch occasionally). Interesting question re: surveillance. At the least it would seem to condition people to the idea?
------------------------------------ We cannot control the evil tongues of others; but a good life enables us to disregard them.
Posts: 1855 | Location: here and now | Registered: 22 September 2005
I agree with liking HGTV, even the food channel's Iron Chef is nice..
I think the mention of humiliation is the large part of it. Shows where people who either embarras themselves the most, are the most emotional, or fail at some task are - either elevated showing humiliation is ok or they loose but there is no compassion by those moving ahead. The problem with the biggest looser was the speed of it and there was in my opinion for the couple times I watched it an air of humiliation and degradation. Not everyone is perfect (I dare say nobody ever is), but is it right to be so oppressive to those who we consider imperfect.
Achieving Perfect Balance, Inc. "Old-Time Neighborhood ..New-Time World" www.apbctr.com
Posts: 174 | Location: Tampabay Region of Florida | Registered: 10 May 2006
(6) The game went like this; Bailey interviewed four women on each show, whoever was in the worst shape-assessed by the audience 'applause meter' was crowned Queen For A Day. Bailey said about the winners, "It's not what they want, its why they want it that counts with us." Queen For A Day was considered a "sob show" of the 1950's. "Sure 'Queen' was vulgar and sleazy and filled with bathos and bad taste," wrote producer Howard Blake in an article for Fact magazine. "That was why it was so successful. It was exactly what the general public wanted....We got what we were after. Five thousand Queens got what they were after. And the TV audience cried their eyes out, morbidly delighted to find there were people worse off than they were, and so they got what they were after." (
also on the same link the author recounts an experience with another show 'It could be You' scroll down for a story that might bring a smile.
Blaise Pascal Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. Pensees
Posts: 2917 | Location: Sverige | Registered: 21 June 2005
No Doug, Flavor of Love was a reality show staring Flavor Flav and a house full of hoochies trying to win his affection. My favorite episode was Flav taking a date with flowers and limo to Olive Garden where he ate spaghetti with his hands. It was beautiful.
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
Posts: 8264 | Location: Fl | Registered: 05 July 2001
The crude insult has an iconic place in the American contest. But it has become epidemic, and organized as the need to have no sympathy for losers becomes both convenient and hip. Howard Stern and Don Imus tapped into the sophomoric glee at hearing another person being slapped down. The befuddlement and hurt on the face and in the voice of the victim is gold to the programmers.
Feeding the appetite makes the appetite for humiliation grow. More and better variations at the practice of humiliating are in development.
From Columbine to Virginia Tech. to suicide bombers - humiliation runs the risk of eventually being answered. None of it is right, justified or pretty but humiliation is itself born out of primitive savagery. It has murder in its nucleus.
quote:
The collective appetite to watch the moment of humiliation is a dangerous sign.
The impulses that were evident at Abu Ghraib have a reality here at home. The smiles on the faces of the guards were as grotesque as the offenses. They are the smiles of an audience feeling safe and delighted at the miserable plight of another. But it would be unwise not to realize as the appetite for humiliation is being fed that there will always be a percentage of the humiliated, like Pirate Jenny, who will want to wipe that smile off the collective face - even if it’s - and it often is - the last thing they do.
