Reality Television, Vol 1

As an amateur writer, you sit and try to figure out things to write about.  In my case I try to "write nice", so often something I find funny also causes me to go "Oh no, I can't write about that" (often, I can't even joke about it in mixed company).  So I titled this post "Reality Television, Vol 1" because I have a hunch I will revisit the topic from time to time.

Here is a brief history or reality television.  I didn't do any actual "research", because it would take time and start to resemble "work".  The history of reality television goes something like this.  In the beginning there were documentaries, a television show where the plot involves something that actually happened.  Documentaries almost never involve two women who take in a man as a third roommate but tell the landlord he's gay so it is acceptable for him to live there, and in a documentary hi-jinx almost never ensue.  Documentaries are kind of snooty.  Not as snooty as reading a book instead of watching television though.

Documentaries are to related to reality television ("reality" of course, from the Greek "reali", meaning "done without spending much money on production or writing because filming idiots in idiotic situations is very funny") the same way that BMWs are related to... some much less expensive, less snooty, completely unpretentious, car that very little planning or design went into, but is still popular.  Maybe a Volkswagen Beetle.  But not the one of the new ones that are sort of cool, the rather nerdy old ones that put out about as much horsepower as a modern lawnmower (when the hell did the "punch buggy" game start?  Whose idea was it to market an egg on wheels by giving the animals that masquerade as my children another reason to hit each other in the backseat of the car?)

My new favorite reality show is "You're Cut Off" on VH-1.  In this show very annoying rich girls are run through a sort of princess rehab program to try to turn them into actual human beings.  They spend so much time talking about how much all their stuff costs I kinda doubt they're as rich as they let on, but imagine I would trade paychecks with their parents.  Every time I think that reality television can't sink any lower, BOOM!  Another sub-basement.  Also, I came to the following conclusion: The world suffers from a lack of pianos hanging precariously from frayed ropes.  I grew up watching Wile E. Coyote, and this was constantly a problem for him, pianos and anvils both.  And he was a Super Genius.

Perhaps in today's political climate I should be perfectly clear: Please don't drop a piano, or an anvil, on any of the people on this show.  But with modern CGI, it seems like they could occasionally make this appear to happen.  Its gotta a be a better use of that technology than the new Star Wars movies.

Blogs are related to books the same way reality television is related to documentaries.  It requires the same basic skill set to read a blog as to read a book, but there is nothing snooty or pretentious about it.  You don't get to feel better than other people.  It may be entertaining though.  Thanks for reading.  Leave a comment if you like.