Fifteen Minutes of Fame

Reality TV has become a scourge of society.

According to Radio Times Guide to Film 2007, the film to “blame”for this genre was Andy Warhol´s 1966 movie Chelsea Girl.

Some of the earliest reality shows were historic. In 1964 the BBC produced the excellent Seven Up documentaries that followed the lives of fourteen UK children when they were seven years old. The children were selected to represent the range of socio-economic backgrounds in Britain at that time, with the explicit assumption that each child's social class predetermines their future. Every seven years, the director, Michael Apted, films new material from as many of the fourteen as he can get to participate. Fascinating stuff, which was replicated by several other countries many years later in the US, Australia, Sweden and others.

Last week, the tabloids when completely bananas by the death of Jade Goody, a winner of Big Brother in the UK. Loud, obnoxious and overtly racist (especially to my Indian bros), Goody lived and died in the public for five years. 4 years, 364 days, 23 hours and 45 minutes too long. Gordon Brown, the British PM even made a public eulogy to her!

Tonight they are showing a reality show from the States, Beauty and the Geek. So absurd and unbelievable. Co-created by Ashton Kutcher, it “works” on the premise that beautiful women can learn something from male geeks and vice-versa.

The show´s website states “Ashton pairs up a nerd with a hot bird so they can learn from each other. There will be multiple pairings of nerds and girls with each couple vying to show the most group improvement...i.e. the nerds need to become player-pimps and the girls need to show some intellectual improvement. Lets just say that when the show starts out they each couple is comprised of polar opposites. The guys talk about their computers while the girls talk about well, they are just dumb. It is absolutely hilarious to see this awkward social pairing bloom into something a little less awkward. The couples are competing for a quarter of a million dollars”

Who buys this shit for me to watch?