Toxcina King
46
It wasn’t long ago when television comedy ruled the evening. I recall turning on my favorite sitcom “Malcolm in the Middle” and laughing within minutes. Then along came comedy’s unscripted adversary, reality television.
Although a handful of legitimate and harmless comedies might still exist, the reality boom has spawned a majority of absurd, tasteless shows and outrageous behavior. What use to be considered as comedy has now evolved into the sick twisted lovechild of hungry producers and greedy network executives. And it’s not just comedy either. Reality television is a trend that’s influencing all other areas of popular entertainment.
Our celebrity culture is heavy on sensationalism and light on true talent. Comedians and talk show hosts like Jerry Springer, Howard Stern and Sara Silverman are all famous for their show’s shock value. Just recently, Silverman called Paris Hilton a whore right to her face, in front of thousands of people at the MTV Movie Awards, which is seen globally. Ouch!
My question is how can a society consider itself healthy, when the financial reward for celebrities behaving badly is so great? Have we become a society where it is acceptable to insult and harass people in public? I guess we have.
Yet, I seldom get past the question of how we got here. How did Americans lose interest in scripted comedy and come to embrace all manner of reality television?
Our new version of what’s funny is downright scandalous. Watching people fight, spit, curse, contemptuously plot against each other, lie, cheat and steal is not my version of good laughs and fun. Yet, young Americans, the biggest spending demographic in the market, can’t get enough of it, and big business knows it.
Comedy today is no longer limited to those with professional titles. Anyone can be a star these days if they are willing to relinquish all their pride, rights and footage of their every move to the eager television audience.
You know something has permeated a culture when American colleges and universities are charging big bucks to teach classes about the sociology and psychology of reality television.
Many sociology professors suggested that one of the major theories of laughter is the superiority theory, which says that humor occurs when we are able to observe the inadequacy of another comapred to ourselves. As one UCLA sociology professor Melvin Pollner explains, “There’s a certain satisfaction in looking at the inepteness, the incompetence and the inadequacy of another and having the opportunity to explicitly or implicity laugh.”
Networks are getting filthy rich from reality televisions shows, all the while laughing at the stupidity of the American public which hasn’t realized that it’s all the same show. Sure they have cute catchy titles like, “The Real World”, “Survivor”, “Rock of Love”, “America’s Most Smartest Model” and “I Love New York,” but at their core they are all one show with minor changes.
The state of comedy is at an all-time low. Since the key to the success of reality television is to keep viewers glued to their seats, character development has taken a back seat to plot advancement and it’s taking its toll. It stands to reason then that someone should ask and answer the question, what is this doing to our minds?
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