Actors and Actresses as Pundits

I’ve never really understood why being on television gives someone instant credibility. It was bad enough when there were only 3 channels, but these days with 500+ channels, some of them public access, just about everybody and his Laotian brother-in-law are on TV. A year or so ago, my wife and I went to see the Robin Williams flick “Man of the Year”. It was cute but not as funny as I had hoped. The saddest and funniest moment came as we were leaving and one of the men sitting behind me told the other, “That’s the kind of candidate we need in real life.” Some people are like clay mentally, and yet their vote counts as much as mine. I have always wondered how the hell we got to this situation. In my studies of history I’ve learned that in centuries past acting was considered a scummy profession. Low enough on the social food chain that in some cases women of any social class weren’t permitted to act. Apparently it was too demeaning, for even hookers, so men dressed in drag played the female roles. My how times have changed.

I’ve heard so much stupidity spew from the mouths of actors and actresses that I now just assume they’re morons until they’re proven otherwise. One would think they would take Laura Ingraham’s advice and Shut Up and Sing, but they don’t. Instead they engage is such egregious blather that it becomes impossible to enjoy any show or movie they are in. It took living in a world with 500+ channels for me to realize that three was probably too many. Hurray for Hollyweird.

Sometimes I Just Don’t Understand My Fellow Americans

I admit it. I just don’t get the mania over American Idol, Survivor, Next Top Model, or any other such show. I’ve watched a couple of episodes of most of them, usually not by choice. Mostly I’ve observed incredibly shallow people with delusions of adequacy transparently plotting against one another. I find them less exciting than watching paint dry.

When I first heard about Survivor I was intrigued. The idea of an endurance contest in exotic locations under extreme conditions was a good one I thought. Later, I found out that the winner would be determined, not by actually winning, but by having the other players vote each other out of the game. I did, and still do, find this to be one of the stupidest premises for a television show ever. A high school popularity contest is still a high school popularity contest even if it’s taking place in the tropics.

There is too much going on right now to justify the majority of the nation passing its time with this mindless crap. Naturally, a lot of these folks spend their rare non-TV time bitching about how the country is going to hell in a handbasket.

Furthermore, to call these accursed things “reality shows” is a crime of Orwellian proportions against the English language and the concept of reality. Who names these things? The Ministry of Clarity with the words “Specificity is Whatever” emblazoned on the walls? Perhaps the Playboy and Spice Channels can produce an entire series of chastity shows.

And while we’re at it, what’s with things like the Weather Channel and the Food Network? What’s next? The Scenery Channel? The Breathing Channel? The Paint Drying Channel?