Posted on 09/03/2003 3:49:31 PM PDT by B-Chan
the bitpig rant / when we was fab
Recently, as part of my continuing quest to keep abreast of current trends, I steeled myself with liquor and sat down in the den to watch a few minutes of satellite TV. Now, my television viewing choices are extremely limited: other than occasional news broadcasts, cartoons, reruns of old sci-fi shows, or classic movies, I rarely turn the damned thing on. Television annoys me -- it's full of stupid crap, and, while I was raised on stupid TV crap, at least it was harmless, entertaining stupid crap back then. There wasn't a lot to hate in mindless '60s television, unless one had a pathological hatred of cowboys, flying saucers, or comely female genies who lived with astronauts in glamorous Cocoa Beach. (Only Jack Chick could hate a show like Bewitched.) But today? Holy cow! The “vast wasteland” of television is more vast and more wasted than one can imagine; in terms of meanness, decadence, and sheer stupidity, the TV programing we “enjoy” now makes the Bad TV world of Gomer Pyle USMC and Hogan's Heroes look like Masterpiece Theatre by comparison.
My friends think I'm oversensitive, and maybe I am, but the longer I watched the Tube, the angrier and more agitated I became; the phrase “two hundred channels and nothing on” was never more true. One load of whaledreck followed another on the screen, each one coldly calculated to titillate the basest instincts of the viewer while simultaneously “educating” him or her on How They Do It In The Big City. Among all of the shows I saw that offended, shocked, or insulted my intelligence, however, one stood out as being more offensive, shocking, and insulting than the others. I speak of course of Bravo/NBC's megahit series Queer Eye For the Straight Guy (QESG).
In case you haven't seen it, QESG is the latest floater in the porcelain bowl of so-called Reality TV, a genre in which actual real-life people are drawn into fantastic made-for-TV situations designed to produce the old fish-out-of-water effect for the voyeuristic entertainment of the viewer. In QESG, the “Fab Five”, a team of witty urban homosexuals, are assigned to remake the lives of hapless hetero men, who, as the show constantly makes plain, are incapable of dressing themselves, preparing or eating decent food, or behaving in anything but a piggish, dorky, and/or embarassingly adolescent manner. The idea that homosexual men are witty, well-dressed bons viveurs is of course a stereotype, but in the brave new world of open-minded acceptance we've created it's plain that some stereotypes are more equal than others. What relationship a “lifestyle” centered around the practice of sodomy has with taste, wit, and style is never defined; QESG simply assumes that the viewer knows that homosexual men are sui generis fresh, funny and totally faboo, and that the millions of moistened schlubs sitting in their La-Z-Boys wearing their foam NASCAR hats just need a good going-over by the bathtub-enema brigade to be equally faaaabulous.
The whole thing is nothing but a televised practical joke, of course: the target audience is the lower-class white woman, who sees gay men as the funny, exciting, rich girlfriends they don't have in Real Life; the sniggering classmates are the Queer Eye team; and the butt of the joke is the Straight Guy, the lower-class white man with no self-esteem, no money, and no taste. The point of the joke (besides garnering high ratings) is, I suspect, to incrementally change middle-American values by making the typically insecure middle-American man feel that “the whole world is laughing at you”. Not to sound paranoid, but one can be excused for thinkng that QESG might just be a part of some kind of Revolutionary Self-Examination/Self-criticism Reeducation Program by which Flyover Country is being indoctrinated to accept “alternate lifestyles” as being acceptable, funny, and even Fab.
The sad truth for these hapless male Eliza Doolittles is that the whole world is laughing at them -- myself included...
(Excerpt) Read more at cheapdisposable.com ...
I dunno. All I know is that I don't find much on television to watch these days. From now on I'm abandoning my front-row seat at the Coliseum and going for more long walks. Unlike the Boob Tube, a walk is good for your health.
Good rant, B-Chan.
Re BRUCE THE PSYCHIC GUY...
Yesterday an old Texan lady came in as a patient, and as I was taking her history, she perked up, looked at me with a gleam in her eye, and asked mischievously, "Do you believe in ESP?"
"No, not really," I replied.
Her Texan smile broadened..."When's yer birthday?"
"February 7."
She just gleamed! "Mine too! See, I have ESP!"
I looked at her chart, which she had filled out in my waiting room. There on her date of birth line was 2/7/XX!
I can't explain it. Can any of you?
That is so so true! We pay lots of $$ for cable and there still is nothing good on..especially during the summer. Reality shows are the most annoying out of the lot!
If you watch anything else, it's your own fault if you're shocked, or if it sucks. (And it DOES suck.)
But, I'm 52, and old.
You don't sound paranoid.
You sound like someone with a real talent for misplaced, over-the-top hyperbole who reads waaaaaay too much into a relatively entertaining show about fashion and decorating tips.
Look up. The sky is not falling.
In fact I was thinking earlier today, now that the summer is over, that I haven't sat in front of the TV all summer long! Not even to watch a History Channel show or FoxNews. I guess I was burned out on FoxNews after the Iraq war.
Anyway, I'm certainly with you on sitcoms. Sometimes I am exposed to snippets of them when visiting others or when I catch my kids checking them out. These sitcoms are loud, obnoxious, and insulting to the intelligence. Like you, I was raised on harmless 1960s sitcoms. Gilligan's Island, McHale's Navy, Andy Griffith, Beverly Hillbillies etc. Not that those shows were very much redeeming in any significant way, but they were genuinely funny at times and not rude, mean-spirited and nasty like today's sitcoms invariably are. A couple of years ago, on a whim, I watched a couple of "Andy Griffith" episodes on some classic TV channel. My kids had a hard time "getting" it. I guess they were waiting for the inevitable low-brow jokes about Barney's "sexual orientation" or Andy's "squareness."
In fact I was thinking earlier today, now that the summer is over, that I haven't sat in front of the TV all summer long! Not even to watch a History Channel show or FoxNews. I guess I was burned out on FoxNews after the Iraq war.
Anyway, I'm certainly with you on sitcoms. Sometimes I am exposed to snippets of them when visiting others or when I catch my kids checking them out. These sitcoms are loud, obnoxious, and insulting to the intelligence. Like you, I was raised on harmless 1960s sitcoms. Gilligan's Island, McHale's Navy, Andy Griffith, Beverly Hillbillies etc. Not that those shows were very much redeeming in any significant way, but they were genuinely funny at times and not rude, mean-spirited and nasty like today's sitcoms invariably are. A couple of years ago, on a whim, I watched a couple of "Andy Griffith" episodes on some classic TV channel. My kids had a hard time "getting" it. I guess they were waiting for the inevitable low-brow jokes about Barney's "sexual orientation" or Andy's "squareness."
Bring a Rosary. I do on my long walks.
? Y2K problems with psychics?
It sounds like a setup. Maybe she knew the coincidence before she spoke to you.
I dunno. Maybe she checked up on you before allowing you to treat her and found your B-day from what-not source. There are patients out there that do that.
? Y2K problems with psychics?
LOL! NO! She filled in the birth date line by hand when she filled out the patient questionaire in the waiting room prior to being seen.
Cynical me, I was just complying with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements that I not violate patient confidentiality by giving out one of today's patient's full date of birth. I think she was born in the 1930's.
As an 11-year-old, I once envisioned an automobile accident happening to the car I was in, which occurred almost exactly as I'd imagined it (side impact, just behind the rear left door where I was sitting) just 2 hours later. It could be pure coincidence, of course, but it was startling all the same.
And it's working. The death culture's message is that queerness is no longer loathesome and pathetic. It's hip and clever and cool. Mainstream America's just about on board: you don't have to be shagging the same sex to be seriously queered in the head.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.