Posted on 12/01/2012 5:06:51 AM PST by Kaslin
Angus T. Jones told the truth. In a religious video posted on YouTube, the former child actor who's the "half" man of the CBS sitcom "Two and a Half Men" shocked the celebrity press by saying "I don't want to be on it. Please stop watching it. Please stop filling your head with filth."
Calling this show "filth" is like calling your Christmas tree an evergreen. Yet about 14 million Americans still love filling their head with this filthy show, and they don't want to be told what they're doing.
It doesn't surprise, then, that the pundits have turned on Jones, like the 19-year-old was having serious mental problems. The best was long-time cast mate and all-around sleazeball, Charlie Sheen, declaring young Angus was having an "emotional tsunami." You read that correctly: Charlie Sheen calling someone else a nut job.
The Jones video was posted Monday, and within 48 hours, his camp issued a statement apologizing for the disrespect to the dirty hands that feed him. It was expected. It was either that or kiss your career bye-bye. It's still not clear if he'll be consigned to making independent Christian movies with Kirk Cameron.
If only Jones had done the opposite. The worse, the more outlandish, disrespectful, insulting, obscene -- the more lucrative.
Remember the old days, way back when advertisers insisted you had to be a positive role model to endorse their product on TV? That era is clearly dead. In another sign of our cultural collapse, it is now just the opposite.
Start with Sheen, whose well-publicized meltdown in a haze of drugs and alcohol and egotistical rants about "winning" and "tiger blood" has led to a bevy of commercial deals.
First came Sheen for the Fiat 500, driving the car speedily in a circle inside a mansion. He steps out of the car and declares, wink-wink, "I love being under house arrest," with a hot model on his arm. The sales slogan: "Not all bad boys are created equal." Then there was DirecTV joking that if you stick with cable TV, you might end up reenacting scenes from "Platoon" with Charlie Sheen at his house.
Perhaps the ugliest one pitched Bavaria beer. It has Charlie driving away from a rehab clinic seeing everyone drinking beer -- pregnant women, the police -- because apparently the beer is so good for everyone that even Charlie should imbibe. The "happy ending"? The beer is non-alcoholic.
Consider Wonderful Pistachios, whose ad campaign was characterized by Adweek as an "idiots and [A-words]" campaign. Scandal is all their hired celebrities have to offer.
MTV's Snooki (the hard-partying, over-tanned star of "Jersey Shore") cracked open a pistachio with a tanning bed. Former Bristol Palin boyfriend (and unwed father) Levi Johnston was hired -- "hold on to your daughters," cracked the PR firm in its pitch. There was also an ad with a crook -- ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, before he began serving a 14-year prison term. In his ad, a mysterious character hands him a briefcase. He opens it, and loads of pistachios spill out. "Rod Blagojevich does it innocently," says the voiceover.
This phenomenon is accelerating. The biggest poster boy may be Calvin "Snoop Dogg" Broaddus. It's never mattered that he's an icon of pot smoking, or that he made porn films with Hustler magazine, or that he spent three years defending himself after his bodyguard committed a drive-by shooting while he was behind the wheel. Actually, it does matter, all of it. It is what makes him even cooler.
The man has a list of endorsements as long as your arm. By far the weirdest may be his Chrysler ad last year on a golf course with former Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca. Not even this giant of industry seems rattled.
Right now, this Captain Cannabis is on TV trying to spread his cool vibe onto "Hot Pockets." Using his tune "Drop It Like It's Hot," he raps "Your munchies get an attitude, pocket like it's hot."
This trend never stops, with smutty pop stars like Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj selling Pepsi or Adidas. Wheat Thins even borrowed Baby Stewie and Brian the Dog from the smutty cartoon "Family Guy." Somehow, Stewie can be on Fox eating horse sperm or making Brian eat his vomit, but they can still sell eating Wheat Thins during the ad breaks.
Angus Jones will never know this filthy lucre -- unless, of course, his agent can talk him into renouncing the whole video as some bizarre psycho religious stunt.
All might then be forgiven, and there might just be pistachio advertisers on his doorstep.
Folks....if you are desiring something inspirational....then you need to step back and focus on yourself and your life. Read a book, sit a while on the porch with relatives, go to a history site, etc. We don’t need to go and pick on TV lacking X, Y and Z. It was never TV’s job to ever provide anything of a moral necessity. We all seem to have forgotten that.
TV is purely for entertainment, and they might accidentally provide some history lesson once in a while, but frankly, it’s not their job to do anything other than that.
If we start drifting off into this mentality, then you might as well get upset at McDonalds for not feeding you a fine outstanding nutritional meal, or get angry at Sears for selling lusty provocative outfits.
Our economic collapse has been preseded by a moral and social collapse. Only spiritual revival will fix things. This country gets the political leader that fit.
“TV is purely for entertainment, and they might accidentally provide some history lesson once in a while,...”
The facts surrounding some of that “history” might need to be checked.
“The facts surrounding some of that “history” might need to be checked.”
Yes, as the Christmas season approaches brace yourself for a slew of “documentaries” made by non-Christians casting doubt on Jesus as the Son of God. Happens every Easter, too; they are really trying to make these secular events...
“Broken societies, selfish uncaring
Addled brains clutching at chemicals soothing
Desperate measures, desperately tearing
At last vestige of dignity, (ours) for the losing”
Ian Anderson, “Adrift and Dumbfounded”
I thoroughly enjoyed “The Men Who Built America” but not being an historian, I wonder how much of that history, if any, has been misrepresented.
Also, on Detroit PBS there is a documentary called “Our Italian Story”. It’s one of a series of like-named installments. Another is “Our Polish Story” and another, “Our Greek Story” were produced by Keith Famie.
There are plenty of good shows to watch and just as it has always been, it’s up to the viewer to decide whether to change the channel or not.
I don’t watch any live TV (I do rent shows like “Downton Abbey,” “The Tudors,” “Rome” and “Boardwalk Empire”).
What disgusting pitiful drek on these commercials and what a sad commentary on our nation.
I remember when some were saying about Clinton... it’s just a BJ. I knew it was over then.
Sure; anyone who sits in front of a TV and just lets The Leaders influence them is a mindless fool.
Any historical documentaries of that type always seem to downplay the massive improvement in peoples’ quality of lives, instead focusing on how much money they made. I’d watch some of them if they are older programs, before the truth ended up on the cutting floor.
I hope Angus DOES get consigned to doing Christian movies with Kirk Cameron. The more stars doing Christian movies, the more impact the movies will have.
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