wb's superstar usa — Page 3

excuse me, type a tiff- it would be a terrible testiment to north america's mentality

"But then, I can't onestly believe that these "contestants" have no idea what is going on."

I thought the same thing which is why I watched it in teh first place. I thought these people must know they're bad and are just playing around or hoping to become a bad novelty act and get their fifteen minutes of fame.

I'm sure that's true for some of them. there were contestants who seemed to be trying too hard to be bad. However, self deception is a very strong especailly when it comes to evaluating your own talent. I do know of a young girl who sings so badly you would think it was a joke and when she dances she looks like a mule having a seizure. Yet she honestly believs herself to be talented and is planning to make it big on Broadway and in Hollywood once she finishes college.

I guess we see what we want to see in ourselves. It's sad to think that this girls dreams may be shattered someday but, at least it's not some tv show doing it to her for sport and ratings.

To address a couple of comments made to defend this show:

"People make fools of themselves all the time...eating bull semen..."

The differnce is that tehs epeople are aware they are making fools of themselves and chose to do so. There is a difference in purposely doing something that you know will make you look stupid but not caring and having someone else do it for you.

"They sign waivers"

Did they know taht the waiver they signed was for a show designed to humilate them or did they think it was an AI type of show? When they signed the waiver do you think they were were going to humilaited in such a horrendous way?

Come on people, if you like the show and get a kick out of seeing public humilation, just say so. Don't try to justify it with dumb rationalizations. that only shows how guilty you really feel about watching it, which shows that you know how wrong it is.

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Updated On: 5/25/04 at 08:14 AM

orion59 - I wholeheartedly agree and I share your strong feelings (though there's nothing strange about the degree). I'm still trying to figure out when the idea of public cruelty and humiliation suddenly became an acceptable form of entertainment. True, there were public executions, stocks, and torture a couple of centuries ago that are now considered barbaric, yet they were people accused of committing crimes. COPS is similar to a modern form of this. But these are not people who did anything wrong. Personally, I am sending a letter to WB (which will probably land in the garbage), but whatever anyone's reason for watching the show, I still cannot comprehend it. The world gets into a furor over how our military treats Iraqi prisoners, but no one seems to give a damn about how we are treating our own citizens. It's no wonder the soldiers behaved the way they did. They've had years of training in humiliation as entertainment from American films and television.

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Mister Matt,

The things you point out in your post are the exact reasons I hate shows like this. They desensitize people to cruelty and in some cases with other shows, extreme violence. It really is frightening to teenagers get so upset over someone criticizing these shows like in the post above. It illustrates how much people seem to have a need to see this type of thing. It's getting to the point where something cannot be entertaining unless things are blowing up and people are dying. In the case of reality tv it isn't entertyaining unless someone is humilated. As stupid as I find shows like Fear Factor and Survivior, I have a bit more respect for them because at least the people on those shows know exactly what they are getting into.

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matt_g, to me it isnt personal, i started this thread in hopes that some people would agree that this is a horrible concept. you said that despite it all, you watch the show anyway. i wont say "good for you" because i dont think that is good at all, but it is not my buisness what you watch, so i will keep it general:

this show is a horrible reflection of our entire society. some people will watch this show for the comedic value, some will simply watch it because it sparks interest. it sparked mine, just in a negative way, so i refuse to watch. a lot of people have their tv guilty pleasures, (its like eating junk food, you know their is no positive substance, but you eat it anyway) BUT those other substance-laking shows were not based on the concept that public mockery sells. and as i said; if it does, then that is a poor reflection on society in general.

Updated On: 5/25/04 at 06:27 PM