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Three kids run around screaming while Mommy and Nanny go out of their minds figuring out what to do. Three high-school seniors stand sweating at podiums answering biology questions (which weren’t hard at all…) in a spelling bee style while about 10 others sit in the stands scrutinizing them. One hundred volunteers rush at a house towing wrenches and hammers while the owners ride away in a limo. And all this happens on the couple square foot LCD screen that we like to call the television. The other night I was busy at being the lazy bum on the couch, flipping the channels mindlessly, when I realized that on just about every channel there was another reality TV show. Maybe it wasn’t every single channel, but I don’t have cable, so when two or three channels play the same sort of show, every channel is playing that sort of show. My point is, REALITY TV IS TAKING OVER THE WORLD!!! Not quite, but I’m sure you can see what I’m getting at.

It used to be that when one thought of reality TV, Survivor or Big Brother would come to mind, but now we’ve got new breeds such as Super Nanny and Extreme Makeover. Where reality shows used to just take a bunch of random people and stick them on some random island or in a single house, they are now taking on every aspect of US life and twisting it into something the we Americans somehow find amusing. We’ve now shows for singles, shows for those who want to improve their looks, shows for parents who can’t control their toddlers, shows for parents who can’t control their teenagers, shows for high schoolers who want to get a scholarship, shows for wannabe divas, shows for fixing up the house, and even a show (which I heard about in Chem class) that has to do with putting weird stuff on and in a car to make it …cool… NOT to mention all those that were already in existence, shows that test fears, shows that race around the world, and shows that stick you in a house or on an island to test your people and not-going-insane skills.

Why are we so attracted to this sort of entertainment? Why are these shows that pose as a representative of real life so successful? I’d say there are many reasons. One is something I’d like to call the point and laugh factor. Anyone who’s ever watched Survivor will know that the producers always stick a couple of wild characters together, and this inevitably leads to various upsets and havoc and downright stupidity at times. And when this happens, us viewers at home have nothing to do but laugh at them, or get mad at them, or feel sorry for them, or cry with them whatever the case may be. In this way, these shows create a mini-reality for the viewers. An artificial reality, but something the viewer can connect with yet remain distant from. Of course, other typical TV shows like comedies or soaps do the exact same thing, so how are the “reality” sort different? It has something to do with the unpredictability, the fact that these are actual people and not actors reciting lines. Maybe real people don’t come up with as funny lines all the time as our favorite characters, but real people just do the most random and crazy things sometimes that we are kept entertained anyway. There is also a certain appeal to the, “what would I do in that case…” scenario. It’s much easier to imagine yourself into arguing with your boyfriend while catching a train to Beijing (though it’s unlikely to happen) than into some pretty, well set scene from, say, Less Than Perfect or Friends. It’s a bit easier yelling at the screen at someone voting the wrong way on Survivor than at an actor spewing scripted lines.

I admit, I watch these reality shows from time to time and am amused by them. However, I am starting to also get really disgusted. A good example is a show that hasn’t gone on air yet but has been being promoted everywhere, Brat Camp. If your kid is horrible…forget military school, send them to Brat Camp, where instead of just being humiliated in front of their teachers and classmates they get to be humiliated in front of the entire nation. What I really want to know is what sort of parent would subject their kid, or themselves to this. Doesn’t the fact that their child is so out of hand shout out to the world what kind of parenting they’ve done? I’m sure it will be entertaining to watch these monsters turn into kind, loving members of a close community that will come home with hugs and kisses for Mommy and Daddy, but the whole concept still sets my eye twitching with the whole…hmmm…something is wrong here…feeling. The same concept goes for Super Nanny which I have watched and then wondered why I kept watching it. Parents send out a help cry and Super Nanny comes and saves the day. In the meantime we see all the parents faults and tribulations. It’s a bit perverted watching people in pain for amusement, but we do it anyways. Watching this particular show might even help some poor parent who was dealing with the same problems as the hour-long stars. However…to open up your life to anyone in the US or beyond who has a TV…igh…

Reality TV…not really reality, but we still flock like the ducks to the bread crumbs those cute little toddlers throw in the pond. Anything seems to do nowadays…wheat bread, white bread, pastries, rye… And it’s all out there. What will they think up next, a reality show for pets? (if that hasn’t been done yet…)