Americans are fascinated with television's trash-reality


Tuesday, July 28, 1998	`Collegian Columnist` Americans are fascinated with television's trash-reality It worries me to see the parade of mongoloids on television in the late 1990s. Everybody and their mother can be on TV nowadays. Any overweight couch dweller, suburbanite brat or degenerate pervert can be on television. Reality trash culture has flooded our television sets for the past eight years. It's like a leak in a dike that nobody pays attention to until it's too late. The destruction has already occurred and there is little chance of survival.
Mark Partridge (mfp113@psu.edu) is a senior majoring in English and media studies and a Collegian columnist.	There are so many outlets for reality trash culture on television today that they should start a network. And because of this, people's fascination with being on television has increased exponentially. Therefore, people whom nobody knows outside Wabash, Indiana end up on television betting their debts or making out with their sisters on Jerry Springer. And we watch it. That's kind of disturbing to me because everything on these shows is almost always disturbing and incredibly perverse. Today's Springers and Sterns make the Morton Downeys and the Geraldos of the 1980s look like the Teletubbies. Why does our society get a kick out of other people's misfortunes, shortcomings and moral depravity? Some people say it's funny, and some of it is. Other people say it's because it's outrageous and unpredictable. Unpredictable? When was the last time you turned on "COPS" and saw the toothless crackhead released for being polite and promising never to beat his mother with the bottle of Old Crow again? Never. Maybe we are so enamored by these television shows because they provide us with taboo material not shown on regular daytime or prime time television. Reality trash culture exists as the dark side to regular television fare like sitcoms about tools and domestic dysfunction. It's the deformed brother that's sick of being kept in the basement. The gimp has struck back viscously. Do you know why these shows are so popular? I think it's because they make us feel better about ourselves. We look at 14--year-old prostitutes, police shoot-outs and animal attacks and thank god (or whatever the hell you worship) that it's not us. Because no matter how bad our lives are, we can always rest assured that somebody is getting screwed harder than we are.
*"Today's Springers and Sterns make the Morton Downeys and the Geraldos of the 1980s look like the Teletubbies."*	These shows would not exist if it weren't for the shameless simians willing to parade their demented selves for all of us to see. What possesses someone to want to share his or her darkest secrets with legions of complete strangers? Think about how voyeuristic we have gotten. It's gone well beyond the peeping tom with binoculars. Nobody needs to hide anymore. Now they pull out lawn chairs and six-packs to enjoy the show in comfort. But it's not only Springer that is to blame for this. He is merely a beneficiary of the sudden surge of reality trash. Besides we cannot give too much credit to a man who bounced a check to a hooker. Springer's show represents the lowest of the low. What about the other shows that depict people living well and doing something that we envy? MTV has brought the pain. With the inception of "The Real World" in the early '90s, MTV found itself on top of a gold mine. For several seasons the cities and the people changed, but not much else did. Sexual tension, differences of opinion, fights, smarmy behavior and self-absorbed lunacy are all still part of the show's formula. They have found ways to create controversy and inner turmoil amongst people. "The Real World" is like a no-holds-barred caged match with pretty people and expensive things I will never own. All we do as voyeurs is sit back and watch these self-absorbed pricks lick their wounds and tell us how they've never been in love. Should I care? So why do I watch? But we don't only tune in for the inevitable conflicts. There's another reason to tune in. And that's to watch where MTV houses these seven strangers. Most of us will never see that type of place anywhere other than on television. I will admit that I've watched "The Real World," and I still do. I do, however, debate the validity of the name of the show. What's so real about seven 20-somethings living in a multimillion-dollar loft having adventures and working for a radio station? Nothing. You know what's real? How about seven strangers picked to live in a trailer park in Birmingham, Ala.? What about seven strangers picked to live in a two-bedroom house in Compton? Game shows and other kinds of programs also exploit the theatrical value of reality. On the game show "Debt," people answer disgustingly simple questions on national television in order to reduce their real-life debts. These people must be on some other planet. If I were in debt I would never stand next to Wink Martindale and play against other losers who are there because they bought a car on their VISA. The only thing more embarrassing than going on "Debt" would be flogging oneself in public, naked and on television. Why television? Nobody wants to be a great teacher, or a great philosopher, or a great writer. Why do superstardom and fame pretty much revolve around being on some kind of screen? I do not know. The world is gray and I'm just a casual observer.