weird tv

Not being in touch with much of American culture, well what passes for culture in America, I can occasionally be surprised by it. We have some sort of service in the apartment now that produces many channels of brightly colored images on the box that has gone unused for the better part of a decade. Notice I said many channels, not many varieties. There are amazingly few varieties considering there are so many channels running 24x7.

A variety I hadn't encountered before is the "tape a date" genus. This isn't like the old dating game where people ask questions, select someone to date, then you hear about it later. Here people purportedly go out on a blind date followed by a camera crew. This combines all the drama of watching a car wreck with the voyeristic fascination of people making complete fools out of themselves. To telegraph it to the slower members of the audience little cartoon bubbles, a la "Popup Video"(tm), are placed throughout the video. Just when you thought reality tv couldn't get any worse, it reaches a new low.

Tow this society into deep water and open the seacocks.