You call that entertainment?
Here’s a social commentary I wrote for catharsis this past weekend. If I didn’t write who knows what I would do to relieve frustration, but you all are safe… for now!
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When I was a kid I remember watching shows that were just funny. There were no deeper messages or some harping point that was more annoying than your mother riding your back to clean your bedroom. Not today. The entertainment industry is fast becoming irrelevant, and it doesn’t surprise me considering the issues around talent, content, and the inappropriate insertion of political commentary,
My Mother in Law and I were discussing the overnight sensation Susan Boyle last night. Boyle was the contestant on “Britain’s Got Talent” who shocked the audience and judges with an outstanding performance. The reason the audience and the judges were so shocked by the lovely singer is that she does not fit the model of what we expect on stage today.
People describe her as “frumpy” “dowdy” or maybe just a “plain Jane.” Her voice, however, is absolutely stunning and so is her stage presence. We have (in the USA and now I wonder if in Great Britain too) thrown talent to the wayside for lewd, foul mouthed, drug addicted, dysfunctional tarts whose talent is just as falsely generated as their looks — and that goes double for the men in the industry. I told my Mother in Law last night that I too was shocked by Boyle’s performance, but not because someone with her appearance could sing that way. I was shocked that a modern pop show claiming to judge talent actually had someone WITH talent to judge.
If Susan Boyle had come out on stage looking a 14-year old Britney Spears (you know before she was washed up) people would have assumed, and wrongly so, that she must have talent since she looks a certain way. With that bias in place people will settle for the crumbs that are offered to them for the little bit of “eye-candy” and they throw out the marvelous “cake” with people like Boyle because she is not appealing to the eye. She wasn’t there to proclaim she wanted to be a super model. She’s a singer and she wanted to sing. She is in her upper-40s and this was her first chance to sing in front of a large audience. Why? Because even though she has a voice that can move people to tears, she doesn’t “look” the role and has never been given a chance. Give me a break. I am proud of Susan Boyle and her courage. She knew what those people were thinking — she has faced that mentality her whole life.
Outside of my boycott of main stream talentless music there is another deep irritation for me concerning the entertainment industry. The content in most movies, shows, and dramas are not even yawn worthy. If it’s not overdone, over the top, outrageously stupid story lines, then it’s sex, sex, sex, and usually it’s those two are combined. When we are not convulsing due to sensory overload from screen action that wears out the most hyperactive ADD kid, then we are being preached to. We can not even watch a stupid PBS cartoon with out being reminded that our juice box is environmentally unfriendly and our choices as 4-year olds will more than likely destroy the earth before we get to break the pinata at our 6-birthday celebration. Maybe the anti-depressant manufacturers are sponsoring the shows nowadays.
Why can’t kid’s shows be fun? I personally can attest to the fact that not one person I know who grew up on Bugs Bunny has ever tried to kill anyone because of what they saw on the show. I can say the same for Wiley Coyote fans I know. Not one of them has tried to do the whole jumping off the cliff with an anvil on their head trick. These shows have been discontinued because they are “violent in nature”, and they are “not nice.” When you are in 6th grade and your best friend just dumped your sorry butt on the playground after school, you want funny, man! You want to see that Coyote go over the cliff. It’s funny. It made us laugh and it relieved our stress. That’s what entertainment is supposed to be. When I am watching a show or a movie, I don’t want to be reminded constantly of the world’s problems. I am paying to escape them, thank you very much. I will worry and stress for free.
And the one issue that has put the final nail in the proverbial coffin of my partaking in the modern entertainment industry? The political views. Oh yes. You know what I mean. The Dixie Chicks are a great example of what happens when people who are supposed to be entertaining decide to use their platform for a political statement. Sure, it’s their right, and no they were never censored. They got the good old fashioned cold shoulder, ain’t gonna buy your crappy music anymore, treatment from their fans. That’s the consequence, so stop writing books and claiming victim-hood. You did it to yourselves. We have seen the same stuff happen with the likes of nearly every big name in Hollywood. If they want to use their platform to preach their political message, that’s fine, but if they want to insult me and millions of other Americans constantly because we don’t agree with their view point — that’s totally unacceptable.
Just the other day the “24″ actress Garofalo went on another one of her moonbat, hate driven, bigoted tirades on how all Conservatives are racists, and how we hate the President because he’s black and not because he is in fact screwing our Country up beyond belief in such a short time. Her moonbat rant was very a la Rosie. Whatever. If you are a Conservative and you watch this show, you need to keep her words going through your mind while you watch it again. Are you really going to spend your time watching a supposed actress who is constantly bashing you?
She is not just saying she disagrees, she says you have a mental disorder. She is inciting hatred toward you based on your beliefs and your convictions. Keep that in mind, and if you can keep watching her and keep supporting her job by giving her the viewership she needs, then you are able to compartmentalize more than I can.
I boycotted paying for any television many years ago. It’s a decision we do not regret in our home at all. We get one news channel for our local news and we get PBS. We watch movies when we watch TV together, and you can bet those movies are not only screened for content, but they are screened for who they support.
Maybe we will see a shift in perception in this Country in the years to come. It would be wonderful for all of us to remember that the entertainment industry works for us, not us working for them. They are paid by your money. They are kept in business by you. If you think they are doing a crappy job, don’t just settle and watch it anyway. Turn it off and write to the channel who is broadcasting it. Don’t go to the movies of crazy actors who hate you. Why would you do that? Would you give your money to anyone else who was slandering your character?
It’s not worth it. Entertainment is only useful inasmuch as it entertains. Everything outside of that is your personal funding of broadcasting loud mouthed, lewd, and bigoted opinions. Sure, it’s your choice, but Bugs Bunny is a much smarter choice, in my opinion.
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