Research that Makes You Dumber-er
I decided tonight that if I am going to start writing more comedy that I need to sharpen my humor knives.
To do this, I dove headfirst into The Real Housewives of Orange County. I’ll admit three things right away: 1. I watched an episode and a half. 2. I’ve seen it before. 3. It might fall into the category of “classic” because there are spin-offs all over the country. (I am still holding out on Real Housewives of South Boston to be real.)
I watched 1.5 episodes, that’s 1.5 hours, and I came out on the other end like coming out of anesthesia. I couldn’t remember what had happened to me but I knew it must have been bad. I know it’s a cliche to rag on a bad movie or television program and say you’ve lost X amount of minutes in your life, but I honestly think I did.
I received so little mental stimulation that if I had been hooked up to a machine measuring brain waves the doctors would have found a blackhole. And yes, I definitely sound like an asshole trying to be an asshole for the sake of being an asshole. Mainly because many assholes before me have torn this show to shreds and composted it.
But I still think it’s important to note that many of us, everyday, fall victim to lying in a pool of spittle, our hands down our pants, entranced by Vicki’s jowls and Tamra’s tan. This is not about making fun of how none of them can read but making fun of the rest of us who can’t read and give them the ratings that keep them on the air.
See kids, this is because we live in a time of dumb shit. A time of the hipster. A time where bad taste is good taste (I am looking at you Ke$ha) and ugly cat sweaters are “hip.”
Bad shit goes through a life cycle: First, it is mocked endlessly, then destroyed by critics, thirdly it becomes a trending topic on Twitter, and then some jerk, who is dying to be different, says he likes it (because no one else does.) Eventually, everyone else trying to be different does this too and the irony disappears and suddenly we’re all Jersey Shore fans and we aren’t afraid to admit it. Like all things, the dumb shit dies and will appear later on a VH1 special when we all reminisce about how fucking off the mark we were. Which is always.
You aren’t cool for liking complete crap. You’re complete crap for liking complete crap. I should know.
I am one of you.
(Source: amandakusek.com)
