I am a celebrity get me out of here

[PM-Junkie]

Am stunned that Martina has signed up to this drivel.

I am stunned that anyone actually watches this drivel

[DodgyAgent]

Never played Warcraft (or any online game, or Second Life or anything similar in my life). I wonder if your need to characterise me in a particular way simply because I don't enjoy the same telly (or think Thatcher was a genius who saved us all, for another example) says more about you than me. I did start by saying what you said was fair comment - I am not trying to invalidate your choice of telly; no doubt there are things I watch that wouldn't appeal to you. I get a fair amount of ridicule at home for my love of University Challenge.

I am merely challenging you that you are indeed a geek who struggles in the company of other human beings. University challenge is nothing more than a display of the ability of people to assimilate knowledge. It makes no incursion into the minds of people, and does nothing to stimulate interest in people. More insightful and of more interest would be to stick a few of these contestants into a I am a celebrity get me out of here environment and see how they get on in relating to challenges and other people in unfamiliar circumstances.

And yes if it wasnt for Thatcher you wouldnt enjoy anything like the wealth and privilege that you have. If it wasnt for her we would be living in a regime of state control and nationalised industries with rich people like you being taxed at 90%.

[DodgyAgent]

Never played Warcraft and I don't get off on watching people humiliate themselves in order to raise their publicity profiles so that they get invited to the next licking of a stamp.

I utterly despise these lowest denominator programmes. They don't provide entertainment, humour, education or information, they're the cheapest possible form of TV programmes that feed entirely off and help to perpetuate the cult of celebrity.

What do you mean by "lowest common denominator"?

[Peoplesoft bloke]

I am merely challenging you that you are indeed a geek who struggles in the company of other human beings. University challenge is nothing more than a display of the ability of people to assimilate knowledge. It makes no incursion into the minds of people, and does nothing to stimulate interest in people. More insightful and of more interest would be to stick a few of these contestants into a I am a celebrity get me out of here environment and see how they get on in relating to challenges and other people in unfamiliar circumstances.

And yes if it wasnt for Thatcher you wouldnt enjoy anything like the wealth and privilege that you have. If it wasnt for her we would be living in a regime of state control and nationalised industries with rich people like you being taxed at 90%.

Like I said..........

[TykeMerc]

What do you mean by "lowest common denominator"?

Reality TV is entertainment by humiliation and a form of ritualised and sanitised playground bullying, it requires no intelligence to appreciate it has no storyline, text, challenge or dialogue, it's just cheap and nasty.

There are children growing up who, as a result of these programmes, have being a "Celebrity" as their only ambition. Celebrity obtained through these programmes doesn't require skill as a musician, actor (serious or comic), writer, sportsman, businessman, public servant or even a politician it just requires them to be pretty or weird enough to get through the first audition.

[DodgyAgent]

Reality TV is entertainment by humiliation and a form of ritualised and sanitised playground bullying, it requires no intelligence to appreciate it has no storyline, text, challenge or dialogue, it's just cheap and nasty.

There are children growing up who, as a result of these programmes, have being a "Celebrity" as their only ambition. Celebrity obtained through these programmes doesn't require skill as a musician, actor (serious or comic), writer, sportsman, businessman, public servant or even a politician it just requires them to be pretty or weird enough to get through the first audition.

I agree with a lot of your negative views about this sort of television but they are one dimensional views again made with little attempt to understand the cult of celebrity or the people involved. Are you not slightly intrigued in finding out what makes these people tick? Surely these people are very much like ourselves in many ways with many of the same anxieties and fears.
Though they are often cult celebrities they are revealed (reassuringly in my view) as insecure highly flawed and often sad people.

Why does everything need a storyline or a script? isnt the spontanaeity (i cant spell it) as fascinating as a neatly scripted play or book? Or are you conforming to your IT "everything must have clearly defined rules" stereotype?

[TykeMerc]

I agree with a lot of your negative views about this sort of television but they are one dimensional views again made with little attempt to understand the cult of celebrity or the people involved. Are you not slightly intrigued in finding out what makes these people tick? Surely these people are very much like ourselves in many ways with many of the same anxieties and fears.
Though they are often cult celebrities they are revealed (reassuringly in my view) as insecure highly flawed and often sad people.

Why does everything need a storyline or a script? isnt the spontanaeity (i cant spell it) as fascinating as a neatly scripted play or book? Or are you conforming to your IT "everything must have clearly defined rules" stereotype?

No I'm not in the slightest bit interested in what makes these so called Celebrities tick, and I find seeing people humiliated and exposed in the name of entertainment nauseating.
The WAG subcult started with Princess Diana and it's simply grown hugely over the years to encompass the people that other personalities are humping, I'm sorry if you don't agree, but being famous for humping someone famous for actually achieving something doesn't appeal to me.
I wasn't suggesting that everything should be scripted, but entertainment should have a purpose other than just to make bullies laugh even if it's just to demonstrate the skill of someone to ad lib (comedy) or answer questions in an interesting manner (game shows).

There are many forms of entertainment, but Reality TV just makes me want to arrange for the carpet bombing of TV studios.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

BTW Although it's not my cup of tea, I wouldn't automatically characterise all players of Warcraft as introverted geeks with no social skills; any more than I would dare to suggest that only vacuous morons with a strange fixation on celebrity and an odd need to lives their live vicariously through the idolisation of others could be attracted to daft reality TV shows

[DodgyAgent]

No I'm not in the slightest bit interested in what makes these so called Celebrities tick, and I find seeing people humiliated and exposed in the name of entertainment nauseating.
The WAG subcult started with Princess Diana and it's simply grown hugely over the years to encompass the people that other personalities are humping, I'm sorry if you don't agree, but being famous for humping someone famous for actually achieving something doesn't appeal to me.
I wasn't suggesting that everything should be scripted, but entertainment should have a purpose other than just to make bullies laugh even if it's just to demonstrate the skill of someone to ad lib (comedy) or answer questions in an interesting manner (game shows).

There are many forms of entertainment, but Reality TV just makes me want to arrange for the carpet bombing of TV studios.

fair enough

[TimberWolf]

I am stunned that anyone actually watches this drivel

Sad. You misses a corker of a bush tucker trial last night. Eating live critters! Now if they could only persuade Dannii Minogue et. al. to go on...