Posted on 09/07/2012 11:01:54 PM PDT by This Just In
Is Honey Boo Boo A Scam?
In our home you will not find televised programming. No Nightly News (or as some would say-Nightly sNewz), no game shows, no DIY, no infomercials or reality TV. I’ll admit that there are some drawbacks. No golf, no Olympic coverage, no football, baseball, or basketball. There’s no live coverage of any sporting events, but these drawbacks are of little consequence. On each and every occasion in which we travel, and are provided with the opportunity to sit in our hotel rooms and stare at the one-eyed monster, my family and I are reminded of why we dumped televised programming in the first place many years ago.
Case and point: ‘Here Comes Honey Boo’
This program is just one of a plethora of examples as to why we believe detriment far outweighs the benefit public television offers society today. The fact that TLC, as well as Honey Boo Boo’s family, appears to have no problem in exploiting this “6 year old pageant sensation” is reason enough to be appalled and motivation enough to "Just Say No" to tv. What is more striking to me is the fact that many in our society fail to realize that this program is designed to actually ridicule and mock the “country folk“ in “flyover country”, or as some would like to say, “hicks” and “rednecks”, as well as reinforce the stereotype. If viewers fail to see the correlation between the timing of this program and this election cycle-and its historical significance, it’s no wonder America is in over its head.
Such programming has enabled the media to successfully normalize ease dropping, if you will. In fact, they’ve glorified it. A right to personal privacy? What’s personal privacy? Respect for ones space? Who cares about ones space? After all, aren’t we a “community”? The deterioration of the concept of personal privacy has been perpetuated no thanks-in part-to these influences and the mindset by which they are created by.
Americans are more than happy to sit on their couches and allow TLC and the programs creators to mock them. All the while saying that it’s just “entertainment”. Watching a precocious 6 year old strut her stuff down the catwalk while dressed up like Lady Gaga (I use the term “Lady” lightly) on steroids is hardly entertaining. It’s disturbing.
And yet viewers settle into their cozy living rooms week after week, in the privacy of their own homes, and peer into the “personal” business of what has become a very public life. Honey Boo Boo and her family are more than happy to please our curiosity, and their narcissistic naval gazing. I'm sure Momma Honey Boo Boo's bank account is living pretty large as well (no pun intended).
In her comments concerning ‘Here Comes Honey Boo Boo’, Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski stated, “…sums up everything I have to say about America, and what we need to do.” EVERYTHING about America? What-exactly-does Ms. Brzezinski and the “we” she’s referring to need to do? What is she eluding to?
Mika Brzezinski’s comments encapsulates the mindset of those on the Left, and their disregard, if not disdain, for “flyover country” Americans. And reality programs like ‘Here Comes Honey Boo Boo’ attempts to reinforce and justify that mindset, as well as the supposed “need to do” something.
Here Comes Honey Boo Boo is not just about a little girl. It’s about a societies descend into indifference, complacency, and indecency. The mainstream media has been our tour guide and instructor in taking us by the hand and leading Americans down that path of destruction.
It’s time to tell the tour guide to take a hike, and take the lead, America.
I seem to remember a poster from the Sixties: “Kill your TV’’.
Philo Farnsworth, who invented the television, once told his son, Kent;
“There’s nothing on it worthwhile, and we’re not going to watch it in this household, and I don’t want it in your intellectual diet.”
I don't know what it is about as a show nor care.
Nice thought but the spelling and grammatical errors detract from it.
All “reality TV” is a scam.
I should point out that we own a television. We watch films, documentaries, and instructional vids on DVD.
I quit watching TV over 10 years ago.
FrogDad watched less and less until a year ago, when he realized he hadn’t turned it on in over 3 months, finally had the satellite disconnected.
We have been geocaching, reading, watching old series on DVD (mostly Sci-Fi), and older movies while doing jigsaw puzzles together.
We don’t miss TV.
“All “reality TV” is a scam.”
Toxic too.
P.S. I’d never heard of this Boo Boo person until your post.
My apologies.
Proof reader is my friend, but I told her to take the day off. Multi task was no help as well.
Most of my TV watching consists of USC Trojans football when I can’t attend games in person, Book TV, and Fox News.
My better half happened to be visiting some website a couple of months ago when a clip of Honey Boo Boo was played. I recently viewed an episode. As you can see, the show made an impression.
Clinton delivered a speech at the DNC? :^)
No broadcast or cable or dish TV here for almost 20 years now.
From Talking Heads, “Found A Job:”
“Damn that television, what a bad picture.”
“Don’t get upset, it’s not a major disaster.”
“There’s nothing on tonight,” he said, “I don’t know
what’s the matter.”
“Nothing’s ever on,” she said, “So I don’t know
why you bother.”
We’ve heard this little scene, we’ve heard it many times
People fighting over little things, and wasting precious time
They might be better off, I think, the way it seems to me
Making up their own shows, which might be better than t.v.
I turned off MY TV back in 2000 when Fox hired Geraldo and have never turned it back on. Don’t miss is a bit. People look at me like I’m from Mars when I tell them I haven’t watched TV in over a decade.
I wish we had turned our tv off 20 years ago.
Had to look it up. What a horrid looking woman the mother is!
Now why would TLC choose a family whose parent looks like Honey Boo Boo’s mother? Perhaps their casting a stereotype? /mild sarcasm
their = they’re
THAT is just disgusting. People actually watch this stuff?
She is the 2012 version of a comedienne.
Isn’t that....Meghan McCain?
Playing to the hog farm demographic?
Hey now...
Jackass was fun, and I love Ice Road Truckers......
I had a sticker like that, in 2000.
Finally followed the advice.
That was during the age of transistors, right after diodes, triodes, tetrodes, and pentodes were all the rage with the B+ voltages and filament voltages.
There was a dinosaur poster, and drinking glasses in laundry detergent thing as well.
Childhood was somewhat disturbing. Stack a cold war on top of that image...
/johnny
Eh, I love TV too. Mostly we watch cooking shows. Hubby cooks, not me! The shows inspire him, amazingly - they really do.
Tonight we had grilled bok choy because he saw Bobby Flay make it the other day. It was OK, a little bland.
Don’t tell hubby I said that, because next time it will be drenched in hot sauce!
We’ve watched that DVD. Excellent documentary.
Idiocracy is here, now.
We have an old TV in the attic that we occasionally use to watch a DVD. No TV elsewhere in the house, haven’t had cable since we were first married over 20 years ago. We’re in our 15th season of homeschooling. TV is a distraction we just don’t need and an evil influence we just don’t want in our home.
Good for you, more should live like that
A few weeks ago, I was told I was an egotistic attention whore because I said I have no use for television, and haven't had one since I misplaced the last ex-wife.
You and your family keep on being great. Television is overrated. Time with family (unless my youngest is driving) is priceless.
/johnny
That is one disgusting family. They take trailer trash to an all time low.
Mr C4E and I have been TV free for about 3 years now. Don’t miss it. We do watch DVD from time to time, but mostly talk radio, music and reading, and free republic of course. :-)
The child is actually quite honest and revealing about her life experiences. I’m not on board with those who have decided to exploit that for their own gain. It seems the gain is more on the show producer side. The family remuneration is pretty pitiful. Abuse is
by the show producers and all that gain from distributing it. I do like that little girl by the way. She has a strong spirit. I hope she can survive this exploitation.
THIS is what you were talking about it?
EEEEEghad!
I had a distant relative who married a young woman from Tennessee who grew up in a dirt floor home in a family where she was only one of two girls with six brothers. She was rough, she was not exactly the cleanest person I ever came into contact with, but she was one of the most honest, humorous, REAL people that I have had the pleasure to meet. Not into ALL of her humor (rough growing up with brothers and being one of them.. hunting and providing)... but she was genuine. Met her at a family reunion back in the 1970's... I remember she was really starstruck coming out to California.
Exact same thing here - we dumped Dish 2 years ago and have not missed it ONE bit. We have an antenna which we used to use to watch some football, but even that doesn’t happen any longer. The rare times our TV goes on are usually for watching old movies (7 Brides for 7 Brothers, Captain’s Courageous, John Wayne movies), an occasional kids’ movie, or streaming Francis Chan or David Platt sermons off Youtube.
Our five kids thought it was horrible we were dumping TV when we started... they don’t miss it one bit now! The value of family time, instead of zombietube time, is 1000x higer!
IMHO, there is a huge number of shows out now where the secret draw is the, “Someone is worse than me, so I must be normal” factor.
Someone is more stupid than I am - Someone is more whorish than I am -Someone is dirtier - there is someone who screams like an animal- they have more problems than I do. I must be ok.
My house is cleaner than that, she can’t even walk in it for the dog poo, therefore I don’t have a problem! Isn’t she a dirty pig! And the the viewer feels so much better that, well, they just have dirty dishes in the sink 24/7 and some bugs.
The airwaves are full nowadays of reality shows of people with horrible dysfunctions, and by extension, the viewers are doing just fine. Producers have figured out how this works and keep looking for more dysfunctional people for their audience to laugh at, including,
Gypsy shows where they dress like absolute tarts.
Toddlers and Tieras
Housewives
Hoarders
Bridezillas
Honey Boo Boo
Any kind of redneck show where they are made out to be piggy fools
Say Yes to the Dress (nice to look at for dresses, but so many selfish women on there to mock!)
What Not to Wear
I could go on and on.
I must confess that every time I go to the green box drop and there is a TV that someone has left outside the dumpster, the .410 skunk gun comes out and I revert to being the Dexter of TV serial killers! I love killin’ TVs.
Very thoughtful piece. If you are thinking of submitting this as a professional essay, take a little more care. It’s not ‘ease dropping.’ The phrase is ‘eaves dropping.’ And the word you want is allude, not elude.
Try wrapping it in bacon. Yum.
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