BS: Bizarre Reality Shows?

Subject: BS: Bazarre Reality Shows?
From: artbrooks
Date: 10 Dec 08 - 07:07 PM

OK - so I didn't see the show, and I have mixed feelings about the subject. HOWEVER...a man committed (assisted) suicide a couple of years ago in Switzerland, and it was just broadcast on UK Sky TV. A spokesman for a Catholic-affiliated organization denounced the broadcast, saying "there is a growing appetite from the British public for increasingly bizarre reality shows. We'd see it as a new milestone. It glorifies assisted dying when there is a very active campaign by the pro-suicide lobby to get the issue back into Parliament."

From those who know both TV markets (and I don't) - are reality shows generally more bizarre in the UK than in the US? Seems impossible to me, but who really knows?

Subject: RE: BS: Bazarre Reality Shows?
From: artbrooks
Date: 10 Dec 08 - 07:09 PM

...Joe Clone fix spelling of bizarre, please?...

Subject: RE: BS: Bazarre Reality Shows?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Dec 08 - 07:22 PM

Maybe they'll introduce this kind of thing into Big Brother.

Subject: RE: BS: Bazarre Reality Shows?
From: Becca72
Date: 10 Dec 08 - 07:34 PM

I don't know about British reality shows but I've seen a couple of Japanese ones and those people really will watch anything! One I remember that started in Japan was people trying to jump through various shapes cut out of a moving wall. If they didn't make it through they got knocked into a pool of water.

Subject: RE: BS: Bazarre Reality Shows?
From: Amos
Date: 10 Dec 08 - 08:02 PM

Why I Want the World to See My Husband Die offers an interesting counterpoint.



A

Subject: RE: BS: Bazarre Reality Shows?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 10 Dec 08 - 08:17 PM

I recently read Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, a futuristic tale in which watching assisted suicides on the Web is a major source of entertainment.

Must be tough trying to write futuristic or speculative fiction nowadays. By the time the paperback edition of your book comes out, half of what was in it has already happened for real.

Subject: RE: BS: Bazarre Reality Shows?
From: Rapparee
Date: 10 Dec 08 - 09:16 PM

There was that teenager in Florida a couple weeks ago who broadcast his suicide on the Internet.

Subject: RE: BS: Bizarre Reality Shows?
From: SINSULL
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 12:36 PM

I watched a few minutes of some stupid "House of Horrors" show where contestants are locked in rooms full of hidden money but also some unknown scary stuff. Incredibly boring. If at least one of them had been bitten by a snake I might have watched more.

Subject: RE: BS: Bizarre Reality Shows?
From: Alice
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 01:20 PM

I saw a few minutes of that one, too, Sinsull, and it reminded me of The Magic Christian.... a trough of manure and blood with money in it - who would be so low as dive in just to get the money. Now there is a whole tv show promoting that very thing.

Subject: RE: BS: Bizarre Reality Shows?
From: Mr Red
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 01:24 PM

Reality Show is an oxymoron, more moron, no oxygen.

They are game shows, they are entertainment, mental wallpaper, pap but reality? - not in any definition I can find..

Subject: RE: BS: Bizarre Reality Shows?
From: RangerSteve
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 01:52 PM

The Japanese game show mentioned above is on Youtube. Just search for "Japanese game shows". After viewing some of them, I now believe that Japan has beaten everyone when it comes to really bad TV. There's one where the contestants are given cards. All the cards match except one. The contestant with the odd card has to perform some kind of disgusting act while the others laugh hysterically at him. AND THERE'S NO PRIZE. You humiliate yourself on national TV for absolutely no reason at all.

Subject: RE: BS: Bizarre Reality Shows?
From: Wesley S
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 01:59 PM

Didn't UK TV have a show where you got to watch paint dry? And people called in and voted on their favorites?

Subject: RE: BS: Bizarre Reality Shows?
From: Greg F.
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 10:33 PM

Now there is a whole tv show promoting that very thing.

No, there's a whole U.S. TV INDUSTRY promoting that sort of thing. Why?
because great gobs of mindless idiots watch such crap, making sales of advertising lucrative.

Subject: RE: BS: Bizarre Reality Shows?
From: Bill D
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 10:55 PM

I have watched the weird spin-offs of those "disqualify everyone else" shows for several years..(well, not 'watched'..just noted)...

they have cooking shows, quiz shows, court shows, fashion designer shows, 'talent' shows, standup comedy shows, ..etc.....all with the theme of tense competition followed by embarassing 'judging' and emotional dismissal of losers.
   Also, 'conflict' shows about stupid humans at odds with one another over vapid & lurid personal behavior .

Why?...They are MUCH cheaper than drama & comedy shows which involve paid actors and expensive sets...

Subject: RE: BS: Bizarre Reality Shows?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 11:51 PM

Reality TV school coaches wannabe contestants