Today, as I was reading Justin Juarez's post "Is Television Replacing Our Educators?!", it made me think about the actor Jim Carrey. He plays in the movie The Truman Show. It's about a guy named Truman, and he basically lives in a bubbled dome where everybody is an actor; everything everyone does revolves around Truman. He is the star of a T.V. show that everyone outside of the dome watches. He doesn't know that he is on the show until he grows suspicious of some things.
The point is: how could people like to watch someone in so much misery and be entertained by it?
There are many reality shows that place people in situations that can be dangerous or embarrassing yet, viewers find it entertaining. Some of the shows test their survival skills and put them into desperate situations. They do crazy things for money, and people watch this because it is entertaining. I love watching the show Silent Library; it is a show where a team of 6 players do random stunts and hurt themselves for money.
Have we become so bored that this is what entertains us now? A lot of people love these shows (including me) but, we don't realize that we are feeding our brain with junk. Is it possible that we have ran out of ideas so, we just watch people get hurt instead?
Happy birthday, Half-Life 2!
4 hours ago
One man's pain is another man's pleasure...
ReplyDeleteI'll admit I watch shows like that. I think they are entertaining. On "America's Funniest Home videos", some people get hurt so badly, yet it's funny. One time, a kid was riding a bike, and it broke in half. He hit the curb so hard, he started crying. I was trying not to laugh, but I honestly couldn't help it. "Wipeout" is another show like this. People get punched and tossed around. I'm always laughing.
"Have we become so bored that this is what entertains us now?"- Brittany
This is a hard question to answer, Brittany. I don't entirely think that it is because we are bored. I mean, there are other things we can watch. Why this? I honestly can't say for sure, but I think it has to do with your post's title: no more imagination. Also, everyone has a different definition of entertainment: horror, action, romance, comedy. One show can't please everyone.
Don't forget the Romans and their gladiators, and how people slow down to look at a car crash. Our fascination for horror,the pain of others, and the lurid might be a dance we perform with our own mortality. Maybe. Those shows you mention, Joey...I can't watch them. I just can't. When someone falls off their bike and hits their face in the pavement, I cringe, and the laughter that accompanies the image makes my stomach hurt. That whole Jackass phenomenon was a complete mystery to me. In saying this, I am not claiming any kind of moral high ground -- I'm not: I watch crime dramas, which seems to be just another form of the same thing.
ReplyDeleteAlso, though...when you kids bemoan the lack of imagination out there, I think you are forgetting to acknowledge how much creativity there is in the world. Humans are clever, interesting beings, and we create amazing things. There has always been the fat middle, where entertainment is cheap and easy, Everybody was raving about Inception a few weeks ago. That movie was an eye opener, wasn't it? Very exciting and engaging. And then, there's Saw VII. (Not really, I hope.) But you know what I mean: the remake, and cheap shot, the derivative.
Carlos told me last night that they are remaking The Princess Bride. Why? Why would someone do that? Digitize the original, restore it, and let it live forever.
I don't know if it is so much because we are "bored" than because watching other people get hurt makes us feel good about our own lives. The feeling that you are above someone, whether it be subconscious or not, makes you feel better about yourself. I think it honestly depends on the person. My mother would wretch at the sight of "Wipeout" the T.V. show, but I admit I watched it myself a few weekends ago.
ReplyDeleteSuspense is another thing that will catch us and make us pay attention to others pain, such as in crime dramas. Fascination with whatever has happened such as a car crash, and of course curiosity or worry will also drag us in to the excitement. It's a natural human instinct.
Finding other's pain funny is just human nature. It is rather sad on our part, isn't it? I suppose it reminds us to be thankful that you are not in a certain individual's situation. A little boost to your self-consciousness.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing to see how many times we have laughed at people's misery. Just the other day, I was watching "Looney Toons" and, since I haven't seen it in forever, I was shocked at how violent these cartoons were. I don't think any cartoon nowadays is that violent. I remember, as a kid, laughing my head off at Wile E. Coyote's failed attempts at capturing the Road Runner, oblivious to the firepower behind it. "Tom and Jerry" is another great example, with the original flaming foot gag to being sawed into pieces or being skinned. Look no further than the all-time classic "Popeye", a show used to convey a good message to all the young ones that eating spinach will help them grow up big and strong. Popeye, however, after gaining his inhuman strangth from a can of spinach beats everything in his way to a pulp, resulting in hilarity. But, I remember my suprise when he once punched a bull, sending it hurling in the air, and having it rain down as slabs of steak and meat in a "comical" butcher shop stand. I wasn't laughing at that one.
My family is watching a recording of "Wipeout" tonight. Bring on our laughter at slips and falls.
I feel that the TV show "America's Funniest Home Videos" telling us when or where to laugh after someone gets injured makes it seem okay. We hear the entire audience laughing at it, so we laugh along with them and assume it's supposed to be funny and entertaining. We try to avoid being left out of what everyone else is doing that we just go along with it even if it seems to be wrong. That is the mentality of most media audiences today.
ReplyDeleteAll this talk about human instinct and human nature is intellectually slippery. Those statements would be tough to defend.
ReplyDeletePeople always want something new. When they get used to something, they need more... something more extreme. Say someone drinks alcoholic beverages every weekend. Eventually they will gain tolerance and need more alcohol to become drunk. Same thing goes for entertainment. Lady Gaga used to be normal (I guess). But as the media dubbed her the queen-of-weird, she has only gotten stranger and stranger. If she suddenly turned "normal", people would lose interest and not be enticed by her music and image.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, we watch and are entertained by things that are out of the ordinary. What was the last show that you watched that had eight mixed-race babies running all over the place that wasn't Jon and Kate Plus 8? If a network broadcasted a show of a man's normal boring life... it would never get passed its first episode. It is said that art is meant to disturb, evoke emotions, and put you out of your comfort zone. Brittany, I guess we watch these bizarre things because everything else has become too pedestrian and ordinary... aka not amusing.
Also to add to this, rollercoasters and other rides put us in positions that we aren't used to. We love the thrill; we are entertained by it. Same thing goes for television. We like to go, "ooo..." "ahhh..." "ewww!!!" We don't like to watch anything that isn't provoking.
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