WHY IS TV BECOMING SO BANAL AND MIND- MUMBING???.

[derek]

I dunno how bad it is elsewhere on the Planet, but here in the UK television has become so banal and mind-mumbing recently that iam considering becoming a TV LICENSE DODGER again.It seems that not a single evening can pass without at least 300 separate television programmes being aired which revole around home-ownership. If it isn't getting your next door neighbour to come in and make an utter CUNT of the decor in your living room, Its getting Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen to design you some tasteless 16th century gothic-style shithouse out of MDF, Tinfoil and the material they use to make furry dice for the rearview mirrors of boy-racer Ford Escorts.....Is this just happening in the UK???.....

[clinthopson]

I liked it when Charlie wore those tight shirts.

[stonemonkts]

It is slowly heading towards a modern version of the Colliseum. Not banal so much as prurient. Wait till the TV and the internet become one. That should be a trip and a half.

[Monte Smith]

Uh oh. The C word makes another dubious appearance.

Derek, I'm no language cop, but you should know that that word is considered much coarser and more offensive on this side of the pond than in Britain. So prepare for incoming.

I'm sick of the decorating shows, too. Used to like Changing Rooms. Now every frigging show is Changing Rooms.

My wife is completely addicted that crap fest on TLC called Trading Spaces. Every Saturday morning, and evening. Makes me fucking nuts!

[Sergio Zamora]

Never seen any of those home remodeling shows, but I gotta say I really like that show about the dad and the son who build motorcycles.

[mke]

Derek,

That's funny. A few days ago I sat down and watched the BBC for a few hours. I was amazed by the succession of home decoration shows. Literally several in a row. Either that or someone auctioning off "antiques" found in their home. Or others looking for a home to buy. It was really eerie. I'm sure it wasn't like that when I was a student in the UK (only a few years ago).

As for your problem with TV generally, what I generally do when I don't like what I see on TV is turn it off. As for becoming a license dodger, I say get rid of your TV.

[Gordon B]

Originally posted by Scott Dolan
My wife is completely addicted that crap fest on TLC called Trading Spaces. Every Saturday morning, and evening. Makes me fucking nuts!

Scott, even worse, my wife watches the British version, Changing Rooms, on BBC America in addition to Trading Spaces.

FWIW, I'd like to see Willy and Chris A design rooms for each other.

Oh, trust me, Gordon, were it not for the fact that I start loudly protesting after two or three hours of Trading Spaces, my wife would gleefully switch over to BBCA and watch the other one as well.

And I actually HAVE seen her watching that one in the past when her Trading Spaces blood level was running low. She'll also watch the even more horrendous While You Were Out which follows TS on Saturday mornings. Though she claims that she doesn't even like that show. Of course, when I ask her why is she watching it then, she actually says to me(with over two hundred channels to choose from)"there's nothing else on".

I think the Willy/Chris A idea is classic!!! What a great episode that would make. I can just picture Chris painting Willy's room blood red and rambling on about how it will remind Willy of all the blood shed due to that non elected morons false and illegal war.

And I would love to see Chris' reaction when he gets a load of his floor to ceiling Ann Coulter wallpaper!!!

[hornplayer]

"WHY IS TV BECOMING SO BANAL AND MIND- NUMBING???." ... BECOMING??? imo commercial tv has been that way for YEARS!!

[Al in NYC]

Becoming...?!? Wasn't it always banal and mind-numbing?

After all, the purpose of TV shows is basically to anesthetize you so that you'll sit there staring right through the commercials (or, in the case of PBS, the patrons' blurbs, which amounts to the same thing).

Here in the U.S. we have the plague of the increasingly more silly, insulting, and dubiously spontaneous, "reality" shows. Sitting through one or two of those would, I think, make one long for a nice calming, goofy, home decorating show.

Edit: like minds, slower typing...

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Originally posted by hornplayer
"WHY IS TV BECOMING SO BANAL AND MIND- NUMBING???." ... BECOMING??? imo commercial tv has been that way for YEARS!!

Amen!!

[Enforcer]

Steve,

That photo of you must be a really poor reproduction, because it almost looks like animation. I like the way you're smashing the TV, though.

Seriously though, the reality TV is the worst for me. The Trading Spaces stuff gets old, but I don't think it's nearly as bad. I wonder if Andy Warhol just got lucky, but that 15 minutes of fame bit has really made him look like a prophet.

Larry

[Darryl]

One times I was watchin' this infomercial 'bout the dudes with baldy tops. No hairs, right? Not a speck of hair on they heads, just bald as a cueball. And then they spraypaints their heads with some sort of silly string, and everyone applauds!

Now, I tries not be judgmental and call someone bit up or ugly 'cause of how they look, right, but these fellas looked either dumb or deluded because they looked better with no hair than some stringy styrofoam on their pates.

I'm watchin' with my chick at the time, Evelyn. "Evelyn," I says, "You think bald dudes are sexy?" She says, "Depends on the dude, D!" Right! I dig that! Man, we made such sweet love that nite! I made Evelyn shoot the moon 3 times!

So the next day I'm at some Dime Savings bank and whatnot, and the teller, HE HAS MAGIC MARKER ON HIS HEAD! THE DUDE COLORED IN HIS BALD SPOT WITH A MAGIC MARKER!

I'm like, "Man, why you colorin' your head with magic markers! All you looks like is some guy with some out-of-control child!"

Dime guy looks all pissed off and whatnot, like he wants to throw down, and I says, "Look, calm down, Jack! No harm done! Here's what you do: 1 -- either go ins the bathroom now and wash that shit off so people don't laugh, 2 -- go watch QVC or some other bullshit station and buy yourselfs that spray on goop with Ronco Finishing Shield so the string don't pour on your face when it rains or 3 -- be a real man and let the ladies see your chromie pate!

Wouldn't you know! Next times I go in, the dude thanks me!!! And he's TOTALLY SHAVED HIS SKULL! Says he left his naggy wife who didn't want to know he was bald 'cause it made her feel old and now he's with some 25 year old chick with thighs of fire!!!

[Jazzzoline]

Originally posted by Darryl

I'm watchin' with my chick at the time, Evelyn. "Evelyn," I says, "You think bald dudes are sexy?" She says, "Depends on the dude, D!" Right! I dig that! Man, we made such sweet love that nite! Imade Evelyn shoot the moon 3 times!

Why do men need to brag about their performances?

[Monte Smith]

Darryl is neither banal nor mind-mumbing.

[SinginSumo]

Originally posted by Jazzzoline
Why do men need to brag about their performances?

But but but it was Evelyn's performance, non?

[HenryMc]

Derek ..whats the license worth now ..about 150 Quid ...to watch crap? and you got that other problem ..the 'mockney revival' - every other UK show I see these days seems to have some dodgy lil scruff saying ýou got that guvnor? as if he was born near Bow's Bells"....sheeesh

[Darryl]

Thanks, Monte my man!

Point was, me and my girl Evelyn connected on like a deep emotionals level, and we was like eye to eye and soul to soul. I ain't braggin' nones. It was about the heart to heart, baby, heart to heart. 'Cause it was abouts what was inside the heart, not about some baldypates.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Larry: I was under so much stress when that photo was taken that my hair and beard fell out -- all that stress radiation probably affected the camera.

[mke]

Originally posted by Jazzzoline
Why do men need to brag about their performances?

And women don't?

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

This thread itself is starting to move in the direction of reality TV.

[GoodSpeak]

Mind numbing?

Come to my classroom and you will see the end result seated there in the desks.

[Jazzzoline]

Originally posted by SinginSumo
But but but it was Evelyn's performance, non?

you're right!
The guy has nothing to do in that.. only bragging afterward

[Jazzzoline]

Originally posted by mke
And women don't?

Usually, they don't.

[crawjo]

Oh, television has always been peddling crap. It's been on a steady decline since they started trying to hawk the things in the 1940s. My advice is this: don't watch television, except for maybe news and sports. It is only going to continue to get worse and worse and worse. Funny, they devised the damn things about the same time as the atom bomb, but I would say the television so far is winning the race in terms of its destructive impact on human life. And the evidence for that is showing up in Goody's classroom, as he noted above.

[moneyp]

Originally posted by Jazzzoline
Why do men need to brag about their performances?

Dual Pentium 4 2.8 ghz w/533mhz FSB
1GB DDR SDRAM
Two mirroed 80GB 10,000RPM SCSI hard drives
ATI Radeon 9800
SoundBlaster Audigy 2 NX
16x DVD-ROM/8x DVD-RW
17" flatpanel monitor
wireless optical keyboard & mouse

(whoo! gettin' HOT here!)

[GoodSpeak]

Originally posted by mone peterson
Dual Pentium 4 2.8 ghz w/533mhz FSB
1GB DDR SDRAM
Two mirroed 80GB 10,000RPM SCSI hard drives
ATI Radeon 9800
SoundBlaster Audigy 2 NX
16x DVD-ROM/8x DVD-RW
17" flatpanel monitor
wireless optical keyboard & mouse

You really have all that?


Whoa.


























I am not worthy, I am not worthy, I am not worthy...

[Jazzzoline]

Originally posted by mone peterson
Dual Pentium 4 2.8 ghz w/533mhz FSB
1GB DDR SDRAM
Two mirroed 80GB 10,000RPM SCSI hard drives
ATI Radeon 9800
SoundBlaster Audigy 2 NX
16x DVD-ROM/8x DVD-RW
17" flatpanel monitor
wireless optical keyboard & mouse

(whoo! gettin' HOT here!)

Now i'm impressed!
(Is this what's to be said? )

[Captain Hate]

Originally posted by hornplayer
"WHY IS TV BECOMING SO BANAL AND MIND- NUMBING???." ... BECOMING??? imo commercial tv has been that way for YEARS!!

Like My Mother the Car?