Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for December 03, 2009

Don’t you hate that! Another pet hate of mine is “hero” as applied to a football star, etc - not someone who puts their life on the line to save someone else.

Google them, Fairportfan2, I’m southern hemisphere and they were completely unknown to me too. “Reality TB” strikes again!

(they bleeped d_ ar_ n???

Jon and Kate

The dumbing down of the entertainment world can be summed up in three words:

Star > Celebrity > Personality

”Who?”

”Google them”

Don’t do it! Trust me - you don’t want to know.

I’ll go further. You should want not to know. This is the sort of toxic popular culture meme that kills brain cells on contact.

Recommended viewing, to inoculate yourself against this memetic killer virus:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3551422786825163764&ei=QX0XS6-xBJWmlQerrKzCDg&q=stupidity%3A+the+documentary&hl=en#

they bleeped d_ ar_ n???

You’re kidding! I just tried it, and yep. I got away with some really raw satire yesterday, makes “darn” look like the Lord’s Prayer.

Put it in quotes. That usually fools the “gosh” “darn” “stupid” “imbecilic” “retarded” “policital” “correctness” “filter” “in” “the” “darn” “posting” “software”

See? the “software” really is that bleeeeeeeeping “stupid”

[quote] madKanga

Don’t you hate that! Another pet hate of mine is “hero” as applied to a football star, etc - not someone who puts their life on the line to save someone else [//quote]

and is a hero someone who was trained to save lives, i.e., the police officer @ fort hood, a firefighter pulling someone from a burning building?

my heros are the ones who go outside their comfort zone/training to save a life. that is a true hero

Quote of the week: “…This is the sort of toxic popular culture meme that kills brain cells on contact.”

Exemplar of the week: “…I watch the show a few times and when only Jon and Kate were talking, she was either putting him down or correcting him.” [sic]

(“ffs.”)

Can we not pause here to consider the hero concept itself, in all its evolving ambiguity, as perennial cultural meme? I watch Smallville.

Where have all the good men gone and where are all the gods?

While we’re on it; a hero is scared spitless, but knows the job has to be done, and swallows the lump and does it.

“Fearless” is too often indistinguishable from “too stupid to be scared”.

Two big things I was surprised to learn in boot camp: Your limits are nowhere near where you thought they were. Sometimes, if you’re at high-port with fixed bayonet, charging up the middle of them screaming, they’ll decide to just get out of your way. G’Night!

”It’s the only industry that’s still working….” And rightfully so!—Take away our hard-earned stupidity and we’re nothing.

Loudmouthbass. I agree. If I am paid to do something, that’s my job. Pulling someone from a burning building when they the citizens have paid yo 12 years training is not heroism, it working. Now someone who selflessly endangers himself for another is a hero. Pulling a salary and a pension is not.

[quote]pbarnrob

“Fearless” is too often indistinguishable from “too stupid to be scared”. [//quote]

so I guess anything preceded by “Hey ya’ll, watch this…” is not hero or fearless?

[quote]LewreaderGenius

Loudmouthbass. I agree. If I am paid to do something, that’s my job. Pulling someone from a burning building when they the citizens have paid yo 12 years training is not heroism, it working. Now someone who selflessly endangers himself for another is a hero. Pulling a salary and a pension is not. [//quote]

with everyone looking so hard to find heroes, I find it interesting that someone else believes the same as me in their definition of “hero”

i watch and have been watching the original reality show for years. it’s called professional wrestling.

a hero ain’t nothin’ but a sandwich

I want to see Survivor: Lord of the flies (adults of course)version.

Quoth Fuzzbutt: “Sadly, yes.”

Or, to make it even more topical, I have never watched golf in my life, I have absolutely no interest in golf, yet I can’t watch the NEWS without hearing about some nobody named Tiger Woods. Whose only claim to fame is hitting a ball with a stick. What about his life could possibly be considered NEWS-worthy??? Sports report-worthy, yes, but he’s never done anything deserving of NEWS coverage. I don’t know what’s wrong with all the pathetic losers who care about his personal life, or Jon & Kate’s, or Anna Nicole Smith. (Someone else I “sadly” have heard of because her death was on the NEWS, in spite of her total insignificance…)

kea I think you’re right.

But how many kids have grown up idolizing the likes of Tiger Woods, Michael Vick, Michael Irvin or O.J. Simpson. The football players have a hard time staying out of jail these days and our kids have used these people as their role models. I won’t even go into baseball.

I just don’t understand why so many people feel they are ENTITLED to fame and/or fortune without doing anything significant to earn it.

Firefighters, policmen, rescue teams, ect can all be heros despite being paid. They are given boundries to follow about how ‘heroic’ they should be. Some go beyond that to save a fellow human, you know “above and beyond the call of duty”. And besides all that, these people choose these careers knowing there are risks, but go ahead and try to help people anyways. Many of these people would do it without getting paid if it weren’t for the little fact that money is a necessary evil. Anyone can be a hero, “paid” or not.

To further my rant (you’ll have to pardon me for that) being a hero doesn’t have to mean putting your life in danger either. Herosim is in the eye of the beholder. You might not be a hero to the world, but being a hero to one person is still being a hero.

Now, back to the comic! Reality TV can be entertaining. Although I no longer have a tv (other than to watch movies) I remember enjoying Dancing With The Stars because I enjoying watching people dance and Extreme Makeover because I am interested in home decor and I think tey are truely doing a good thing. However, things like Jon and Kate just scare the heck out of me. Almost as scary as “wife swap” or “super nanny”.

vexatron1984 Reality TV is a yawn. I’ll choose something from my DVD/tape collection rather than tune in to that cow flop

Sounds to me like Danae is going for the Paris Hilton “famous for being famous” kind of fame. I can’t think of anything worthwhile Paris has ever done besides being born into a well-known and wealthy family.

Well done Mr. Wiley Miller.

You have captured one of the many sad truths about America today.

I have never watched any ‘Reality’ TV show. And yet just by reading the news, I am aware of whom Jon and Kate are.

I wonder, can anyone out there in the Non Sequitur audience say the same is true about other countries? This is a worldwide recession after all. Is schlock TV the only business thriving?

These so-called reality shows are anything but. You want Survivor? Put a dozen of those idiots on a deserted island and leave them alone, no cameras or safety net. Come back in 6 months–then you have a survivor.

I’ve never watched any of these so-called “reality shows” and never will.

realbigfun: you got that right!

There probably wouldn’t be any survivors. I don’t like reality shows, because no one I know ever acts like the people in those shows.

Danae is a child of the day,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

You want bad reality TV? Try “Amazing Race.” A bunch of ugly Americans go on a race across continents & make fools of themselves in insane stunts rejected from “Beat the Clock” or “Truth or Consequences”. (Bonus points for recognizing the last two.)

The kicker? “Race” won an award for “Best Reality Series”. (I hate to think what the “worst” is, though the contender would be “American Idol”.)

@ Dan Eye: thank you for the link, it’s quite a gift.

@ Mr Gareth: Stupidity is universal and a good business everywhere, however for making business the US leads…

Because it was considered “news” I went blind watching Tom Delay dance…oh the humanity…..wait for the reality show where people try to make each other puke for distance

There was an old saying to the effect of “do what you want but don’t do it in the street and scare the horses.” I had a marketeer call yesterday and all but insist that I should have television service. I cited the J&K thing as an example of why I haven’t had tv service for years, and probably never will again. Imagine paying for such merde to be passed off as entertainment.

Reality TV

AAAEEEIIII !! MAKE IT STOP !!

Would everyone pleeeez stop using That Phrase in reference to Boob Toob “culture” involving sta- celebri- personali- creatures like Bob Saget, Tom Berenger, and Flava Flav

Never mind that it’s the ultimate oxymoron, making “military intelligence” look like a description of the world’s smartest think tank.

I’m a cartoon character, and even I can feel billions of brain cells dying, as if acetone were being poured in my big pointy ears, everytime I hear or read those two dreaded words.

Here are the guidlines, fresh from Reality Central, so l-l-lissen up, folx!

PBS documentaries are examples of actual Reality TV The Amazing Race is a game show, where the “g” in “game” is pronounced as “L” America’s Got Talent is a talent competion (cf Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour) American Idol is not a talent competion, it’s an TV Talent Shows’ Got Huge Judges’ Egos competition Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is a documentary and therefore qualifies as actual “Reality TV” - possibly the realest thing on TV. Good on ya’, makeover crew! Flavor of Lo- [shudder] of Love is not Reality TV, it is Unbelievably Grotesque Narcissism / Women Debasing Their Very Female Essence For Their Fifteen Minutes Of Fame TV. (What did Freud say about men substituting Large Clocks for small … Other Things?)

—- The new Seven Words You Can’t Say On Television: “And the Emmy goes to … Bob Saget!” (sorry, George)

How do you think Danae would feel about being a celebrity after a few weeks of having her every move monitored and criticized by outside pundits? She takes criticism SO well.

Burgundy, I’ll drink to that!

There are three things that I DO NOT watch: Snuff films, “reality” shows. and political Pundit shows. (Um…there’s a difference between ‘em???)

It’s been so many years since I watched TV that I have lost track of how many it has been.

I have no idea who “Jon and Kate” are.

I do have a TV, but it is hooked up to a DVD player/VCR and only used to watch movies.

When I did watch TV, I mostly watched the Discovery Channel or old shows on TV Land.

Most of my heroes are known only by me.

Question: Why would anyone want to be paparazzi famous? What about your privacy? I don’t give a hoot about any of these celeb’s personal lives, but I do feel sorry for the ones who try to keep their personal life personal only to have it smeared all over the tv and tabloids. Of course, there are always those celeb’s who just seem to bask in it. I’d say it is better to be poor (compared to the rich) and unknown than rich and famous!

”Snuff films, “reality” shows. and political Pundit shows”

Reynard, you sly fox, you may have hit on the formula for a PPV format that’ll make billions - billions, I tell ya!

Snuff films featuring Unreality TV personalities and political pundit Talking Heads.

“Hello, OnDemand? Famous DanEye here. Yeah, that DanEye. Listen- yeah, I know I’m not supp- yeah, I got the letter from your- just listen! Did you get my e-mail? Wha- too late? Stephen Colber did it last- Barack Obama in ‘So You Think You Can President?’ He didn’t make it past the first- yeah, thanks. What? Same to you, fella.”

”Reality TV”

Miller’s Law: “It should be legal to use a cattle prod on anyone who uses more than six words to order a cup of coffee” - Dennis Miller

Famous DanEye’s corrolary: Ditto for anyone who calls “Unreality TV” by Those Two Words.

— “Reach out and touch someone”

”Question: Why would anyone want to be paparazzi famous? What about your privacy?”

I’m just, y’know, thinking out loud, but there are always those celebs who just seem to bask in it.

”I’d say it is better to be poor (compared to the rich) and unknown than rich and famous!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO4PtdDp5-0

I can honestly say that I have no idea who John and Kate are. Also, I don’t care who they are either.