something's wrong
Out drinkin' with Jess on Saturday, she made me aware of this show's existence. It's called "I Want A Famous Face" and it's on MTV. I haven't seen an episode, but the basic premise is that young people -- the guys in the online clip look to be in college, barely -- decide they want to look like celebrities. MTV pays for the plastic surgery that can make this happen.
This horrifies me in a pit-of-my-stomach kind of way. Everyone knows I like to complain about celebrity culture, or whatever you want to call it. But this is something new and frightening.
Let's digress for a moment, shall we? People say technology has replaced religion, and to some extent they're right. But it's only replaced the practical side of religion: the side that makes your life easier. Technology has replaced prayers for rain or the healing of a loved one, if only because when it fails we can figure out why. But there's another side to the religious impulse, one that is either horrifying or transcendent depending on your perspective: self-negation in service of a greater force.
Well, it looks like celebrities are the new beneficiaries of this inexplicable drive. This show is bringing it all together: fresh-faced acolytes, thoroughly indoctrinated, are trotted out in MTV cathedral as an example for the other young people. And then they literally sacrifice themselves -- bones are broken, flesh is cut, fat is seared -- as they hang someplace halfway to death.
I'll leave conceiving of a compassionate God in a world full of suffering as an exercise for the reader. But I'll tell you this: I don't think Brad Pitt is going to be any less theologically problematic.
Comments
that kind of makes me want to throw up.
i can't stand this trend towards reality shows about plastic surgery. you know i'm all for trash reality like the bachelor, or ANTM, or survivor, or whatever. but this show and other shows like the upcoming "the swan" are terrible and really disturbing. ick. ick.
Good post. I must say I'm going to have to see this show—like a carwreck and I can't turn away. I think you could legitimately conclude that advertising performs a religious function in our lives as well (be like Mike Nike kind of belief, Lexuses, I mean, really all just about everything) and that celebrities function in many ways like brands. Like Parker Posey, for example, or maybe more inexplicably, Jeff Goldblum.
Another show along a similar vein, The Swan. Let no television station call themselves more horrific than Fox.
I've got to admit the Jeff Goldblum thing stumps me, too. But Kriston, as a Mac owner maybe you're in a position here to offer some insight, since he does all the voiceover work for them. For a company that has such a well-polished image, surely their selection of Jeff Goldblum means something. But what? Is it just that America is in the throes of a commercial love affair with stuttering Jewish guys? I'm not sure... I can't remember Woody Allen selling me athletic shoes or cola, but then, maybe he just did it so effortlessly that I didn't even notice.
jeff goldblum is hot.
Post A Comment