Michaele Salahi: what’s so great about reality TV fame?
I keep wondering if our nation’s 0bsession with reality TV is one of those things that define the ’00s — a quirk that people in the ’10s and ’20s will look back on and laaaaugh.
The Christian Science Monitor sniffs (as it would):
Tareq Salahi, a polo-playing winemaker, and his wife, Michaele Salahi — the White House crashers who sashayed into the most closely guarded party in the world — fall into an emerging mold: Those who’ll risk jail time for a fleeting shot at fame.
The piece goes on to lump together Balloon Boy, Octomom, Tom Delay and Rod Blagojevich as reality TV whores who sold their souls for a bit of pop-culture fame.
(BTW, check out this Facebook group: “Tareq and Michaele crashed my party!” Description: “Hi, we’re fameseeking losers Tareq and Michaele Salahi (and reality show hopefuls). Got a party? Tag sale? Doesn’t matter. We’ll crash it. Is your 5-year old having a birthday next week? Just tell us when and where.”)
Zap2It asks,
To what lengths will people go to in order to land on a reality TV series? Should reality show producers actually consider and condone the actions of those who’ve broken the law specifically to get attention to get on the show? Would TV viewers want to watch said scofflaws getting more fame and fortune on their own shows?
So we, the LaZBoy critics, tut-tut at the gall of these people who’d do anything for fame. But really, are we any different? Do we not go to bed and dream of taking the stage on “American Idol” or making the top 10 on “So You Think You Can Dance”? Who died and made us so pure?
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You’re kidding, right? Do you really think the only thing separating most people from the antics of these losers is…fear of getting caught? It’s hard to believe for some, but living life without a camera crew capturing your every moue is both possible and desireable.
Don’t you find the notion of parading into the White House as if it’s your local banquet hall a little tacky?
For Reality TV wanabees, merely being ‘tacky’ is for amateurs. Somebody needs to make a chart to plot where Osbornes, Gosselins, Balloon Boy Family, and today’s pinnacle, The Real Housewives of [blank], for which we need to invent levels of ‘tackiness’ to adequately describe. Until someone reaches the absolute depths of shamelessness, Reality TV will continue pushing the envelope.
In response to another comment. See in context »That red dress doesn’t come close, but still earns a door prize.
I find the fact that parading into the White House is a easy as your local banquet hall a endlessly fascinating. I plan to host my next party at the White House(everyone knows I hate to cook). Tacky? I call it American gall!
In response to another comment. See in context »Not the first time the Obama White House has had gatecrashers.
See:
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/02/05/masked-raiders-infiltrate-white-house/
The difference is not that we wish for fame and fortune, but what we dream of doing to get there.
The people you cited are desperate social climbers. They’ll do anything to get their fifteen minutes of fame.
Most other people would rather do it by the strength of their character and their experience. These people do it through their spectacular ignorance and stupidity. Now you know why I don’t watch “reality” TV.
Yes Lisa, many of us are different. Many of do not go to bed dreaming of American Idol or I Took a Dump and Here’s the Video reality TV. In fact some go to bed dreaming of a sane and civil world in which people aren’t living out of dumpsters or landfills; where everyone has access to clean food, water and sanitation systems; where children aren’t covered in filth and flies while starving to death and watching their parents starve to death; where the “educated” have read Tolstoy, Gandhi, Cervantes, ML King, The Bhagavad Gita, Leibniz and St. Augustine.
Unfortunately, reality TV isn’t without reality consequences. The culture in which Glen Beck and reality TV reign will simply not survive. That same culture lacks the spiritual, moral and intellectual fitness necessary for survival. We truly are a nation of half-wits and douchebags.
They should just get rid of reality TV altogether.
I’m not going to lie. If someone walked up to me in a coffee shop and offered me a spot on Survivor or the Amazing Race, I would say yes without a moment’s hesitation.
No shame in that- that’s a real competition, bug-eating aside.
In response to another comment. See in context »What’s the competition in “Real Housewives of New Jersey/Atlanta/Orange County” for instance? Or in J&K+8?
At your graveside or cremation no one’s going to weep over your performance on a reality TV show – or inability to get on one. What the hell is wrong with these people?
The talentless, self-obsessed narcissists who actually would participate in the feces-flinging spectacle that is reality TV are probably unconcerned about the activities around their graveside – unless of course there’s a camera involved.
What’s wrong with these people? (Exactly the right question to ask.) These people are intellectually, spiritually and morally bankrupt. In other words, they are consumers. It is these same dullard consumers that are unable to intellectually defeat free market ideology despite its ravages upon our society; that routinely demonstrate a complete lack of empathy towards human suffering; that would allow a bailout of Wall St. at the expense of the poor and the weak. That is our reality TV society.
In response to another comment. See in context »I’d agree that making consumption a virtue in and of itself has led to this. And would assert it led to the collapse of many a society, despite the many fine monuments they’ve erected during their heydays instead of working towards the betterment of their people.
In response to another comment. See in context »I see where you’re going with your point, but let’s honor a very real distinction: those who do something worthy of public attention and those who are whores for fame. The White House crashers are publicity succubi, nothing more. They did, however, ironically provide something of a public service by showing how lax the security detail surrounding the president really is.
I don’t know, guys. The desire for fame is a uniquely American bug, implanted at birth and charged endlessly by our 24-7 consumption of TV. I’ve written reams of stuff, some of it not bad, and you know what relatives remember? The times I’ve been on TV talking some absolute crap. America thinks TV confers glory and nobility on people. I’m sure I’m subject to it, too…even while I laugh at the Housewives or the Gosselins.
I don’t know- reality TV has been around a long time in game show format, Candid Camera, etc. Japan has its own history of Reality TV- I watched some series with a guy stuck naked in an apartment and he had to feed/clothe himself on mail-order free samples… and many other classics courtesy of FCI.
The rest of the world seems to focus on contestants navigating some creative and peculiar environments, working towards some kind of goal.
In response to another comment. See in context »American versions seem to involve commonplace people in commonplace environments, competing on their ability to debase themselves the most.
End result is like the monkeys in the zoo that end up throwing poo at tourists for amusement. Or, unfortunately, like Americans who stay in Japan too long.
Hey, my orthopedic surgeon told me he’d seen me on CNN…luckily on his day off, not mid-cut.
I still disagree about the urge to be Famous and why it’s in any way defensible. Just because it’s “uniquely American” — like 48 million people living without affordable health insurance — doesn’t mean its worth emulating, and in fact is derisory and disgusting.
WHY are Americans such patsies for the attention of gazillions of strangers?
Caitlin,
My comment below was meant as a reply to your post.
Mathew
In response to another comment. See in context »Also, Chris Hedges (one of my favorite authors) really captures it in this excellent essay:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/addicted_to_nonsense_20091129/
Mathew
In response to another comment. See in context »Your question (again) is right on target. And again, I suspect the answer is consumerism – that empty, soulless cult that now defines our national ideal, spirituality and philosophy.
If we think about it, what would be the highest prize of the self-absorbed narcissist other than the “attention of a gazillion strangers”? And it isn’t too much of a stretch for the mouth-breathers watching at home to see/project themselves into the role of the reality “star”. (It’s not as though any legitimate talent is required.) Perhaps reality TV allows us to consume that which we crave the most – the (fleeting) satiation of a grotesque vanity. A vanity cultivated by the endless stream of highly tuned Madison Ave. mass marketing convincing us that we “deserve” to live like royalty (through their products of course).
“Mouth-breathers.” Funny.
In response to another comment. See in context »