Five Uses for Minor Celebrities
photo credit: Syd Daoust
I’m not a rabid consumer of indiscriminate media such as TV and radio. I have filters in place that all but eliminate the stuff I’m not interested in, such as the latest TV show featuring ‘celebs’ I’ve never heard of.
But even I can’t escape being dimly aware of their existence. Big Brother, I’m a Celebrity…, Strictly Come Dancing/Dancing with the Stars, Dancing on Ice. There are more, of that I am sure. But rather than rant and rave at their simultaneous pointlessness and grip on some people’s lives, I accept they’re not going anywhere. So we may as well put them to some gainful use.
I had an overwhelming urge to make this a sarcastic post but, you know, it’s the lowest form of wit and all so I’ve kept it straight.
Let’s get our money’s worth out of these characters before they suck out our IQ and feed it to their trophy dogs.
- Hope symbols: when that woman from that soap opera gets cancer and survives, people may be given hope in their own struggle. Kylie Minogue and her breast cancer is a good example, although she’s probably not strictly a minor celebrity.
- Raise issues: the UK version of Big Brother was in the news a while back for the racist antics of some of the inmates. It started a debate in the popular press which, while not necessarily well-informed, raised this important issue up the agenda for a hearing.
- Ego boost: their on- and off-screen travails make us feel better about our own lives. You’d never squander your million pound winnings on tasteless pink home furnishings and statues of Venus. Would you?
- Schadenfreude: this is the whole premise of some of these shows, that we enjoy watching these people suffer and fail. So why not make the most of it.
- Tithes: the networks can’t get enough of these shows, which means the production companies are falling over themselves to cash in. So why not tax them? It’s a free country so you wouldn’t want to ban them, but the government could always take a cut for good causes or suggest all winnings be given to charity.
What do you think? What other little annoyances of life could we put a positive spin on? In true frugal style, it’s about making the most of what you’ve got.
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I agree. Tax them. After all, beer is taxed; and what are minor celebrities if they’re not a poor vice? A tonic for the mind? A distraction from the mundane?
We all know women (I’m sure there are some men too) who religiously read the gossip mag Heat (and all its competitors) magazine every week. This is another instance of an ever-present human condition.
Of course, a manufacturing line of Z-list celebrities provides so much raw material for the marketing business and their campaigns.
I’ve changed my mind - burn them!
Michael
@Michael: an interesting alternative, I hadn’t thought of that one. It’s interesting what you say about a z-list production line, I guess that makes it self-sustaining. I wonder if, when the z-listers finally disappear into obscurity, they’re melted down and made into new ones?
I think one more thing you can take from the minor celebrities and their role in reality tv shows is how people deeply need to be connected. Rather than do this through our lives directly they do this indirectly through gossip. But a positive spin would be to use this gossip as a method to start a conversation with someone new of any background.
What do I mean by this. How often in our life’s are we in the position that we have to talk to someone new who in our chosen everyday world we would not normally talk to. If you are a typical man talking to a man you can drop in some sports related titbit or a short discussion of which A roads you had to take to get to your current location. However, what if you meet someone like me, I don’t mind sport but have very little to say about it and as for A roads I have enough trouble with my left and right. However, I deem myself quite intelligent and willing to talk about most things but I often ponder how I can start a conversation with someone (male or female). Its not like I can say “Hi, what do you think of the current social political climate in Tibet?” on the first meeting of the majority of our population.
What the cult of celebrity can do is to be a gateway, a point of common pointless knowledge, that opens a conversation. This conversation could then lead into more demanding subjects such as social manipulation or P.G. Wodehouse. One could see it as a social conversation adapter, a method by which we can determine our recipients interests. After all shouldn’t we enjoy a light appetizer before launching into the heavy main course. Plus with the advantage that there are only so many celebrity stories going you just need to insert the correct name and your away.
Don’t get me wrong I hate the way that society had become obsessed and manipulated by reality tv. Which after all is very cheap tv to make and since the writers strike in America a menagerie of new and formulaic reality tv is going to invade our tv networks. Hold on these reality tv shows put writers, actors and people with real talent out of a job. Furthermore, think how much paper and in consequence trees could be saved rather than being wasted on some random celerities epiphany on being racist.
On second thoughts I agree with Michael, burn them and all the cretins that produce and promote these shows.