Jersey Shore, Buckwild, Bad Girls Club, Mob Wives, Basketball Wives, Real Housewives of Wherever, any of the 'reality' television programs where someone's crappy attitude and poor people skills, ignorance and immaturity, are lauded as 'sassy', or 'real', and allowed to incubate into a new cult of personality, is a strong reason to live nebulously.
Far and away the most influential of the bunch, Jersey Shore is the paradigm example. I have been contending for quite some time that 'reality TV' is a ridiculous misnomer. The second the cameras get turned on, people stop being real and start performing. They are not themselves, especially in such a contrived environment as a television show intended to reach a national audience. Yes it's supposed to be candid, unscripted, I get it. I just don't believe it ever is. Precious advertising is on the line and nothing - nothing - is left completely to the whim of candor, for no other reason than it would likely prove painfully boring to watch. Something has to be made to happen, someone has to do something to avoid wasting time and resources. Make no mistake, the negative stereotypes being perpetuated for six seasons on Jersey Shore were very much part of the show's initial concept, and don't think for a second those kids were not told to 'Guido' it up as much as possible, to do a little song and dance, and plied with alcohol to ease the process.
Not that the Snookis and Situations of the world don't exist. They are at least a small part of Jersey culture; anybody who's ever been there knows this. And they have always existed. Some form of 'Snooki' ... or 'JWoww' or whatever...was barfing on Jersey boardwalks in 1941 and 1971 and 1991 just as they are today. The difference is behavior that once marginalized now ingratiates, and qualifies someone for a career in entertainment. The Situation winds up on Dancing With the Stars. Snooki is asked to wield her brainless smirk on the cover of countless magazines. She scores endorsement deals, blows up Twitter (enjoys a million-plus followers of every scrap iron thought she deems worthy of sharing), garners press, warrants, for some reason, attention as she hoists up her new baby like the baboon in The Lion King. There are clothing lines and perfume lines and new reality spin-offs to keep it all going. And it will keep it all going. Having no special talent whatsoever, bringing nothing to the proverbial party, contributing no verse to Whitman's powerful play that hasn't been burped, farted or swore out loud before, these individuals have eagerly assumed their places as bonafide celebrities, the 'best and brightest' amongst us, feeders of Zeitgeist.
Earlier this year, in the wake of Jersey Shore's success and finale and amidst the ongoing wash of the reality TV tsunami, came the most notable imitator, the hillbilly-themed, and ill-fated, Buckwild, another MTV creation geared toward kids who have no idea what the 'M' stands for. My heart goes out to the friends and family of Shain Gandee for his untimely death, but any outrage last spring over the cancellation of that show following the tragedy is way off base. The very wild and crazy behavior MTV producers sought to prostitute out was what killed him, and should not be getting 'brought to you by Pepsi' (or whatever...). That young man is dead because he was 'buckwild', and/or encouraged to be so for the sake of that program, and it's not entertainment, neither to be glorified nor remembered fondly, nor billed as a legacy for some up and comer to carry on.
But it was, and it is, and it will be in the future. The reality TV phenomenon is not about 'getting real', as the granddaddy of all reality TV shows - The Real World - has been purporting for over twenty years now, it's just (or surely has become) a noxious brew of artistic laziness and cultural jadedness. But it works; it sells advertising, it's what we all want to see...can't help but see.
Unless we strive to live nebulously.
