By Elizabeth Newby, Columnist
I genuinely love everything. Okay, that’s a lie.
You know I don’t like Tim Tebow or Eminem.
But, as a consumer, I do really like a lot of pop culture that’s considered second rate.
I think I’ve come across as cynical or snarky in my column before, and that was never my intention. Making stupid jokes about Tim Tebow’s virginal status (okay, it’s still funny) never really delivered the point I was trying to make about his position as a public figure.
Readers just thought my satirical approach was immoral and heartless. And, in a way, I agree with them. So instead of focusing on topics I dislike, I just want to discuss things I really enjoy, like television.
Television is the greatest thing ever.
Amy Poehler said that she doesn’t believe in ironic television watching. Like, there is something about a show that you are naturally drawn to, that you can relate to in a way that transcends the logical flaws that we as human beings love to cleverly point out.
This is reflected in her NBC show, “Parks and Recreation.” Her character, “Leslie Knope” is the most ambitious, sincerely happy individual on set that it’s almost disgusting. (Wait, this is a little ironic.) The greatest running joke on the show is that she has such a “can do” attitude, yet her name is “Knope.”
Each week, I anticipate watching “Jersey Shore” and “Toddlers and Tiaras” on my DVR.
I know that “Jersey Shore” is problematic because it typecasts Italian Americans. It takes advantage of their cultural experience and turns ordinary people into some sort of pseudo, personal “brand.”
But, at the same time, the show has a real and straight-forward aspect to its approach. It doesn’t fantasize the clichéd ideas of American success that most “reality” television shows focus on. There is no perfect marriage with a one-million-dollar stipulation at the end of the season. The show is about the here and the now.
“Toddlers and Tiaras” is 10 times more problematic than “Jersey Shore” could ever be. The show blatantly exploits families that expose their children to the strange world of pageantry.
But I don’t see how any individual cannot be drawn to the screen when a devout Christian mother is weeping because her daughter didn’t win first place, because she believes it must have been God’s will for her child to lose, despite their drastic efforts.
And, of course you can’t disregard the humor in these situations.
I love fist-pumping at every inappropriate event. “A dollar makes me holler, Honey Boo Boo Child” is my go-to phrase during my strip routine. (I won’t give away any details, but it obviously involves Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA.”)
The point is that you don’t have to ignore the fact that you’re self-aware to watch them. You can realize that the lines between fiction and reality are blurred.
Yet the shows are some weird representation of our pop culture-obsessed, middle class American lives, and I genuinely think that it’s sadly beautiful.
I’m also genuinely sorry that there weren’t any penis jokes this week.
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