Reality TV... really?

It's 75 degrees and gorgeous outside and I am sitting in a room with no windows and a giant air-conditioning unit that routinely makes a noise like an ME-109 taking off or a giant mechanized pig snacking on a meal of nuts and bolts.

It's enough to make you want to kill yourself - if not that - then at least subject yourself to watching "So you think you can Dance?" - another dumb reality show!

This was the point I found myself at last night as the dance version of Pop Idol burned into my retinas and melted my brain. In an instant it succeeded making me forget that the little kids suffering in Iraq are nothing compared to "Casey From Chicago" who is in tears because he keeps missing his cues during his "Boogie With Bon Jovi" number.

"Mummy was a dancer and Mummy's Mummy before her! I was BORN TO DO THIS!"

"Yeah but Mummy was probably dancing round a pole Casey........."

15 years ago Bill Hicks used to talk about the dumbing of America by shows like American Gladiators, I wonder what he would think now? American Gladiators is positively intellectual compared to some of the self-serving shite we have to deal with now!

And it's not just America anymore! Every country has it's own versions of the same crap! Will Smith recently appeared on the Indian version of Pop Idol. Have we become so shallow that we are no longer content with just imposing our pathetic ideas on ourselves?

I am not so much a conspiracy nut as I am a concerned citizen! Surely our addiction to reality TV has an effect on how we see the rest of the world - for example, a lot of people call in and vote for contestants but do these people bother to get off their backsides and vote in real elections? I doubt it because at the end of the day, who cares about civil rights when Bob from Buffalo is doing his impersonation of Celine (Sea lion) Dion.

A lot of these contestants cry when they are rejected: " I was BORN TO DO THIS!". If you cry because you failed on a TV show, do you cry when you see people dying on the news? What is the emotional breaking point here? I speak as a person who does not cry as often as I should. Too many things strike me as tragic and to cry at them all you would never stop! Mary from Malibu cooking with d-list celebrities isn't a crying situation to me.

It leads me to believe that we are creating a generation who need constant validation of who they are and what they do and that makes me want to cry....