Reality TV

Is there no end to these "Reality TV" shows? I don't see how you can do parodies of them. Are they beyond satire? Supernanny is about someone training kids who have been publicly identified as brats by their own parents. What's next? How about mothers-in-law, or maybe ex boy/girl friends showing up suddenly at your front door.

I remember Alan Funt and Candid Camera, where people were set up with booby trap situations like exploding pizzas or roller skating dentists. My own parents were on one of the last shows. They were told they had "won" a free dinner in a restaurant for their (30th, I think) anniversary. They were seated - ceremoniously - by the waiter, and then totally ignored for the rest of the evening. Their bickering and fumbling attempts to get service made for some knee-slapping laughs, until Funt came out and did his patented "surprise" routine.

I think today's TV producers are smarter. They've upped the payoff by letting the public "performers" in on the concept. They devise some playground-level game (a great race, cooking contests, selecting a wife, etc.), then let comic "judges", or the viewers, vote on a winner. The prize may be greater than a free dinner (my parents did get served eventually), but it's nothing compared to what the producers get for exploiting the contestants.

Thus the public can finally see human behavior in its "natural" (in the Hobbesian sense) state!