Let me make one thing clear from the beginning of this post; I am not going to bash the show because I have never seen it.
Jersey Shore. Everyone's talking about it. Everyone is watching it. People can't seem to get enough of it. We are all love to escape our daily trials by living vicariously through the rich and glamorous. Yet the only thing I hear about the show is how bad it is, how absurd it is, how people only watch it to make fun of it. Now I'm willing to accept what I will call "the train-wreck phenomenon" which is rubbernecking to get a better look at some horrible situation simply out of curiosity. Very scientific definition, I know. We've all experienced this at some point. Traffic on one side of the highway has slowed down because there's an accident on the other and people feel the need and the urge to slow down and look at the accident, or whatever is left of it. I get it, Jersey Shore is so bad you can't help but watch it. But the train-wreck phenomenon only lasts for a few moments. After a while, your curiosity is satisfied, you can't really see anything, there is nothing left to see after a time.
If it really as bad as people say it is, shouldn't it have been pulled off the air already? Is Jersey Shore a car wreck where one's curiosity is satisfied after a few moments? Or is it a train wreck where there is so much damage it takes a lot longer for the mind to process it? Where it is so awful that it commands our attention; a sight that you do not want to behold but you find yourself staring and taking in every horrible, twisted detail?
Introducing the new Weaponized Culture
11 years ago
I disagree with the harshness of this post. Jersey Shore though extremely main stream to the point where almost anyone could sit down in front of it and possibly have a laugh at it, does not need to be labeled as "the train-wreck phenomenon". It's good because of its' absurdity, because of the fact that it IS so simple that it's easy to make fun of while stile enjoying it. Although everyone is entitled to their own opinion the vast majority of the people who have seen Jersey Shore can appreciate its simplicity with its' use of dynamic characters and cheesy phrases,actions or nick names. All come together to mold into an easy to digest comedy that doesn't need much if any forethought to understand.
ReplyDeleteLike I said, I've never seen the show, I'm just going by what other people say about it. The whole point of the post was "If it's so bad, then why do people that think it's bad watch it?" My conclusion was the train wreck phenomenon.
ReplyDeleteIt's mainly the whole, "watch these people to feel better about myself" phenomenon. That's why I think most people watch it.
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