Friday, June 13, 2008

Dude, You're Out There!


Sorry about the lack of health updates as of late, but here's the situation in a nutshell: when I feel great, as I have for much of the past week, I don't feel much like writing about it, as instead I tend to get a bit giddy and spend all of my time up and about trying to get my legs back under me. And when I have really bad days, as I have for the past two, I really don't feel like writing about it, as then I become that guy that pisses and moans about his medical plight on the interwebs. I finally meet with my surgeon this Friday, and I'll know much more about how my progress is coming at that point. So that's that.

Apropos of absolutely nothing, I watch an awful lot of The Simpsons. Which, by definition, means I watch an awful lot of the Fox Network.

Now, twenty years ago, The Simpsons was just about all Fox had to offer, causing the network to implement a programming strategy that can best be described as "let's throw a bunch of sh*t at the wall and see what sticks." Thus was born truly atrocious television like Get a Life, starring Chris Elliot as a 30-year old paperboy, and of course Herman's Head, starring, well, who knows. (Don't ever let anyone lump Parker Lewis Can't Lose into this category. That show was groundbreaking.)

But now Fox has some legitimate hits; House, Family Guy, the whole American Idol phenomenon...you would assume that the network was beyond train wreck television.

You would be very, very wrong. This week, while flipping through the channels, I stumbled upon the network's latest gameshow/abomination/sign of the apocalypse "Moment of Truth," in which morons prostitute themselves by answering increasingly personal and incriminating questions in exchange for 15 minutes of "fame" and a chance to earn moderate amounts of cash.

Maybe you've already seen it, but if not below is a brief sampling.







Now she's not hate-able at all, is she? I'm assuming these are actors, as nobody could possibly be willing to destroy many lives, including their own, just to make an appearance on TV. But if not, these people are worse than Hitler. *

What infuriates me the most, however, isn't even the smug manner in which the woman answers the questions, it's that the entire concept was blatantly plagiarized from a HI-larious Mr. Show skit. If you're gonna' do the lie detector bit, at least do it right.






*Not actually worse than Hitler