2013/05/17

In Poor Taste: American Idol’s Finale

Da Goddess @ 00:50

Let me preface this by saying: I am not an American Idol fan. It’s not a show that’s really in my wheelhouse at all. So, why am I writing about the show now? Because King Arthur loves it and I love him. He watches, so I watch alongside him. I don’t have to pay attention to anything going on. I can play Sudoku on my cell phone or text friends while it’s going on. He wants to be with me, I endure. The one thing that I can do and do enjoy is that I can tell you what kind of reaction the judges will have and who is the next to go home. You know me and my love for music! I’ve known for the last four weeks who’d be going home and who would win, simply because I know my music, I know what a singer should bring to a performance, and who has the reach to gain a bigger audience once they’re through with the show. So, for the first time in my life, I’m regularly watching Idol and I’m now officially pissed off at one of their stunts.

Last night? I plugged my ears during Mariah’s performance and largely ignored the majority of everything else. Except! Except when they had a little sketch dealing with the males’ eliminations. They called it “Sabotage”. During this skit, they showed the girls talking the guys into telling jokes during their time on stage, wearing crazy clothing, dropping drugs into one contestant’s drink, stealing another contestant’s “lunch money”, and…SCREEEEEEEEEEEECH!

What? Since when did slippin’ a couple mickeys into a drink become okay (as done by the youngest contestant this season)? Since when did “bullying” become okay? Even only in jest. Let’s think about this for a moment: millions of kids watch this show. They’re impressionable. They aren’t all old enough to know that this is just pretend and supposed to be silly. And they observe their favorites doping one another and then holding another one upside down as they shake all the money from his person.

Bad idea, AI writers! Really. Bad. Idea. Colossally bad idea. ENORMOUSLY HUGE BAD IDEA!

Earlier yesterday, a Los Angeles high school was shut down after one girl stabbed another in the bathroom. At another LA area school had graffiti sprayed all over it targeting black students, saying, “Ni@@ers gotta die!” And a couple college campuses were shut down because someone called in a threat of an attack. Tell me again how bullying of any sort is “all in fun”. It’s not. It’s a fact of life for far too many young kids and here is one of the most watched shows in the country treating it as a joke.

And the whole dropping a couple pills into a drink thing? Excuse the hell outta me! That’s just so OBVIOUSLY wrong and in poor taste. Poor JUDGMENT! Ya feel me here on this one, folks?

A couple years back, in San Diego, someone spiked a teacher’s drink with hallucinogens. Funny? No. Teacher got very ill. I’ve heard it’s happened elsewhere as well. Plus we know this happens frequently in pick-up bars and at parties. It’s NOT COOL! It’s NOT FUNNY!

So I feel American Idol‘s writers and entire team of producers and directors, and even the participants in the skit, should apologize out the ass to the entire nation and they should have to run endless PSAs about how none of these “funny” actions are really funny and that they are, in fact, inappropriate joke material for a show with a rather large young audience. Drugging someone is ILLEGAL. Drugging someone to win a contest is also illegal and downright immoral. If you need to cheat to win, then guess what? Give up and go home, practice your craft more. But play fair.

I wonder if any of the contestants who had to participate in this charming sketch had any reservations about doing it. I hope they did. I hope they at least talked someone out of showing the girls ganging up on the boys and killing them one by one.

Shame on you, AI!

I’m so seriously ticked off about this that I had to get out of bed to write this little screed.

A television show aimed at families, aimed at young people, should never make light of such serious topics.

All in fun, my ass.

The American Idol team responsible for greenlighting that bit of insanity has some ‘splainin’ to do if you as me.

If you’re a fan of the show, what did YOU think about? (I didn’t care who won, even though I knew it could ONLY be Candice, but that’s not the question I’m asking. So focus on the “all for a laugh” horror show they gave us and let me know what you thought. Also tell FOX.

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