Tuesday, December 30, 2003

Fed up with VH1

Last night, as per usual, I laid in bed fighting sleep just so I could catch a few more bleary-eyed minutes of television. On this particular evening it was an episode of VH1's "Most Awesomely Bad Video" show, in which they show some bad videos featuring one-hit wonders, celebrities, and celebrities who were one-hit wonders. Accompanying this cavalcade of pap is not only a narrator but interviews with entertainment personalities who's on-camera comments are sprinkled throught the videos for decidedly un-comedic effect. For this particular show we get several comedienne/actresses of whom I'm unaware, journeyman comic Greg Proops, and an ostensibly well-known transvestite named M. Justin Bond. This last one troubles me for two reasons: one, s/he has the same name as me, and two: a quick google of M. Justin Bond returns nothing on the first page and only a handful of mentions in the pages that follow. Translation: this transvestite is practically a nobody and s/he's getting face time on VH1. The program that followed it, something about celebrity nudity caught on tape, featured the same stock footage/lame commentary repartee (only with different ineffective comics this time, including Proops, who apparently had nowhere to be). Only five minutes in, even with nipple exposure as the main feature, I turned it off and went to sleep. Analysis: VH1 is having trouble finding people to be on these shows, and because of this it's getting tiresome and banal and they have officially jumped the shark with me. Seriously, was the first iteration of this formula really so funny as to warrant the barrage of canned programming we're getting now? I know I'm losing my temper, but here's the thing: I hardly watch VH1 at all, and I'm already trying to suffocate myself with my own pillow because their lineup is so repetative. Get some new programming guys, before everyone realizes what's going on.