Comments on: Reality TV, Iraqi style

By: ajay

ajay — Tue, 30 Aug 2005 09:06:46 +0000

I hop e Iraq will embrace more and more media-oriented projects, so that maybe they can build some social fiber hat Social fiber hat? You mean like a hemp beret?

By: jonathan

jonathan — Tue, 30 Aug 2005 03:01:27 +0000

Yes, it were the dutch, and the producer John de Mol has launched his own private network, called Talpa (Latin for his sirname, mole)
While selling Big Bother V the slogan is: “People remain interesting”

I suggest this: How about a genocide-reality tv-show?

It’s basically Humor and TV that has numbed the entire fucking world into mental slavery, which is fine…as posted before me, it’s relief. It’s fantasy.

For now, I hop e Iraq will embrace more and more media-oriented projects, so that maybe they can build some social fiber hat will hold this ethnic timebomb together. Perhaps Reality-TV is modern day dictatorship.

By: jayann

jayann — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 16:20:46 +0000

British TV is infested with DIY reality shows

which we export to the US (they all watch Changing Rooms, you know) along with Benny Hill and Tom Jones. The ignominy.

By: Elyas Bakhtiari

Elyas Bakhtiari — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 14:47:21 +0000

"This is the only good thing we've acquired from the American occupation," Majid al-Samarraie, the writer of "Materials and Labor," said as he watched the reconstruction of Ms. Ismail's home. I would have to say this is the third worst thing we've exported to Iraq, just behind death and destruction. I've never really believed in evil as an entity, but if Evil does exist as some kind of supernatural force, I'm almost positive that it would manifest itself as Reality TV. We should apologize to the Iraqis for this.

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 14:23:04 +0000

I like the idea. But then I used to like This Old House back when they were actually fixing stuff up, instead of hearing sheltered yuppies whine “well, we’re on a tight budget, we only have half a million dollars to spend”.

By: Nicholas Gruen

Nicholas Gruen — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 13:26:51 +0000

'Reality TV' catching on in Iraq. The mind boggles. After boggling, my mind remembered Hung Le's line about the Vietnam war.

It really brought war into our living rooms. And we didn't even have a TV

By: James Wimberley

James Wimberley — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 11:48:39 +0000

British TV is infested with DIY reality shows. My favourite in this general area is the BBC series “Life of Grime”, which makes heroes out of council sanitation workers tackling blocked drains, rats, and corpses left three weeks before the neighbours noticed. Dignity of labour and all that.

By: wbb

wbb — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 07:12:45 +0000

I too enjoyed the assumption in the article that the USA is the source of all contemporary culture.

By: Brendan

Brendan — Sun, 28 Aug 2005 18:34:29 +0000

It may well be that the whole Iraqi adventure turns out to be a Big Brother, reality tv type game show, with the last Iraqi left alive winning the country.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Sun, 28 Aug 2005 16:11:04 +0000

I’d like to see an American reality TV show done in Iraq that honestly depicts what is going on over there.

By: Jake

Jake — Sun, 28 Aug 2005 14:56:12 +0000

“Besides, wasn’t it the Dutch who unleashed the real-tv plague onto the world?”

Indeed. Those wicked burghers.

By: yabonn

yabonn — Sun, 28 Aug 2005 10:56:02 +0000

Destroyed by the war is a good one. This one could describe a whole category of articles :

The phenomenon is a testament to both the globe-straddling reach of American popular culture and the ease with which people in other parts of the world – even those who are hostile toward the United States – adapt that culture for their own uses.

They do like us : relief!

Someone should start a U.S. xeno-anxiety zoo. I propose two first specimens, to be displayed along Mr Wong masterpiece : the movies were the american family/protagonist lands in a foreign country (foreign-and-potentally-threatening-blabber ensues) and the ubiquitous waiter stories (it’s because i’m an american i had to wait!).

Besides, wasn’t it the Dutch who unleashed the real-tv plague onto the world?

By: Brendan

Brendan — Sun, 28 Aug 2005 10:39:12 +0000

This reminds me a bit of an ‘Onion’ parody. They claimed (this was in the ‘90s) that the Russian version of ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’ was called ‘Who Wants to Eat a Meal?’

Perhaps we could have Iraqi versions of The Krypton Factor where the task is to get to the shops and back without being blown up/clubbed to death/electrocuted/shot by the Americans.

Or an Iraqi version of the Japanese game show ‘Endurance’ in which the task is just to…well…stay alive for as long as possible.

The winner could get a ticket out of the country or something.

By: derek

derek — Sun, 28 Aug 2005 10:29:52 +0000

I love that phrase “destroyed by the war”.