Pop Idol UK 2003 - a brilliant story

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Blows the frickin' roof off, innit.

http://www.vheissu.freeserve.co.uk/pop/

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Friday, 15 August 2003 22:22 (twenty-two years ago)

That's a great article.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Friday, 15 August 2003 23:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I dunno. "There sat Dr Fox (is he a qualified doctor?)". Same joke later on. Plus, theory that life is not as entertaining as TV, so TV life must be tampered with, is not one I comfortably adhere to, as an asshole.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Friday, 15 August 2003 23:11 (twenty-two years ago)

It is an appalling article, I think. He talks of the show having contempt for people, but he shows this more than the TV show does. His main gripe seems to be that TV picks the most entertaining parts of the process to show! How is anything he talks about the "exploitation" the standfirst claims?

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 16 August 2003 18:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Exploitation is a strong word for sure, but you have to admit it involves some level of cruelty. What else can you call it when they let the less-gifted singers get through two auditions, just so they can be set up to be cut down to size and humiliated for the sake of TV?

― Gav, Sunday, 17 August 2003 14:21 (twenty-two years ago)

The whole point of the programme is to laugh at the hopeless. If you're not up for a bit of mockery and humiliation you shouldn't enter at all.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Sunday, 17 August 2003 15:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Great article, but I was sort of expecting him to blow it when it actually came time to standing up to Simon, and of course he did.

The show is very exploitive, however the people who enter the contest should know that by now. I think people don't mind seeing them exploited on TV, and in fact like it, because they are all thouroughly unlikable people.

― David Allen, Sunday, 17 August 2003 16:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Depends who you listen to, Eyeball! The point of the show is either to find the UK's most talented singer, or the point of the show is to laugh at the hopeless. In fact it's a bit of both, but I find the process gallingly disingenuous.

― Gav, Sunday, 17 August 2003 16:24 (twenty-two years ago)

The point of the television show is to see people humiliated. But to humiliate them, you have to stage the thing as a talent contest. A contest to find the nation's worst singer would be unworkable (if the point is to be bad, there's no shame in being bad; people can fake awfulness, but not goodness; etc). If the show were a genuine talent contest then after the preliminary auditions the judges wouldn't be needed. But it gets to the section where everything's decided by public vote, and you still have the panel dishing out insults to the ones who are supposed actually to have talent.

At the end, you're left with one person who is stubbornly unhumiliatable. He's the winner. It's like 'Endurance'. I like it.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Sunday, 17 August 2003 16:40 (twenty-two years ago)

That's a very perceptive description, Mr Eyeball. I suppose it just depends if you like to stop and stare at car crashes or prefer to turn your head...

― Gav, Sunday, 17 August 2003 16:53 (twenty-two years ago)

I prefer to be in the car that crashes.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Sunday, 17 August 2003 16:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Ohmigod has someone told the Human Rights Council?!! What a bullshit piece. The best tv is nasty, cruel and very fucking funny. I wouldn't want it any other way.

― Ian SPACK (Ian SPACK), Sunday, 17 August 2003 17:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, it's hardly Liberia... but still interesting to hear an insiders account from someone who can actually string a sentence together, most of the rejects don't even seem to realise what has happened to them. Which reinforces the idea that it is about laughing at the afflicted.

― Petrol Lover, Tuesday, 19 August 2003 10:21 (twenty-two years ago)

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