Monday, December 28, 2009

Funny vs Cruel

Generally speaking, I don't follow celebrity gossip blogs or anything similar. I hardly ever watch TV (and when I do it's usually something that contains actors that nobody cares to comment on because they never do anything scandalous enough - holy shmokes, an actor who's not a druggie! Mon dieu!), I rarely get around to watching movies in theaters, and I care more about musicians' music that their personal lives. I'm not clueless about who everyone is (yes, I know that most people think Miley Cyrus is a skank) but I'm really not interested in what they do every waking moment and what they look like when they're completely plastered. (Oh shit! Someone famous got drunk! That never happens! It must be breaking news!)

(I know! I live such a crazy life!)

The only pop culture commentator types I keep up with are the people who mock them, like Joel McHale & The Soup, and Michael Buckley from What the Buck. What I like about them is that although they dig through the trashbag of life, they do it with humor and perspective. As in, they realize that what they're doing isn't the most important news* ever and isn't likely to affect anyone's life too much and that they therefore have a little wiggle room, so to speak. They don't publicly idolize celebrities yet they don't tear them all down either. I guess it's because they're primarily comedians and they don't need to be cruel to call someone out for acting stupidly. Sure, Buck calls half the female population of Hollywood "skanks," but in context with his show, it's not a term that would make someone die of shame.

On the other hand, you have the actual celebrity reporters like Perez Hilton, who are completely bitches to everyone. Reading through Perez's various attacks on Miles o' Smiles makes me feel vaguely ashamed of myself. (Also, 50% of his website is repeated stories with a different name plugged in - what's the point?) Then again, without his frequent cruel remarks, Perez probably wouldn't be so infamous and therefore popular. If he was nice to everyone, people reading his website would get bored and leave. It says something about people as a whole, doesn't it?


What does my room say about me?
That I think putting things in neat piles makes my room clean, that I don't like throwing things away, that I read everything from Shakespeare to children's picture books, that I have no idea what to do with myself.
Haha, I don't know.

* For example, reports about wars. You know. Trivial stuff like that.

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