Oh my, where to begin with this lunacy. For the life of me I cannot understand what would possess anyone to get on television in front of 30 million people and air their dirty laundry. Actually, I am not certain which is worse, the assholes that actually participate in these shows or the 30 million people whom are glued to the television set everyday watching this. Granted, not all of them are totally without merit. Oprah has come a long way over the years. Of course, purchasing the studio and being in total control of the content makes that somewhat easier for her. So for the moment, Oprah has amnesty from all the slander I am about to commit.
In all honesty I like Ricki Lake in movies and such, but her show is beyond distasteful. She seems to have this cult following of worshipers in her audience that chant "go Ricki, go Ricki" over and over. Sort of a David Koresh meets Martha Stewart kind of thing going on there. It seems that the public cannot get enough of this show. I actually spent some time this week watching these shows and trying to get some ammo for this piece. I was thrilled to find such a wealth of topics to sink my teeth into. This week there was "If you're my man then why do you hang out with your gay friends?" "My teenage daughter is dating a man old enough to be her grandfather." And my personal favorite, "My best friend dresses like a tramp" the makeover show!
At first I was thinking to myself, where do they find these people? Then during a commercial I saw the plug stating..."Has your lover/husband ever had sex with your mother?" if so call us at the Ricki Lake show. At that moment I had a visual of some trailer trash bimbo on her break from Dairy Queen, eating a dilly bar and calling in frantically - shrieking at the operator, "yes, yes he has!"
I do not believe in any of the episodes of Ricki Lake that I have watched, has there been guests who were not either trailer trash freaks, ebonic spouting high school dropouts, or mothers with bad hair and no teeth. I thought that this was the absolute worst thing on television until I found Jerry Springer.
This is without a doubt the most contrived and poorly staged shit on television. The episode I watched involved two girls. Both were wearing entirely too much frosted Cowboy Blue Covergirl eyeshadow and having hair that was WAY too big. They were yelling and fighting and spitting at one another. Seems that they were both sleeping with the same young man. Mind you, neither of these girls could have been over 17 and both had children with the before mentioned young man. These girls were wearing their best "I walk the streets at night in these clothes" outfits and smacking on bubble gum like a cow chewing its cud.
One would say something the other didn't want to hear and she would come off the chair lunge for the other girl, grab a fist full of gel-stiff hair, and start kicking her. Of course there was a huge display made by the crew to separate these girls. Then of course just sitting them right back down next to each other drooling at the prospect of breaking up yet another fight. Well this went on for about 30 minutes and then the moment we were all waiting for happened. They brought out the "young man."
The stage door opens and out struts this 18 year old black youth wearing his hat backwards and his goddamn jeans hanging off his ass. He looked like he was totally fucking enjoying this shit. Well I suppose it fed his ego to some degree or another. But anyway...he walks out, sits by the thinner of the two girls and takes her hand. They are all lovey dovey of course and he is snubbing the other one. The skinny girl looks all content and is just oozing and fawning over this little "macho shit" to her right. Finally the other girl has enough and she says to the young man after he says, "It is over between us...you are a fat cow and I love her not you!"...she says..."Well, if you love her so goddamn much why the fuck where you in my bed last night???"
Well, in totally predictable fashion the skinny bitch launches herself at this other girl again. Right here...this is what really gets me about women in general. Why are you attacking the woman that your man slept with? Why aren't you attacking his philandering ass? I really do not get that. Well needless to say he did admit to the sex with the girl and they all continued to fight and scream for the rest of the hour I presume. I had about all I could take after the disclosure that he was having sex with the one he didn't "love" the night before. It is enough to make you nauseated.
You know, the saddest part about this woman is the fact that she had a great career as a stand up comedian. When she first started her show, she actually tried to make a go of it as something new and light hearted in the way of talk shows. Unfortunately, her first few seasons didn't get the ratings that sponsors were hoping for so, on the bandwagon Jenny went. Poignant stories of women winning the battle of breast cancer gave way to such themes as "I am here to tell my wife that I am gay." Needless to say, it has taken a drastic accident as the result of one of the Jenny Jones shows to make anyone take notice that there are just some people that don't want their private lives splattered across every television in 13 countries. Due to an unfortunate death as a result of one of her shows, Jenny and her staff have had to make some grave changes to prevent such tragedies from happening ever again. Jenny has now been practically forced into becoming the Makeover Queen every week. Its just a shame we can't do something about her fashion sense as well.
You might be asking yourself, what about Montel, Geraldo, or Sally Jesse? Well, I watched these as well and discovered them to be for the most part, above board. While on occasion they can be sensationalistic, these programs tend to deal more with current affairs and actually helping their guests and the general public as opposed to simply exploiting them for ratings. Without question, we all enjoy a good dose of Hollywood gossip, personal success stories, flamboyant drag queens that look like Barbara Streisand, and good tear-jerking family reunions.
Should we blame the producers and sponsors of these IQ-sucking waste of airtime? I don't think so. We should blame the 30 million people in 13 countries who have to watch this crap to make themselves feel better. These are the same people who think that Baywatch and Melrose Place are the best true-to-life dramas on television today.