A young woman waves at the video camera, her white teeth flashing. She grips the handle of the tow line and makes sure her feet are firmly entrenched in her water skis. The boat motor roars, the tether takes up the slack, and she is unceremoniously jerked off her feet, doing a double gainer over a parked rowboat, smacking her head in the process.
The audience swells with uproarious laughter.
While aimlessly flipping through channels, my husband paused at one of those 'Funny/Outrageous/Hilarious/Shocking' video shows. You know the ones -- babies hosing themselves down, puppies chasing their tails in countless adorable ways and brides and grooms fainting at their weddings.
Okay, some of the clips are indeed amusing. I especially like the pets and kids. But I don't see the benefit of watching people fall off docks, flip from swings on their heads, miss the edge of a trampoline, or ride a bike into a telephone pole. I've seen enough drunk wedding guests slamming into the table and taking the cake down with them. I've seen enough ATV riders flip their vehicles on top of them. It's not funny.
The only message I can see is: "Don't be stupid like these people."
Or maybe the message is: "Do something completely asinine and catch it on tape, and we'll give you ten thousand dollars."
Play safe this summer, everyone.
3 comments:
At the risk of sounding like a curmudgeon, much of what I've seen on those shows is just plain mean-spirited. I don't find it funny at all!
But I almost never watch TV, unless it's already on at the gym or my parents' house or something, so it's possible I only happen to catch these shows at their worst. It doesn't make me want to become a regular TV-watcher, though.
There is a show in Oz called
MOTHER AND SON
It's about a son who lives with his mother who has altzheimer's. The show is about as unfunny as one can get.
I've seen some of these funniest and obviously people find them funny. A kid falling off a seesaw. Bride falling into her wedding cake.
Maybe I just don't have a sense of humor.
My confirmation word is denbrt -
Wouldn't that make a great name.
"Denburt, Denburt, wherefore art thou Denburt?"
My sister and I were just talking about this. An ad came on for Most Amazing Videos or something like that, and it featured a guy crashing his motorbike and another smashing into rocks after his parachute failed to open.
I'm always horrified at this kind of thing. Is this amusing? This is entertainment? How sick are we, really?
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