Down and dirty on American Idol

By Mansfield B. Frazier

A recent editorial in the Orlando Sentinel entitled “Why be so mean?” lambasted “American Idol” judges Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson for exhibiting an even meaner streak this season as they tear into untalented contestants with less mercy, pity, or leniency than they exhibited in previous years. The editorial stated, “... the ‘criticism’ Idol judges .... are doling out to contestants this season is particularly cruel and mean-spirited. They have included fat jokes and other cruel remarks about contestants’ appearances.” Indeed, most viewers would undoubtedly agree that only judge Paula Abdul has even a miniscule drop of the milk of human kindness in her cup for the oftentimes excruciatingly bad contestants. However, in defense of the dissing duo, while the editorial was accurate in regards to the unprecedented level of punishment being doled out, their vicious comments are only reflective of the cultural depths to which the tastes of much of the American TV viewing audience has plunged.

While the editorial suggests the hosts harbor inbred sadistic streaks, I submit their cruelty is, by and large, more of an act; they are merely giving viewers larger and larger doses of what they tune in for. They are acting as our surrogates, dishing out the vile comments we wish we could make as these poor gluttons for punishment twist in the wind in front of a national audience ... much to our just-as-twisted delight. The Germans even have a word for it: Schadenfreude (shäd'n froi'də) ... “taking satisfaction or pleasure at someone else’s misfortune.” Now there is a TV show based — at least in part — on this flaw of human character. But this begs the question: Do these obviously delusional masochists really suffer, or do they actually enjoy being used as human punching bags, getting beat up on the program that has benchmarked a new age of dissing; do they take some kind of carnal pride in being abused, ridiculed and insulted in the most public forum on the planet? And, if they are sick ... then how well are we for watching?

The two gentlemen in question could very well be just that off camera — gentlemen — I don’t know them personally, nor does the Sentinel editorial writer or the millions of viewers who tune in twice — or is it three times? — a week to watch some folks make fools of themselves in return for a fleeting 15 seconds of fame. By giving the viewing public what it craves the program is on track to become — if indeed it hasn’t already achieved the status —the all-time top rated show in TV history, and, obviously, the more brutal the comments the higher the ratings. Not to mention the longer the lines of no-talents that will do virtually anything for a chance to appear on national television.

As for the horde of regular viewers (I take smug delight in stating at I am not among them, I only see the images fleetingly while passing through the great room as my wife watches and chats via telephone with her mother), while they ostensibly claim to tune in to see what new talent is being discovered in the hinterlands (and that certainly is a major component and supposedly the premise of the program) I have a sneaking suspicion that if the clowns were deleted from the show ... or if the judges quit beating up on them, ratings would fall like a stone; and, the producers of “Idol” know this full well.

No, the culprits are not Cowell and Jackson and their mean-spirited remarks, the real culprits are that deep, dark side of the human psyche (that thankfully remains buried within us most of the time), coupled with the burgeoning culture of vacuous celebrity worship that has developed around the globe due to the corrupting influence of the most powerful medium mankind has ever known ...television. In a world where we have no-talent celebrities that are famous for nothing more noteworthy than “being a celebrity,” and when, as a recent poll indicated, young people rank “being famous” far above anything and everything else, what’s wrong with suffering a few supercilious barbs from two of the most famous dudes currently on TV? The logic, I surmise, goes: “If Paris Hilton and Anna Nicole Smith can be famous just because they are filthy rich, why can’t I — because I have talent — be famous too?”

Mark my words: It won’t be very long before the real “winner” on American Idol will not only be the contestant who garners the most votes, but will also be — a sort of co-winner if you will — the person who has the most stinging, debasing, and derogatory comments heaped upon their head by the judges. In our increasingly through-the-looking-glass world ... how much one can bear to be dissed on national television is destined to become the new measure of “fame.”