Freaks!

It seems to me that these days a massive number of TV programmes (and surely therefore a big proportion) are just freak shows.  Some of you will just take that as read but when you haven’t paid much attention for a while like I have, er, / haven’t you start noticing these things.  OK, there’s still the Blue Peter style kid’s programme (take a bow the One Show!) - but here’s my almost off the top of my head list of Freak Show TV – Programmes where we’re basically invited to point and laugh at the freaks.  This looks like a lot of telly to me...

My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding (and all variants)

X-Factor

Britain’s Got Talent

Eurovision (I trust they’ve dropped the ‘song competition’ pretence by now)

Storage Hunters

Benefits Street (and variants)

Big Brother

Celebrity Big Brother

I’m a Celebrity

The Jeremy Kyle Show (if you weren’t really with me up to now you’ll surely have caught up and on by now!)

The Apprentice

Dragon’s Den

The Island with Bear Grylls 

Benefits Britain

Don’t Tell the Bride

Embarrassing Bodies

Endless cheap documentaries about strange Americans

Come Dine With Me

Take Me Out

Blinging Up Baby

Junkfood Kids

Millionaire Matchmakers

Sex Party Secrets

Are these all real?  Well, most of them I can vouch for, some of them I’ve just been told about – I do understand the attraction – the fake concern and moral indignation of the Jeremy Kyle show is actually glorious in its massive lying hypocrisy but well, best not watch…

In a world where an actual circus freak show would be let’s say heavily frowned upon, that seems like a lot of freak shows to me.  I came up with this list pretty quickly – and I don’t really watch telly much.   

Mind you, it is a few years now I guess since the pinnacle of this stuff was reached with celebrity pig wanking.  That sounds like a joke but it was definitely on – called ‘The Farm’ I think…