30 Questions/30 Days, Day 2

For this month, the questions are going to bounce from serious to silly to surreal. This question comes from Rosa Nagle:

"Why is there a new fascination with rednecks on tv? There's the show 'Swamp People', and 'Duck Dynasty', and 'Moonshiners', etc"

 I'm reminded of a quote from  Eric Bogosian's Talk Radio (the play definitely, the movie I'm not sure about):

Marvelous technology is at our disposal and instead of reaching up for new heights, we try to see how far down we can go...how deep into the muck we can immerse ourselves!

That was back in the 80's. I think we do that now especially with reality TV, but it's laid bare that when viewers want to get in the muck, we always need to make sure someone's in their deeper than us so we can mock them while forgetting about whatever muck we see on our faces.  When America is recovering from a recession, it makes sense that TV networks decide to show the country the poorest of the poor to make viewers feel better.  I think only those in huge denial can make claims that you can learn something about human nature and communication through these shows.  Anyhoo...Why rednecks?  Because they are poor and white, and they're easier to take advantage of.  If there was a surge of shows on poor African Americans, it would be easy (and likely correct) to make accusations of racism and let the show die a quick, merciful death.  When white corporate America picks on poorer whites, it's harder to take a show off the air due to classism.

And now, a poem (I might not do this every day) I thought of thinking of the town I was born in and how its poverty was the subject of media attention recently.

Future Scenes on Reality TV

Debuting "Boom and Bust" on A&E TV
puts Woonsocket speech patterns on map,
a "Throw me down the stairs the keys" T-shirt
is seen on Snooki via the OMG! page on Yahoo!

“Yes! We take Food Stamps, SNAP, EBT!”
is now the most famous sign in Woonsocket,
as it begins the show's opening credits.

Miguel's meat market is the place to be seen
on days other than the first of the month.
But he is unprepared.  The camera shows
his employees have been under the table for years.

The show makes suggestions.  Hire Jourie
who the cameras have been following since
episode one, their duct-taped refrigerator

a subject of concern since episode three,
still able to hold the extra milk and butter
form the apartment next door,  left open
by his neighbors, skipping out on two months rent.


My mom has a cameo in season two.  A landlord
forced to wipe her floors clean at sixty five to save money.