People who claim to hate Big Brother

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Why are they so omnipresent? Is there a rule among indie 20 somethings that you must bemoan Big Brother as if this makes you some kind of delicate intellectual flower?

Also the same fuckers bemoan "celebrity culture" then turn around and slate a programme which makes celebrities out of ordinary people, for being ordinary.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 31 July 2006 10:37 (nineteen years ago)

d00d, people like different stuff.

― teh_kit is jayne without the tits (g-kit), Monday, 31 July 2006 10:41 (nineteen years ago)

Surely the objection to "celebrity culture" is that it celebrates people who are famous for no real reason as much (if not more) than those that have actually achieved something?

I mean, no one goes "oh, Steve Redgrave, I can't see what all the fuss is about it's all part of our vapid celebrity culture", do they?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 31 July 2006 10:43 (nineteen years ago)

i was talking with a lecturer about this, and she was bemoaning it of course, and i came back saying well i watch it and like it blah blah and it hasn't tainted my immortal soul or anything; anyway she said, well yes, but you know, for less intelligent peope...

which says it all really.

― Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 31 July 2006 10:43 (nineteen years ago)

except needs extra l somewhere.

― Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 31 July 2006 10:44 (nineteen years ago)

All the indie 20somethings I know are obsessed by it.

This is the first year I've got bored of it :( I think I went on holiday at the wrong time and when I came back there were 6 new housemates to get to know and I couldn't be bothered.

Also the wife switched allegiances to Love Island.

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 31 July 2006 10:45 (nineteen years ago)

What's this whole "claim to hate" thing?

Is this like people who "pretend to like pop", but for television?

I don't hate BB, I just can't be bothered with it. What I *hate* though, is its utter omnipresence.

― Silver Machine Manor (kate), Monday, 31 July 2006 10:45 (nineteen years ago)

a friend said his flatmate and exgirlfriend were both "disappointed" or "surprised" but I think "disappointed" to hear I watched big brother

― RJG (RJG), Monday, 31 July 2006 10:47 (nineteen years ago)

Why are they so omnipresent?

lol cos it's shit?

i didn't hate it until someone put it on the tv at my birthday party and killed the whole atmosphere when they all end up watching people sitting around in a room on TV when they can do the exact same thing LIVE.

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 31 July 2006 10:49 (nineteen years ago)

Disliking something is not the same as intellectually critiquing it, or attempting to.

I think there's a pretty strong case for Reality TV in terms of it shifting focus in the media away from celebs and actors to peoples lives and ordinary human behaviour.

If you look at the reasons people are celebrated after being on Big Bro, it's usually as a result of their personality. In a gameshow where this is what's being held up for examination, isn't emerging as someone who is popular with the public an achievement?

In any case, if people are to be revered by the public why should this be an order of merit based on achievement? If it were, surely doctors/nurses/charity workers etc should head the poll, not Steve Redgrave or whatever musician.

All the indie 20somethings I know are obsessed by it

Weird. So many people I know, IRL, and on any other messageboard I'm on, wheel out the "oh it's so awful, these idiots in a house and my moron flatmates can't stop watching this crap" thing, is nobody familiar with this view? I presumed it was well established by now.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 31 July 2006 10:51 (nineteen years ago)

Oh yeah and I used "claim" because I think a good deal of the "hatred" here is ramped up to make the hater seem as if they find the very idea of Big Brother repugnant to the core of their intellectual sensibilities.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 31 July 2006 10:52 (nineteen years ago)

none of my irl friends like it.

but then i've cut down lots this year.

― Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 31 July 2006 10:53 (nineteen years ago)

i know non-indie 20somethings who don't like big brother.

also: i think big brother was good way back when it was focusing on ordinary human behaviour. now when i watch it it always seem like watching a freak show and laughing at people with mental problems.

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 31 July 2006 10:53 (nineteen years ago)

"big brother is omnipresent"

this is kind of funny.

i don't think i've ever actually seen it! it's a brilliant idea for a television show, obv. but it never caught on in the states. i think it lasted like a season and a half. i'm not sure how the second season ended, they might have just opened up the house and said "look, just forget it OK? sorry."

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 31 July 2006 10:54 (nineteen years ago)

"A freak show"

This is the other view that's quite common at the moment. How exactly are the people freaks?

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 31 July 2006 10:55 (nineteen years ago)

Well to be fair all the indie 20somethings I know are also bone idle interweb monkeys who like to have nonsense to talk about, which BB amply provides.

I am familiar with the view though. Everyone in my office watches it but when people from elsewhere in the company come in and find us talking about it they are often horrified.

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 31 July 2006 10:55 (nineteen years ago)

It's not even omnipresent over here any more - only the Daily Star still bothers to put BB on its front page, the World Cup ate up most of the screen hours and the media attention and the ILE threads are moving at half the speed of previous years.

It's pretty easily avoidable if you ask me.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 31 July 2006 10:58 (nineteen years ago)

imogen, mikey, jennie -- god what freaks.

― Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 31 July 2006 10:58 (nineteen years ago)

that aisleyne: total freak. pete: has tourettes, fucking freak! glyn: from a rural area, what an utter freak, richard, he is gay and likes madonna, how weird can you get

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:00 (nineteen years ago)

I've got to the point where, if I open a random tabloid (I find them on the train) if I have no idea who a 'sleb is, I just assume they're off Big Brother.

― Silver Machine Manor (kate), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:01 (nineteen years ago)

i don't hate big brother, but i do hate the fact that it's called big brother.

i very much enjoyed the first one - wouldn't miss something else to stay home and watch it, even on eviction night, but would definitely watch it if i was in and it was on, or possibly (once? twice?) leave whatever i was doing half an hour early. the second one i watched a bit less, the third barely at all. i've actively tried to check a couple of episodes of this one out but it's just tedious and seems to be going on forever. when is it due to end?

― emsk ( emsk), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:25 (nineteen years ago)

WE are ALL big brother DO YOU SEE.

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:26 (nineteen years ago)

I think the freaks of the freakshow complaint have largely been evicted. Lea (enormous plastic boobs), Sam (gender-bending), Nikki (deranged), Dawn (smelt). Pete's the only one left who prompted that observation, I think.

No, obv. I don't think "freaks" is a good term to use, but what they mean is that Endemol pick a lot of people these days who are immediately noticable for some quirk, in a way they didn't when the show started.

It's funny. Do you remember that normal old BB1 prompted all sorts of uproar among newspaper columnists, not because the contestants were show-offs or freaks or wannabes, but just because it was bottom-feeding TV to show people's lives 24/7 like that. They even had cameras in the shower! So prurient!

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:29 (nineteen years ago)

SMELT is now word of the day (for me)

― teh_kit is jayne without the tits (g-kit), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:31 (nineteen years ago)

that aisleyne: total freak. pete: has tourettes, fucking freak! glyn: from a rural area, what an utter freak, richard, he is gay and likes madonna, how weird can you get

exactly. Thank god there was that girl who cried and screamed for half an hour because there wasn't any bottled water to keep everyone sane. shame shahbaz walked out so early too amirite.

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:32 (nineteen years ago)

i'd quite like to be in big brother, if it wasn't on tv.

― emsk ( emsk), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:36 (nineteen years ago)

Oh my! I forgot about Shahbaz.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:37 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, that would own. xpost (obv, shahbaz doesn't pwn)

― teh_kit is jayne without the tits (g-kit), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:37 (nineteen years ago)

Haha me too emsk.

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:39 (nineteen years ago)

I detest Big Brother, the biggest pile of lowest common media fueled plebeian drivel ever invented.

Why would you want to watch a bunch of nobodies in an artificial media controlled environment that is sealed off from the outside world?

Absolutely rubbish.

So and so has been evicted........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..i don't give a toss !

Big Brother = Chav telly culture

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:39 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, DJ Martian.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:41 (nineteen years ago)

You could not pay me to be on Big Brother. I would hate to be watched 24 hours a day! And to live without books for a month? I don't think so. I'd go stark raving mad with boredom.

I find it curious, though, Emsk, that you will not get on a stage, but you would go on BB which is, essentially, one giant stage.

― Silver Machine Manor (kate), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:41 (nineteen years ago)

Why would you want to watch a bunch of nobodies in an artificial media controlled environment that is sealed off from the outside world?

it sounds really good actually when you put it that way.

emsk and archel obv need to be in the next trig brother?

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:42 (nineteen years ago)

if it wasn't on tv

― emsk ( emsk), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:43 (nineteen years ago)

ken for bb8 tbh

― teh_kit is jayne without the tits (g-kit), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:43 (nineteen years ago)

trig brother isn't televised yet is it???

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:45 (nineteen years ago)

Oh Martian, oh Martian. What hath thou wrought?

― Venga (Venga), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:45 (nineteen years ago)

DJ Martian for BB8, clearly.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:46 (nineteen years ago)

Why would you want to watch a bunch of nobodies in an artificial media controlled environment that is sealed off from the outside world?

but Sky hardly ever show Pompey games!

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:46 (nineteen years ago)

I think you'll find that Portsmouth offers speedy access to a wide range of destinations through its international airport.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:48 (nineteen years ago)

omg i just said excelsior out loud

xpost

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:49 (nineteen years ago)

sorry ken that was to kate.

i would have been at trig brother except it was same w/e as truck and therefore never gonna happen.

― emsk ( emsk), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:49 (nineteen years ago)

oh i know. same here! perhaps next year!

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:52 (nineteen years ago)

haha Martian nailed it in one!

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:52 (nineteen years ago)

it never caught on in the states. i think it lasted like a season and a half. i'm not sure how the second season ended, they might have just opened up the house and said "look, just forget it OK? sorry."

Well, er, actually...

― JimD (JimD), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:52 (nineteen years ago)

i think the lack of public voting since season two was what did it maybe

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 31 July 2006 11:57 (nineteen years ago)

whoa really JimD?? that's incredible to me. i guess it's just been totally off the radar. nobody i know watches it, or did watch it. i could have sworn they did cancel it during season 2 at some point. maybe there was a low-key but effective letter-writing campaign or something.

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 31 July 2006 12:03 (nineteen years ago)

maybe i'm thinking of this: "On finale night [of Season 2], the audience was updated that former houseguest Sheryl was diagnosed with breast cancer and needed to undergo chemotherapy, as well as the news that Monica's cousin Tamitha had died at the World Trade Center."

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 31 July 2006 12:06 (nineteen years ago)

I like Big Breother, but couldn't really summon up any enthusiasm for it this year, so decided to give it a miss. I've been surprised at how easy it has been to avoid.

― Tim (Tim), Monday, 31 July 2006 12:06 (nineteen years ago)

I know, they should show it more often.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 31 July 2006 12:11 (nineteen years ago)

Skipping 18 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

But I genuinely hate the heat. Oh, you mean the magazine. I really, honestly loved BB once upon a time. Then last year it was so awful I only watched about two episodes of it, and this year I've seen none at all. I find it much easier to avoid now that I'm back at work full time and not flicking around the telly at home, having to choose between Live BB and Diagnosis Murder.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Monday, 31 July 2006 20:41 (nineteen years ago)

i dunno. i watch big brother a lot, and i do like it on a lot of levels: the highlights show last week when they discovered the secret room was a wonderful hour of television. but i'm also aware that for a lot of the time it's pretty bloody dull; that often nothing of any great interest is happening, other than people micro-bitching in a hermetic unit. and i start to hate myself for watching it; i mean, i could be reading a book/watching a DVD/listening to music/doing the washing-up/just watching something a little more interesting on TV.

so why do i watch it? because when it's good it's fascinating; because i'm a keen amateur psychologist and am interested in how people behave within the group dynamic; because i like the crack on the ILE BB threads; because ... i dunno, on some level it just appeals.

someone round these parts said that it had got a lot better/more like the "old" BB since all the "personalities" left, and i agree wholeheartedly. even then ... ach, i just can't help feeling that I COULD BE DOING SOMETHING MORE USEFUL. it's like i feel guilty for watching it, and i'm not sure why. you'd think that after seven series i'd have got over that, eh?

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Monday, 31 July 2006 22:20 (nineteen years ago)

I'm completely meh about BB. There's no hate, just complete disinterest. I dunno what UK BB is like but here, every year the contestants got more unattractive, uninteresting, and rude/whiny/stupid - and thats just from seeing the ads. I can't get my head around the interest in watching a bunch of people who'd hate my ass in real life going blah blah blah about nothing and snogging each other. I could do that at a crappy nightclub.

I dont see how that's anything but "I just find it boring". Same way I find various other TV shows, bands, books, food, etc boring. Its called a preference.

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 31 July 2006 23:56 (nineteen years ago)

one of the contestants on the australian big brother, last week, was heard to wonder "so why's the show called big brother?"

― HPSTRKRFT (haitch), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 00:07 (nineteen years ago)

Exactly my point. At least when the show started they had perky cuties like miss bum-slap dance chicky, and crazy eccentric types, rather than a house full of very boring whitebread middle class WASPY dimwits who have nothing interesting or provoking to offer except girls crying and boys hitting people with their penis.

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 00:09 (nineteen years ago)

And no, I'm not trying to say "oh its not smart enough", hell, I watch other trashy TV, I love Neighbours.

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 00:10 (nineteen years ago)

the organisers have narrowed the pool of people selected down to, essentially, good-looking morons who they hope will have sex with each other. (this has backfired on them this year, to the point where it could well get regulated out of existence by the wowser government.)

― HPSTRKRFT (haitch), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 00:17 (nineteen years ago)

I also find the host of the australian show INCREDIBLY grating, that could well be more of a problem for me than the contestants!

― HPSTRKRFT (haitch), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 00:20 (nineteen years ago)

Too true :( Srsly Ronan, I reckon you need to see AU BB, you might see why people hate it then! :|

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 00:31 (nineteen years ago)

i watched the end of AUBB last night. the dude who won isn't a bit goodlooking! and also extremely stupid! and gretel said to him 'this is such a wonderful achievement, we're all so proud of you'. as if he'd found a cure for cancer or something? what a bizarre sort of phenomenon.

― gem (trisk), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 02:16 (nineteen years ago)

I want to watch AUSBB now, to see if you're right. I think it might be too much effort to organise though.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 06:19 (nineteen years ago)

I COULD BE DOING SOMETHING MORE USEFUL

Wasn't it Oscar Wilde, speaking about BB1, who said "all art is quite useless".

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 08:30 (nineteen years ago)

I think he actually said "Sada is quite useless".

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 08:32 (nineteen years ago)

Has Wilde ever NOT just stated the blinking obvious to thunderous applause?

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 08:34 (nineteen years ago)

unlike science, who throws bins

xxpost

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 08:34 (nineteen years ago)

Later, he was heard to comment: "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are watching Celebrity Stars In Their Eyes".

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 08:35 (nineteen years ago)

"I have nothing to declare except RICHARD MUST GO!"

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 08:39 (nineteen years ago)

"Happiness is not getting what you want, it's Cesar getting 97% of the public vote"

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 08:41 (nineteen years ago)

See, they always say: "If Dickens were alive today he'd be writing Eastenders" but they never say: "If Wilde were alive today he'd be making pithy remarks about Big Brother on the internet". But they should.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 08:43 (nineteen years ago)

(not because it's actually true or anything)

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 08:43 (nineteen years ago)

"I never travel without A COPY OF HEAT. One should always have something sensational to read in the train."

― Enrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 08:45 (nineteen years ago)

Heat should totally get someone to dress up as Oscar Wilde and say that in an advert.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 08:46 (nineteen years ago)

"Love Island is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want?"

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 08:50 (nineteen years ago)

"To fail at one talent contest, Mr Danesh, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness"

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 08:56 (nineteen years ago)

"My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. You goes? YOU DECIDE."

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 08:58 (nineteen years ago)

"It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information, in these BB txt updates"

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 08:59 (nineteen years ago)

"The man who calls a spade a spade, should be humiliated on Wife Swap by a young metrosexual semi-hippy"

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 08:59 (nineteen years ago)

"I can resist everything except TEMPTATION ISLAND"

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 09:03 (nineteen years ago)

"There is only one thing in the world worse than being booed, and that is not being booed."

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 09:04 (nineteen years ago)

Are you setting yourself up as this generation's Oscar Wilde, perchance?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 09:09 (nineteen years ago)

NO.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 09:10 (nineteen years ago)

(that's why I said "not because it's actually true or anything")

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 09:11 (nineteen years ago)

WALT WHITMAN: "Oh, this is really irking me now! She is 18, so she must have gone into the BB house before even finishing her A Levels, the same as Glyn."

OSCAR WILDE: "I heard she had a doctorate in comparative philology. Actually two."

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 09:16 (nineteen years ago)

I'm glad the jokes allowed this atrocity to slip by Has Wilde ever NOT just stated the blinking obvious to thunderous applause? .

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 09:29 (nineteen years ago)

That's a good point. Wilde would be Davina. Or at least Russell.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 09:32 (nineteen years ago)

russell made a joek about wilde the other day...

― Enrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 09:38 (nineteen years ago)

Him saying "I have nothing to declare except my ball bags" is all too plausible

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 09:42 (nineteen years ago)

i'm pretty sure that's exactly what he said.

― Enrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 09:45 (nineteen years ago)

inspired

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 09:47 (nineteen years ago)

Does Wilde ever listen to ANYTHING besides minimal house?

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 09:50 (nineteen years ago)

The Highest, as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 09:57 (nineteen years ago)

I thought the first series of Big Brother (UK) was absolutely brilliant, fascinating television. The second series was fun, but I remember watching the third with the housemates playing musical chairs for a task and thought "This is crap really" and never really bothered with it again. I did watch bits of the next two BBs - with the science nerd and the Christian missionary going to Africa and then the one with the Portugese transexual - but didn't watch one second of last year's or this year's series.

I'm surprised there are people who are still so vehement in their hatred of the series after it's been on for so long now. Nobody I know talks about it or even watches it anymore. In my immediate circle, Big Brother is just so passe.

― Ben Mott (Ben Mott), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 10:05 (nineteen years ago)

How are the ratings lately? Back up after World Cup or plummeting?

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 10:07 (nineteen years ago)

two years pass...

i hate myself for watching this shit, but (surprisingly) my ex- girlfriend is there and i'm curious.

― Zeno, Sunday, 5 October 2008 22:23 (seventeen years ago)

Dude you have to keep us updated.

― Matt DC, Sunday, 5 October 2008 22:31 (seventeen years ago)

Also, sell all the sordid details of your relationship to the gutter press for loads of cash!

― Matt DC, Sunday, 5 October 2008 22:31 (seventeen years ago)

at first she flirted with a guy, who flirted with most of the girls in the house and end up in bed with someone else, and than got thrown away by the audience cause he was a complete idiot.
now she is in some sort of an unclear "relationship" with another guy, probably just for her rating - i cant see her dating him in real life. anyway, she and him seems to me (objectively!) to be the wisest persons around the place (though not the most intersting probably). she wont win, but she might be a minor celebrity and i guess thats what she wants at the end.

― Zeno, Sunday, 5 October 2008 22:39 (seventeen years ago)

they are looking for someone to get into the house and i thought about it for a split second, but hey, no fucking way.
xpost

― Zeno, Sunday, 5 October 2008 22:41 (seventeen years ago)

wait, are they still there in that house???!

― dog latin, Monday, 6 October 2008 08:38 (seventeen years ago)

Fucking genius this guy.

― Matt DC, Monday, 6 October 2008 08:44 (seventeen years ago)

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