Thursday, April 12, 2012

I'm your biggest fan, I'll follow you until you love me...

... Papa-Paparazzi

Anyone not living under a rock is familiar with the famed Lady Gaga song. Its been in my head for approximately 30 minutes now after hearing it on the radio and proceeding to sing-a-long. Ironically, I signed on facebook to be confronted with this youtube video posted by my aunt:
If you want to skip the video, I'll give you a synopsis: Adrian Grenier (Star of Entourage on HBO) noticed a 13 year-old kid in the mist of the overwhelming group of paparazzi trying to take pictures of him one day. He approached the kid to find out why he was in this business and decided to make a documentary following the life of this young entrepreneur as he works tirelessly to hunt down the likes of Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan.

I have to give the kid props... I mean... he makes $500-$1000 per picture. And he's 13 years old. When I was 13 I babysat for $5 or $6 and hour. However, aside from the money he makes doing his "job," it's actaully fascinating that this is now going to be turned into a documentary. I guess Hollywood will take anything mildly interesting and turn it into a sensation. In reality, they are already winning just by the fact that I saw this and now all of you have watched/are about to watch it. Anything can become shiny and interesting. Is that good? Is that bad? Does it speak to our cultural ingenuity, or rather does it make us seem ridiculously easy to distract? In my opinion, it's probably both, but I'd like to advocate the "cultural ingenuity" angle.

I'm sure my parents and grandparents and those general public over the age of 50 would criticize this stuff for its lameness (seriously though, isn't the 7 pm news, talk shows, and shows like Access Hollywood the precursors to all of this anyway?). But really, it works; the proof is in the fact that other countries are following suit. Yes, its easy to laugh at American culture, we can be immature, we focus on completely unimportant things, and a good majority of the young people out there care more about the Kardashians than the republican primaries. But its ingenious - people watch our "garbage tv" and like it! My friend in England has written posts about their copy cat show Geordie Shore about ridiculous Pauly D and Snookie wannabes in northern England. And what about TLCs new find, My big fat gypsy wedding? Pretty sure those accents aren't American. Despite the ridiculousness of these documentaries and reality shows about the things people do, people watch and are entertained. And the craze keeps spreading. We watch, we follow, we eat it up. I don't know about you, but I'm probably not gonna stop. I'll probably be watching TLC or E! later tonight in fact. And I won't judge you if you do too. Enjoy it!

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