Ed: Hey buddy, what’s wrong?
Frank: [pumping his shotgun] A lot.
God Bless America (2011)
Bobcat Goldthwait’s movie God Bless America (2011) condenses all the problems of reality television into a single conversation. Its protagonist, Frank, is a divorced forty-something who after being unfairly fired from his job and diagnosed with a terminal cancer decides to go on a killing spree in the name of consideration and decency. The conversation in question takes place when one of his office colleagues asks him if he saw American Superstarz, a reality talent contest within the film in which a retarded boy is brutally mocked:
Frank: No… I mean yes, I saw that accidentally. I don’t watch “American Superstarz”
Colleague: You don’t watch it, but you saw him. What are you too good for the show?
Frank: Yeah, I’m too good for a karaoke contest that makes stars out of people with no talent.
Colleague: You can’t say that dude, some of those kids have real talent.
Frank: No they don’t. They have good pitch... they're relatively clean, they're non-threatening to little girls and old ladies, they have the ability to stand in line with a stadium full of other desperate and confused people, but I assure you they are talent-free.
Colleague: Yeah, well I bet 32 million people would disagree with you bro, because that’s how many people called-in to vote last year on the finale.1
We see here a new form of participation in which the whims and aspirations of the audience constitute the paragon on which public opinion is built. However, in this scheme participation does not build community, it simply turns us into its accomplices. As discourse is degraded by a dynamic that depends on instant gratification and entertainment, mediated voyeurism replace personal interaction, discussion and conversation (9.11):
Frank: It’s not nice to laugh at someone who’s not all there. It’s the same type of freak-show distraction that comes along every time a mighty empire starts collapsing. “American Superstarz” is the new colosseum and I won’t participate in watching a show where the weak are torn apart every week for our entertainment. I’m done, really, everything is so “cool” now. I just want it all to stop. I mean, nobody talks about anything anymore. They just regurgitate everything they see on TV, or hear on the radio or watch on the web. When was the last time you had a real conversation with someone without somebody texting or looking at a screen or a monitor over your head? You know, a conversation about something that wasn’t celebrities, gossip, sports, or pop politics. You know, something important, something personal.2
Frank understands instinctively that sensitivity and respect are the first casualties of this type of voyeurism. As he tries to reason with his colleague about the downsides of this sort of entertainment, the conversation degenerates into a well-known argument (9.14), freedom of press and speech:
Colleague: So, you’re against free speech now? That’s in the Bill of Rights, man.
Frank: I would defend their freedom of speech if I thought it was in jeopardy. I would defend their freedom of speech to tell uninspired, bigoted, blowjob, gay-bashing, racist and rape jokes all under the guise of being edgy, but that’s not the edge. That’s what sells. They couldn’t possibly pander any harder or be more commercially mainstream, because this is the “Oh no, you didn’t say that!” generation, where a shocking comment has more weight than the truth. No one has any shame anymore, and we’re supposed to celebrate it. I saw a woman throw a used tampon at another woman last night on network television, a network that bills itself as “Today’s Woman’s Channel.” Kids beat each other blind and post it on Youtube. I mean, do you remember when eating rats and maggots on Survivor was shocking? It all seems so quaint now. I’m sure the girls from “2 Girls 1 Cup” are gonna have their own dating show on VH1 any day now. I mean, why have a civilization anymore if we no longer are interested in being civilized?
Indeed, why should we fake the basic attributes of the polis when polity is being replaced by the market and the media? Why should we pretend if the world has become nothing but a circus, a media hunting park? (9.3, 9.16)
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