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News-Sentinel.com Your Town. Your Voice.
Opening Arguments

Idol chatter

singer-illus.jpgI've never watched any reality TV shows, except a few minutes here and there when one of them was on right before another program I wanted to see. But a friend decided to check out "American Idol" this year (apparently, she was being left out of the conversation; that's all anybody talks about the next morning), so I deicded to peek in, too. I won't say it made my ears bleed, but, jeez.

I can see the fascination, especially in the early rounds. After you suffer through several bad singers in a row, it can be an almost transcendent experience to hear a halfway good one.

That same friend I and went shopping at Jefferson Pointe one Saturday afternoon. We had planned to finish the day at our favorite Mexican restaurant but found out it had closed, so we went over to the one at Park West and stumbled into Karaoke Night. Most of the singers were mediocre or worse, but it was good, silly fun for an unplanned evening. Then this old guy in a sweater and goofy golf cap shuffled up to the microphone. God, how horrible was he going to be? But he was wonderful -- warm, mellow voice, like one of those old-time Big Band singers. And he didn't oversell the song -- just sailed through it like he'd been on stage all his life. The crowd gave him a thuderous ovation, and it's a moment that's stayed with me to this day. There must be moments like that on "American Idol."

But about those bad singers. They are not just bad, they are not just awful, they are not just unbearable to listen to. They are weirdly awful in an almost supernatural way. And they have weird back stories. There is the kid who has been collecting his fingernails in a baggie, which he shows to everybody. There's the one who's never even kissed a woman. There was this guy:

Douglas Davidson, a 28-year-old student, says he has been trying "to restart my singing hobby since I was 16." He says his father would catch him singing sometimes and tell him he hated him. Ooooo-kay. He walks around "warming up" for a couple of minutes. He shout-talks his way through "Livin' on a Prayer." It's awful. He says he was rough on a couple of notes, and walks around "warming up" again. He starts another song, and it's terrible, too. Simon tells him to stop and that it's just not working. He ignores them all and keeps trying to sing. Simon: "No one in a million years is ever going to pay to hear you sing." He starts walking and singing again. Security removes him. Simon: "Douglas, they're going to take you someplace safe."

That was some creepy television. I had known that the awful singers were delusional about their singing abilities. That's all people talk about in the early shows, and how, after all, could they not be delusional to display their lack of talent before a national TV audience? But something I hadn't understood without watching the show: Their lack of talent is not the only thing they are delusional about.  Some of these people seem to exhibit symptoms of serious mental illness. They are not just oddballs. Going on Idol is part of their sickness.  To trot them out for the sole purpose of national ridicule is more than just meanness or even cruelty. It borders on the unconscionable.

Or am I overreacting based on underexposure to the Idol phenomenon?

Comments

Michaelk
Thu, 01/17/2008 - 3:58pm

Because mocking the mentally ill is funny until a mall gets shot up?

Bob G.
Thu, 01/17/2008 - 4:32pm

Michael:
Now that says it all!

;)

B.G.

gadfly
Thu, 01/17/2008 - 6:52pm

Bring back the likes of "The Original Amateur Hour" a long running radio, then TV series that brought us the likes of Frank Sinatra, Pat Boone, Gladys Knight, Ann-Margret, Robert Klein, Beverly Sills, Connie Francis, Maria Callas, Joey Dee and The Starlighters, Robert Merrill, Jim Stafford and many others.

We need to get rid of the twisted "Lion and Gladiator" entertainment that comes with featuring singers who cannot carry a tune in a bucket all for the sake of amusing the masses.

Ted Mack did little to keep his audience awake between acts, but he was far easier to stomach than the idiotic abuse and emotion spewed by Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson and Ryan Seacrest.

I often wonder how many really good singers could be shown if we did not have all the talk and bad singers cluttering up the program. Best of all, no bad singers, no "vote for the worst" scenarios by the loyal show fans.

Bob G.
Fri, 01/18/2008 - 11:27am

Gadfly:
And here I was thinking I as the ONLY one that remembered that show...along with several other variety programs that showcased people with TALENT.

Enough of the "Bread & Circuses"!

B.G.

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