Reality bites, then hurls

This story asks the question "Has Reality TV Hit Rock Bottom?" and the answer is obvious:

Maybe you thought reality TV hit the lowest of the low when "Fear Factor" contestants devoured cockroaches, or when gold diggers paraded their wares in hopes of marrying a millionaire, or when Tila Tequila got a second shot at "love" with 10 guys and 10 girls.

Those shows look like "Masterpiece Theater" compared to what's coming.

Take, for instance, "Hurl," an eating-and-regurgitating competition in which contestants gorge themselves on everything from chicken pot pies to peanut butter sandwiches, then get strapped into spinning contraptions -- whoever vomits last wins.

I wrote a long time ago, it seems now, that it became impossible to parody TV when it embraced self-parody with a made-for-television movie called "The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island." That was, I now understand, the Golden Age.

The linked story is from ABC News. "Rock bottom" will be when "Good Morning America" or "Today" has the winner of "Hurl" -- or the most recent contestant disqualified -- as a guest the morning after. Don't bet against me on this one.