You think your smarter than a 5th Grader

After watching my favorite secret pleasure American Idol a new show called You think your smarter than a 5th grader aired. Jeff Foxworthy was the host and because I did not want to get off the couch yet for the remote I continued to watch the show. I believe the grand prize is 1 million dollars while you can win smaller prizes along the way. The concept is that an adult is asked questions from a 5th grade text book while the audience and host laugh at you. In the few minutes I watched the contestent was asked how many letter E's were in Pledge of Allegiance. The man continued to think out loud yelling, PLEDGE OF THE ALLIEGENCE." As the audience continued to laugh the man was counting outloud putting the word "the" in the phrase when it does not actaually occur in it.

This got me questioning why our culture is obssessed with seeing other people make fools of themselves or have troubles. You can see this throughout history as well in many hit shows today. In many late night talk shows a segment is dedicated to asking simple questions to people on the streets who have no ideas of the answers. Why do we love to see other people fail? Does it make us feel better about our own lives? Reality TV shows have taken it a step farther and we now find it entertaining on the Real World to watch people with eating disorders, or on the Hills watching Lauren cry when fighting with her best friend. We find joy in other peoples pain. We find humor in others failurs. I am afraid of where the media may turn next. Are we coming to a point of The Truman Show when we will watch someones every minute to understand their intermost personal thoughts and feelings.

So maybe its okay if you put yourself out there to find humor and entertainment in other peoples lives, yet maybe our media should find something a little more creative to show us. Maybe we continue to tune in every week because thats all their is, or maybe this is all their is because we do tune in every week.