I was way into the last BB when I was in England.

Now I am very relieved to not be exposed to it.

Is there some sort of evil thing going on where our lives get distracted from the important into a show which, lets admit it, is a high for a short period of time then forever forgotten? Like opium or any other drug?

Should it be banned?

If I ran a country as the Supreme Dictator, BB would be banned. Why? Because it has no contribution to society whatsoever.

Discuss! (although I am talking to addicts. I was there too. But I haven't watched BB TODAY! Persons aquanted with AA will understand that)

Its a tv show that is a talking point for many. people like looking at people and making comment, feeling better than them - just like soap operas. its normal, healthy and fun.

what is worrying is that you are having fantasies about being a supreme dictator:wacko:

Its a tv show that is a talking point for many. people like looking at people and making comment, feeling better than them - just like soap operas. its normal, healthy and fun.

what is worrying is that you are having fantasies about being a supreme dictator:wacko:

I can't really agree that it's healthy!

I watched for the first time recently, and the amount of nastiness going on was really very unpleasant, and I actually felt bad about myself for watching it.

I think the trouble is that what started as an interesting social experiment to see how a group of relatively normal people dealt with being confined together has deteriorated to the stage where people now seem to need fights and unpleasantness to entertain them.

Can't help thinking of the Romans' games where the crowd's lust for blood necessitated more and more elaborate and bloody spectacles to satisfy them.

What others me a bit is how the unpleasantness can spread. For instance, some of the women on the show were making nasty comments about the mixed-up transvestite's physical appearance and if you look at the Sam thread here someof our posters are doing the same thing.

In answer to Guat's question I'd say yes, this is a kind of opiate, it's what viewers seem to need to keep them going and like any drug there are withdrawal symptoms when it ends.

Mind you, the same could be said of many shows, like the World Cup, it's just that for me the latest BB seems, like opium, no only to hypnotise the viewers, it has the potential to do a lot of damage as well.

yes but what damage. what is the real danger. there is none. no point saying that its this and its that if you cant actually say what it is doing and to whom?

Big Brother. Opium for the masses.
Hmmm does that mean that I'm a celebrity is the methadone of the masses? :wacko:

Does it mean that religion is the Big Brother of the masses? :wacko:

Does it mean that opium is the Big Brother of the few? :wacko: :wacko: :wacko:

Still Big Brother does serves one vitally important purpose - it keeps millions of Britons sitting docile on the settee watching the goggle box every evening of the week. Otherwise they'd likely be out binge drinking, or nicking cars, or joining the Animal Liberation Front or somesuch.

yes but what damage. what is the real danger. there is none. no point saying that its this and its that if you cant actually say what it is doing and to whom?

If you're saying that my post was pointless, you're not the first to say that about my efforts so no doubt you're dead right.

You ask what is the real danger, I can only go from my own impressions, and a couple of things spring to mind although if I thought about it a bit more no doubt there would be others.

Firstly, the programme immediately promotes nonentities to the level of celebrity, with all the accompanying crowd hysteria and follow-on fame, which to my mind is a corruption of proper values ... it's the idolising of trash.

Secondly, using what I've seen in this series as an example, there is a lot of viciousness onscreen, which judging by comments made here is seen by many as good entertainment. Again I think this a damaging thing, because to get enjoyment out of such behaviour, and the associated misery it brings, is also a kind of corruption of human values.

You also ask who is being affected, I'm afraid I can only make a generalisation because as far as I know nobody is keeping a database of names and addresses, but if there was one I'm sure the list would be too long to publish here.

Finally, and keeping with the OPiate theme, when you say 'what is the real danger. there is none' it makes me think that as a fan of the show you might be too immersed in it to take an objective view, after all, we all know that there are drug addicts who maintain that their habit is harmless, despite evidence to the contrary.

I was way into the last BB when I was in England.

Now I am very relieved to not be exposed to it.

Is there some sort of evil thing going on where our lives get distracted from the important into a show which, lets admit it, is a high for a short period of time then forever forgotten? Like opium or any other drug?

Should it be banned?

If I ran a country as the Supreme Dictator, BB would be banned. Why? Because it has no contribution to society whatsoever.

Discuss! (although I am talking to addicts. I was there too. But I haven't watched BB TODAY! Persons aquanted with AA will understand that)

But who says that everything we watch has to make a contribution to society. If that were true we couldn't watch anything other than documentaries.

Big Brother is an education in how people interact. It doesn't make us bad people for watching. Most of us have the "OMG did he/she really say/do that?" reaction. These people are the way they are and we are interested, entertained and sometimes repelled by what we see.

We, the viewers, aren't asking for bloodshed but if there's going to be any lots of people want to see what's going on. That's human nature too as witness the people who rubberneck an accident or stand and watch a fight outside a pub.

We all have choices, we can watch or we can walk away from it.

Of course people will comment on the physical and mental attributes of people on there in the same way that we comment about characters in the soaps or any fictional work. Who has never said "Did you see ??? on TV last night, didn't they look awful" or "What on earth was ??? wearing". Human nature again to see if other people share the same views as us.

As for the sudden rise to fame of non-entities, well that happens anyway, as in someone suddenly dating a footballer and becoming front page news, or unknown pop groups suddenly having a number 1 hit and being idolised by their fans.

I just don't see that BB is any worse than any other TV entertainment or what goes on in real life to be honest.

Who has never said "Did you see ??? on TV last night, didn't they look awful" or "What on earth was ??? wearing". .

I never have.

Big Brother is an education in how people interact.

Are you sure you're not just dressing up your own desire to play the voyeur by saying it's educational? Really, what have you learned?

The thing is, this isn't a fly on the wall documentary, it isn't 'reality' at all. It's a bunch of wannabees who have been selectively chosen to give the best mix for TV, not a random section of the public. And throughout the programme they will be stage managed to 'perform' for the audience. It's a game show dressed up as 'reality'. If you want a slice of reality to learn from surely you're better off looking at the people down your own street?

Are you sure you're not just dressing up your own desire to play the voyeur by saying it's educational? Really, what have you learned?

Why would I want to dress up any desire to play the voyeur. Everyone is a voyeur to some extent. We watch programs about grossly overweight people, conjoined twins, cosmetic surgery. This, too is voyeuristic by your definition. We wouldn't be able to watch if these people didn't want us to. If they don't mind then why should we feel guilty? Anyway, I would define "voyeur" in the real sense as more like being a peeping tom and no one can be accused of that when they know that we're all watching.


The thing is, this isn't a fly on the wall documentary, it isn't 'reality' at all. It's a bunch of wannabees who have been selectively chosen to give the best mix for TV, not a random section of the public. And throughout the programme they will be stage managed to 'perform' for the audience. It's a game show dressed up as 'reality'. If you want a slice of reality to learn from surely you're better off looking at the people down your own street?

So what? I know what I'm watching and I choose to in the same way that you might choose to watch a war film or a murder mystery which is "pretend" reality.

It wouldn't be much fun watching the closed front doors of the people down my street, believe me.

I just don't understand why people have to take on the "I wouldn't watch that rubbish" attitude just because they don't like something themselves.

It's fine to say you don't enjoy watching something but what isn't fine is trying to belittle people that do by inferring that they're mindless idiots.

I can't understand how millions of people will be watching men running up and down a football field chasing a ball but they enjoy it so I wouldn't presume to tell them that they should find a better way of spending their time.

Of course, All I've said here is merely my opinion, and I am feeling a bit anti-BB right now, probably because I've got a bit tired of the format, and also because against my better judgement I still find myself drawn to watch it even though I don't like what I'm seeing.

Stilll keen to know, if it's educational, what you've actually learned from it.

Why are we being made to feel bad about watching and enjoying Big Brother? I don't understand.
If you don't like it/don't agree with it, don't watch it! But don't try and make out that those who do watch/enjoy it are making a multitude of sins:wacko:

I don't think anyone is making you feel bad about watching it - if you feel bad about it that's down to you.

I thought the idea of this thread was to do with the downside of watching programmes like this, I don't see the point of taking it personally. At least it's limited to this one thread.

As far as not watching it if you don't like it, surely you have to watch it in order to express an opinon about it? And I might just as well say to you, if you don't like the program being critisized don't read the thread.

You might say it's hypocritical to watch a TV show you don't much like, but like a lot of things, sometimes you do it in spite of yourself. A lot of people smoke or drink and know they shouldn't, I sometimes watch BB despite thinking I shouldn't!

But who says that everything we watch has to make a contribution to society. If that were true we couldn't watch anything other than documentaries.

Big Brother is an education in how people interact.

We all have choices, we can watch or we can walk away from it.


Thats my point. If I could choose, I would remove this as an option for watching (to stop myself watching it). It doesn't leave just documentaries, I just watched Rome, which, lets face it could be called "a soap opera in Rome", but it was extremely entertaining and well written (the way the entire history of Rome was somehow atributed to Pullo's antics was hilarious). It also stimulated an interest in what really happened and I started to read about it - good stuff.

If BB was on, I would probably be watching it, and once again, a portion of my life would have been lost to something immediately forgettable. The Survivor series is infinitely better in that it achieves what the freak show of BB lost a long time ago, real human interest (just my opinion).

A football match? Wars have temorarilly ceased because of it, and wars have begun because of it. Its packaged warfare, and has social value in playing it out on the football field and not the battle field (huge social value). Did you know that there is statistical significance in the outperforming of the winning countries stock-markets following each world cup? I didn't either till today. Changes national psyche you see.

BB? Trying my hardest to see any value at all, but can't. Just the dumbing down of society. I've hear opium is fun too.

Basically. I feel happy not to be exposed to it any more. I still love Lost, Desperate Housewives, and all the rest, but BB stands alone in my mind as something rather nasty. Don't know why, I can just report that I am very happy not to be exposed to it any more. Freak show - they used to have that at circuses.

I'm sorry but I'm just not following this train of thought at all.

I can understand Gatubela that you are glad that you've had the temptation to watch BB removed because you aren't strong enough to just turn it off. Yep, got that. But I don't understand the reasoning behind wanting to ban it for everyone else. Not everyone watches it 24/7, not everyone finds it intrudes into their lives and I still don't see that the content is any worse than a lot of the other rubbish on TV that I choose not to watch.

One could reasonably argue that Television itself is opium for the masses. I remember some years ago when I was very anti television and we chose not to have one for about 3 years. We went out more, socialised, played board games with the children, had conversations even (lol). In those days I said that I chose not to have a TV. I didn't say that it should be banned in order for other people to enjoy the things I thought they were missing or so that they didn't have their minds numbed by it.

Perhaps I'm missing the point somewhere. I dunno. Anyway, enough of this, I must go and see what's happened in the house today :laugh:

Good point Crit. Got to agree. I think I would be one of those down at Place de la Concorde many moons ago doing my knitting and watching Madame Guillotine do her stuff. Nothing to do with BB.

Train of thought lost, just worrying about the dumbing down of society and whether we just ride it and see where it goes, or whether we have a choice as a society to steer our base impulses. I think the original opium comment came from some sort of feeling that we have bad choices removed from us, and that steers directly into the maelstrom debate of censorship and where the line is drawn. Where the line is drawn differs, but some countries do not allow programmes like BB (clarification: specifically the UK steering of the characters involved and the rather obvious events that happen, it could be, and has been different. eg how close is it to putting National Front people in with immigrants just to watch the subsequent entertainment) , and I'm wondering if they have a point, thats all.

I think some of my thought comes my exposure to some cable tv in New York City some years ago where it was BB+++, ie they were at the end of the line as to taste and how far you could go before the censors stepped in. Then I was thinking about whatsername on the last one figuring we all wanted to watch was her get drunk and stuff the wine bottle up her pussy (allegedly), and wondering if we as a society should step in earlier than the NYC censors did.

Yes, we have choice not to watch, given. So I guess a censorship question and where the line is drawn. That was the thinking. And BB is probably too clownish to be at that limit, but it approaches the barrier.

DEARLY BELOVED WE ARE GATHERED HERE TO BEAR WITNESS to the testimony of Peejay of the Fifedom of Scotlande and Mistresse Critique of the County of Hampshire of this Lande, that as decreed in the Gospel of St Endemol it will be deemed a HERESY to bear false witness against the actors or players of the television programme known as BIG BROTHER.

Any slur against the characters of Master Richard Gaytrousers, the Lady Leah (previously known as the Fallen Madonna With The Big Boobies), Sir Glynne Dickiebow, the Lady Grace of the Parish of Backstabbe, Mistress Nicola Nervosa, or indeed any other player including The Holder Of The Golden Ticket, or against any viewer of this programme, will result in the offender being taken forthwith to the City of Tourettes, where he or she will be manacled to the city wall and be forced to watch, without let nor relief, Little Brother, Big Brother, Big Brother's Mouth, Big Brother Live, and any other Big Brother Transmission, while simultaneously performing ye Deepe Throate on An English Carrote, until he or she recants their heresy.

Signed This Day

The Lady Davina of Gurne.

got a bit of time on your hands today Sir Frog of the Naked Buns...? :laugh: