How To Be A Gentleman

There are so many new TV shows coming on board that are utter garbage that I don't know where to start first.

One is an Odd Couple clone - "prude meets dude" or whatever their motto is, the title, How to be a Gentleman.

So we've got someone who looks like a Niles clone - he of course is the Felix Unger role, than we've got Kevin Dillon who plays the utter slob Oscar Madison role.

And of course the neatnik "prude" will be mocked, while the utterly gross slob will be the "normal" guy.

Which is too bad.

It's easy to be a slob - you don't have to do anything.

It's hard to be a gentleman - or lady, you have to work at it.

Too many people don't work at it.

Lots of people are slobs. And if you try to tell them to get their act together - get their hair cut, wear decent-fitting clothes, etc., you're the one who is labeled a prude or a snob.

I remember an episode of Barney Miller from 20 - 30 years ago. The fastidious Harris has to stay in the slob Dietrich's apartment. Does Harris' fastidiousness rub off on the slob Dietrich? No, not at all. By the end of the episode Harris has turned into just as much of a slob as Dietrich (albeit only for that one episode.) He's given up, he's been defeated.

That's what we're faced with today. Too many people have given up and let themselves and standards slide. Any attempt to live up to standards is mocked and laughed at.

Don't get me wrong - I remember enjoying the original Odd Couple...heck, I even enjoyed the remake in which Ron Glass played Felix Unger and the guy from Sanford and Son played Oscar Madison, twenty years ago, and unfortunately only lasted a handful of episodes.

But these days...these days I just don't see it as doing anything to improve the fabric of society.

Miller LIte - commercial

I have seen a couple of these commercials in the last week or so.

A group of men, one of them does something the other three dont' like, and they sayd, "That's the second unmanly thing you've done today."

What was the first, asks the guy.

Then there's a flashback to the guy panicking as he pulls a fish out of the water, "screaming like a girl" and so on.

What are these commercials teaching teenage boys, and men for that matter? That it's okay to tease someone for being "unmanly" (i.e., gay? Or just not macho - the two are not inclusive.)

They are just unpleasant commercials.

Southwest Airlines commercial

I saw this today...think I saw it last night as well...

Some Asian guy goes to Southwest and learns he won't have to pay baggage fees, so he starts dancing like some pro football player who's arrived in the end zone, making a total fool of himself.

Meantime two guys dressed in referee facsimiles go up to some faux airline and make football referee type comments as if they're being penalized while being charged for bags.

Truth to tell - I really dislike seeing these football players who celebrate their TD runs - and sometimes not even that - by dancing and drawing attention to themselves in the end zone. Doesn't matter if their team is losing by 40 points, if they score, they're going to celebrate. And after they finish dancing, they turn and greet their teammates who've been waiting to congratulate them. (How I wish these teammates would just walk away from the glory hog and leave him all alne and never congratulate him, even on the sidelines.)

Then of course there's the defensive guys who will make a stop, then strut away a few yards and do their little schtick. I appreciate that they're just haivng fun but jeez, they're grown men, not children.

And what this teaches youngers watching aobut what constitutes "good" vs "bad" sportsmanship....put it this way, it doesn't teach them good sportsmanship.

Phew!

Time goes by when you're having fun.

So sorry for not posting here for so long. There's been plenty of things I could post about, but I've had so much stuff going on lately that I just haven't had time to do it.

Well, it's Sunday, and its football. And now I've got a little time!

WWE Monday Night Raw

Currently on , at 8.33 pm Central Time, there is some kind of "entertainment" going on on TNT, I believe.

Just saw one guy have another guy on the ground, stomp one of his ankles, and then the other.

This is the type of fight entertainment that is really ruining the fabric of today's people.

In boxing, you've got a referee. If a boxer goes down on one knee, the referee steps in and the boxer goes to a neutral corner. Indeed, it used to be the referee would never have to step in - the boxer knew. Man down, go to a neutral corner. No hitting below the belt, no hitting a man when he was down, etc. Of course, now the referee has to step in and sometimes phyically hold back the boxer from continuing to wale on a downed oppoent.

But that's nothing compared with this WWE wrestling, where the wrestlers are such poseurs, not to mention bad actors. You've got the drama, with one wrestler vowing vengeance against another and attacking him in the stands, or climbing into the rign and attacking him during a different bout entirely.

You've got folks who hit people in the back with chairs, beat on them when their down, etc - something that at one point was never done. An opponent falls...you wait til he gets up before attacking again.

Nowadays, you attack him when he's at his weakest and you're cheered on for doing so.

These wrestling matches usually fill up the arenas in which they're held, they're very popular, and its just one more reason why, these days, a person's first response to something that might (or might not, admittedly) be innocuous, is to respond with violence.

Hanes Underwear Commercials

Have I ever blogged about these things? I'm sure I have, but I'm going to do it again.

They must be popular, these commercials, because they've been airing for several years.

Michael Jordan is seated in a plane minding his own business, and some white guy comes up to him and gushes about Haines underwear. We get closeups of Jordan's amused - bemused - contemptuous face - as the guy shows off his waistband and then does some deep squats to show Jordan - who presumably should know himself - just how comfy they are.

One hopes that no one in real life would actually approach a celebrity and do this (although unfortunately there are probably a few deluded indidivuals who would do this - which is one of the reasons why this commercial is so creepy).

Little bit of homoeroticiscm goin' on there? (Not that there's anything wrong with that - in the proper venue. But commercials on TV - no.)

Beyond Scared Straight - TV reality series

"Scared Straight" is a program where "at risk" teenagers are brought in to prisons where they are harassed by long-term inmates. The hope is that by seeing how truly awful it is in prison, the kids will turn their lives around and embrace a lifestyle where they won't go to jail.

Which is all very well and good... but what is the point in making a TV series out of it?

The series shows these teens being brought to the prisons and bullied.

1. What sane person would want to watch that? Answer - no sane person would, only those who are sadistic and like to watch people being humiliated and frightened.

2. Having cameras follow these kids and cons around surely ads an extra layer of ... unreality... to it, for the kids. (Are these real kids going bad, or are they wanna-be actors who think they can get a foot on a rung of the ladder by playing one of these delinquents?)

In any event, as with so much reality TV, it's utter garbage... and very popular.