A GUILTY PLEASURE.........at the expense of exactly whom?....

Now i must admit that i passively enjoy AMERICAN IDOL from time to time.....not necessarily for the drama......i enjoy some of the performances.......the competition is meaningless when popularity what's being contested........but that's another rant.......the point here is simply that i find myself watching the show occasionally(i don't watch much television at all).......it is a guilty pleasure for me.........

The other night i saw the Seattle tryouts for the new season.......they continually bemoaned the lack of talent in that town as they sat through an endless parade of horrible auditions........but something struck me as i watched........this had not occurred to me before, but as my mind drifted into mental health professional mode, i saw it for the first time.........

I saw no less than 5 of those terrible performances that they like to feature on the tryout shows(obviously to make many people and the judges feel better about themselves)in which the hopeful applicant had an obvious developmental disorder.....it was plain to see that most of those about 4 of those 5 had Asperger's Syndrome which is a high functioning form of Autism......which would limit their insight and make them less than objective about their own level of "talent"........one guy i saw was very obviously mildly retarded......WITH A SPEECH IMPEDIMENT TO BOOT!!!!...........and yes, their auditions were an extremely painful experience....

In the back of my mind i could hear millions upon millions howling with laughter,bathed in the blue light of the television,choking on their TV dinners and Hotpockets......each one feeling smug and superior........

But there's this.....is it really cool to make fun of people who are retarded.....or have any other mental illnesses or developmental disabilities?.......Simon Cowell does a fine job of displaying the fact that he is the master of the put down......and seems to take pride in being merciless......but do people with disabilties really deserve that?.......they don't have a clue.......it seems a simple "NO" would suffice........but laughing at people in their face when they clearly don't have a clue?......is that a good thing?..........

And is it really cool of AMERICAN IDOL to trot out the freakshow for the sake of ratings?..........NO, IT'S NOT FUCKING COOL.........and it's damned irresponsible too.........

As the episode went on......my amusement began to turn to disgust.......it's hard not to laugh, but when you realize who paid the price to get you laughing, the shit isn't funny anymore.........

To be fair, the judges showed great tact with the retarded kid.......but his disability was obvious......the kids with Asperger's were not so obvious......and the judges showed their ignorance where those kids were concerned.......

But where were these kids' families in all this?.....your family is supposed to protect you from making an ass of yourself on national television when you're not all the way together upstairs............unless they ALL live in group homes.....and who told these kids they could sing?......

That's all i got to say abut that.....

Rock it like you've got some class......don't make fun of the retarded kids......

Stak