Train Wreck of Train Wrecks (without intending to be)

I apologize in advance for this post. My IQ has dropped 50 points in the last half hour. I'm hoping it's only temporary. I have changed the channel and am trying to re-join orderly society. Here goes.

I watched the first third of the (90 MINUTE!) season premier of America's Next Top Model. This show plays like a parody. It's Tyra Banks and a bunch of wannabe models, and they all seem to take the shit very seriously! SNL could put an all-star crew of cast and writers together to mock this shit and could not top the comedic value this show puts out. Tyra is like a black female version of Barney Fife -- a perfect pitch for inciting laughter among the masses without intending to do so. Only, Barney Fife was a fictional character played by a comic genius.

I know what you're thinking. How is this different than any host of goofy reality shows on TV? Well, I think most of the goofy reality shows now know what they are and they readily admit it and play to it. Jersey Shore - obvious parody. Tool Academy - same thing. Even a show like The Bachelor is so self-mocking no reasonable person could conclude that the participants, and particularly the host and producers, don't think they are play-acting. In other words, most reality TV is like modern day pro wrestling, tacitly admitting they're fake and asking the viewer to play along. Shows like Amazing Race and Survivor are more competition/game show type reality and a different genre, I submit.

But Tyra. My God, Tyra! You act like you're curing cancer. Even the way the show is edited and produced suggests you take this very seriously. The editing is above average, the drama deployed is artistic in its subtlety yet over-the-top all at the same time; and Tyra, you alway have the last spirit-lifting word of brilliance. Your talk show was similar, but it was like taking blunt-force trama to the head with a Tyra sledgehammer, where America's Next Top Model more of a dissection of my brain a piece at a time with a scalpel.

Know what I'm sayin'?

 

Are you Joel McHale?

 

You just wrote 250 words on America's Next Top Model.

 

You just read 250 words on America's Next Top Model.

 

I just read the four bolded words!

 

I hate the skinny black chick, the weird biracial girl and the whiny girl (I think her name was Anslee). I haven't gotten names down on anyone yet.

 

Is "A Different World" back on TV?

 

That's pretty well played.

 

Hasn't this show been around for several seasons now?
What's the next critique, Wheel of Fortune?

 

I'm breathlessly awaiting POI's review of that Korean War comedy with the doctors that's on CBS.

 

There are some great new shows on the DuMont Network I'm eager to read about.

 

We're on Cycle 14.