1. Since I got television, I have discovered this horrible WONDERFUL reality show called The Surreal Life. This is the first embarrassing confession, and really – all other confessions come back to this one. Like: WHY ARE YOU WATCHING THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE? Well, frankly, because I find it feckin’ FAScinating, in an awful toe-curlingly-embarrassing way.
2. It’s half an hour long, and it appears to be on some kind of never-ending loop on VH1. It’s always on. So I have been able to do quite a bit of catching up – so much so that I actually saw one episode twice.
3. You guys, does anyone else watch this show??? There are things that happen on it that … I actually can barely believe my eyes. Like, even though it’s right in front of me, I cannot get enough of it. Mini Me getting WASTED is an example. I didn’t know whether to laugh or run screaming from the room when I watched that episode. I remember my friend Alex telling me about it, a while back – like: “WAIT until you see Mini Me – so drunk he’s pissing in the corner …” Now I understand what she was talking about. You watch this show and your jaw literally drops … Shrieks of laughter are held back in your throat, because … it’s all just too weird.
4. And lastly: the most shameful confession of all: I have kind of a huge crush on Christopher Knight (aka Peter Brady). He’s grown up to be quite handsome, washboard stomach, and has a well-developed sense of the absurd. For example: a trashed Mini Me will perambulate by drunkenly on his scooter – Christopher Knight will watch him go by, and then he will glance at the camera, kind of stunned – but you can SEE the laughter in his eyes… He’s like: “I’m sorry, but where the hell am I right now?” He’s very cute. I like his peronality. Am I actually saying this?
Season finale coming up next week sometime, I believe. Honestly. I am counting the minutes.
That China Doll person is one of the funniest weirdest characters I have ever seen. Saying to Sally Jessy Raphael of all people – in her overly dramatic self-important incoherent way:
“No. I did not learn from this. I was rewarded from this.”
Huh? China? What?
It’s all so entertaining.
One time, when I was working at this deli in Manhattan Beach, Christopher Knight came in and bought one of those big, six foot long sandwiches.
I just thought I would share this information with you (hey, you just wrote a post about Mini Me – notice you don’t even use his real name – getting sauced on camera. What do you expect? Soul-stirring commentary?)
I love that you love Christopher Knight.
Anne – I swear, even this sounds ridiculous: it’s his personality I find most appealing.
laughing out loud right now …
What have I become???
They must put something addictive in that show because EVERYONE who I know who has watched it just once becomes instantly addicted. My boyfriend and I were so hooked, that we would watch the never-ending loop of surreal life like 3-4 times a week. Couldnt get enough. Try Strange Love, too Its not quite as addicting, but close.
It is a never-ending loop!! hahaha
Would you like to hear my Chynna Doll Story?
HMMmmmmmm??
Alex –
Is the new pope a Catholic?
I got hooked on The Surreal Life last season. That was with Bridget Neilson and Flava Flav, Dave Coulier, some girl from AMerican Idol, Charo..and Jordan Knight..I think that was all. I loved those people. THis season is DEFINITELY more freaky. the whole Mini me drunk, driving his little scooter thing around..I am so glad you are hooked. I am the only person I know who watches it until now! I am no longer alone.
And Jane Wiedlin! Come on! I love Jane Wiedlin!
Sheil..i couldn’t be happier! Im obsessed. What’s up with Jane Weilden(sp?) being part of the”fetish community”?? Love it. Have u seen their short film?? Delicious! AND..what Chyna story ..miss Alex? First you dont put pics of me on ur site and now ur keeping things from me?? I dont know you right now!
YES!!!!! A GO-GO!
Mitchell –
Yeah, the short film – hahahaha all that ninja stuff. China Doll talking in that strange ethnically-offensive Oriental accent … hahaha so WEIRD
I think its the whole Vern thing that wierds me out the most. He’s grossly fascinating – and I dont mean to be offensive. Like when he was eating the sushi off of Adrienne or when he was licking the toes of his date….i hated to watch it, but HAD to!
i know!!! So offensive..and yet utterly compelling…the male model.seems very dumb and very sweet..and hot…just what im im looking for! Big and dumb..its my new mantra…is that soo wrong?
yes..Vern is a horn dog…actually i had adog who was a little bigger..as a very short person…i can get away with that…anyway..i wonder if Vern gets much play in life..his sexuality seems very pre-adolescent..no?
Male model guy actually seems like a sweetheart – seems like he’s friendly and nice to everyone.
Then there was the moment when the curtain rod fell on Christopher Knight’s head at the very moment he was trying to talk to Mini Me about his drunkenness. And male model guy had to walk away, because he was laughing so hard.
I need the whole thing on tape.
omg..did i jsut attempt to psycho-analyze Mini-Me?? I need to get out of the house!
HAHAHAHAHAHA
what about the shot when Peter Brady and Male Model emerge from their room shirtless and rippled with muscles?! Damn..it turned into soft-core porn for a brief but pivotal moment.
Mitchell, I love you.
“a brief but pivotal moment”
hahahaha
I also love how we are not using any of their real names. I am laughing so hard right now.
So Mini Me and Peter Brady talked to Male Model …
I generally try to avoid reality tv like the plague, but I have to admit I have watched a few episodes of the season’s Surreal Life because Jane Wiedlin is in the cast and I’ve been a Go-Go’s fan for about a quarter-century now.
I have to say, it’s not that bad. When that show was first created, I figured it was just Hollywood cannibalizing itself for our supposed entertainment and never watched it. Having now seen it, there is definitely that aspect, but I think it’s less fake and less manipulative than the majority of reality tv. In the few shows I’ve watched you do get at least some slight sense of who these people actually are, and some insight into the often bizarre side-effects of fame. And of course hot girls skinny-dipping is never a bad thing. ;-)
Don’t know if I’ll watch it after this year, but I might…
Oh God, Mike R – please don’t tell me there’s a deeper aspect to the show than just plain old: WOW, LOOK AT THESE WEIRDOS INTERACTING!
That’s why I’m into it. :)
But yeah – Jane Wiedlin. Awesome. And Peter Brady. Washboard stomach. Awesome.
I agree on the analysis of Verne- he is a horndog who seems like he’s never gotten a peice and is extremly sexually frustrated. Grossly appealing…love it.
And im just waiting for Adrienne and the brady to do it!
LB, you are completely cracking me up:
Verne’s sexuality is, you say, “Grossly appealing…love it.”
HAHA My response exactly.
Let me psychoanalyze Mini Me even further:
i actually think (please forgive how insane I’m about to sound – uhm, about to sound, Sheila?) – I think that Mini Me is manufacturing horniness out of a sense of insecurity. Any true horniness he might feel would be FAR too embarrassing … so he makes it grotesque, as a way to hide behind it.
It’s sexuality on a Beavis and Butthead level.
Okay, stopping now, before they lock me up.
i am dying! Sheila..u are so right..he feels compelled to act the horn-dog to deflect any disparagement of his virilty..and also he never gets laid! I must admit that the show does have some intersting (albeit accidental) comments on the bizarre-ness of fame. Like Da Brat(who???) getting all defensive about being with has-beens…brilliant…like is she an ever-was???
Da Brat is on my shit-list for making Jane Wiedlin cry. (Even though … Da Brat has some pretty damn funny moments … the LOOK on her face when she saw Mini Me ride down the hall, naked … hahahaha)
But listen, bitch … Jane Wiedlin was HUGE and is STILL huge to all of us who loved the Go Gos … so shut your mouth!!
I was, however, pleased to see that Da Brat listened to Adrienne (the model girl who has no emotional boundaries with Peter Brady) – when Adrienne said, “You see the bad in people first. Then you see the good.” Da Brat immediately said, “I accept that criticism. You’re right.”
I found that admirable.
But I won’t forgive her for making a Go Go cry.
“But I won’t forgive her for making a Go Go cry.”
I’m sorry. I just thought that sentence bore repeating.
Emily … I knew once I opened up this topic I would start to say really ridiculous things.
“She has no emotional boundaries with Peter Brady” is another example.
Damn this not-so-well-equipped yurt of mine!!
I’m not *even* going to ask what a “yurt” is.
Hey, I’ve slept in a yurt.
They’re very common here in Outer Mongolia, Emily.. and this one doesn’t have cable.. dammit
Emily:
Peteb mentions his “yurt” in almost every comment. It’s a kind of Tourette’s, I think, and we should have compassion for him.
But peteb, whether or not you have cable Across the Atlantic, you got to watch Germaine Greer on Celebrity Big Brother – and all the chaos that that entails – while I could just hear about it from afar … that sounds FAR more entertaining than this. Because it was Germaine Greer!
peteb: er … you know I was kidding, with the Tourette’s comment, right?
All compassion is welcome.. and will be exploited for all it’s worth.. :)
But. while it’s true that Germaine did provide much entertainment value.. until she walked out – to the dismay of the watching public.. well me anyway – and educating (and I use the word advisedly) the other celebs on Elizabeth I’s reign in a Medieval Fayre cook’s costume was a particular highlight.. Brigitte Neilsen warming the toilet seat for the appointed Queen celeb of the show did challenge her in that role.. and then when Jackie Stallone turned up…
Still.. none of them got as drunk as Mini-Me seems to have been.
I don’t think anyone in the history of the planet has ever been as drunk as Mini Me was on that episode. But then – remember his height. He drank 10 times as much as the full-sized people, and he is one foot tall. I mean … you can imagine the results.
I couldn’t believe my eyes.
Neither could Christopher Knight. It was a bonding moment for all involved.
er.. Yeah! – I was taking too much time with ‘Preview’.. for a change :)
It was a bonding moment for all involved.
Except for those of us without cable..
I too have a crush on Peter Brady.
You seriously have to watch Strange Love too, though. Hearing Flav say things to Brigitte like, “Yo, if you were a turkey sandwich, I’d eat you up. I wouldn’t even cut you in half. I’d just eat you whole” is really, truly, realty television at its best.
Strange Love is addictive too. Its just so bizarre – we’ve been trying to figure it out since it started. Like, did Brigitte agree to do this, for the money and attention, knowing she was never gonna end up with Flav and wind up getting married to the Italian anyway?! I need to know!
I am so sorry I just wrote that….yet Im posting it anyway.
Strange Love is an amazingly endearing car crash of a show.
What on earth is the premise of Strange Love? Can I watch it tonight?
LB, you are making me laugh out loud.
Oh and are the Chick Model and Peter Brady still together? They got together, right? How long are they in the house, anyway?
Carrie – I think for only 2 weeks … am I nuts? Did they get together? he seems rather ambivalent, although he did make out with her in the back of the van.
She is so smitten with him – she makes no bones about it. In a weird way, I find it admirable (and yet also frightening and pathetic) that she would be so open about her feelings.
Brigette Nielson and Flavor Flav from Public Enemy getting it on and trying to have a relationship while drunk and gambling and fighting and going from hotel to hotel and her big tall blonde and funny accent and him in green muppet fur and short and yo, yo, yo buying her her own set of gold teeth and yet they are both sort of realistic, I don’t know, you can’t really look away once you start watching.
The image of Jane Wiedlin carrying Mini Me in her arms like a baby during their camping trip is BURNED into my mind.
Hold on, she was in the muppet fur.
And the best part of strange love is that the first 2 minutes of show is snip-its from the last one; then, before the first commercial, they show whats to come after the break. After the break, they catch you up (just in case you werent watching) on what happened BEFORE the break. And so on with each break. So really, you get like 11 minutes of them fighting and making up. Its awesome.
Strangely enough, considering they were for two entirely different audiences, Brigitte spent most of her time on Celeb Big Brother (apart from the aforementioned toilet seat warming) talking about the then-forthcoming Strange Love and her close friendship with Flava.. interspersed with discussion of her Italian fiancé that is.
I suspect the underlying reality of this thread is that we’ve all been quietly enveloped by the Dark Side…
MikeR:
I think I would phrase it that we have all quietly EMBRACED the Dark Side. That way it’s more active. I am an active participant in my own cultural demise, and I couldn’t be more pleased.
LOL – OK red, I think I do prefer your phrasing. As long as we’re going to hell in a handbasket, we might as well be steering the darn thing…