Absurd

I think, in the course of a lifetime, we do many things of which we are ashamed. Hell, in any given week I do things that I would be embarrassed to admit to. Like last night, I sat down to watch (forgive me) American Idol Cares, a very special results/charity fund raiser episode where the Idols and all their celebrity friends came together to perform and raise money for the needy people of the world. Yes, The World. Ryan Seacrest, Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and that Randy person are going to save The World. I watched because I had heard that Bono would be on. I love Bono, I really do, but even my brand of obsessive, fanatical love has its limits. I had to watch his appearance before I could determine if it was forgivable. It was. He had the good taste not to appear on the live broadcast. His part was pre-taped and all he did was talk to the contestants about the One Campaign, and do a little interview where he was self-deprecating about appearing on American Idol. Damn, he’s good. (I thought it was polite of him not to perform and therefore juxtapose his awesome talents with the less-awesome “talents” of the contestants.)

It was such a bizarre two hours (yes, God, two hours!) of television. The charities were completely worthy, and even I have to admit it was pretty awesome that they chose local and international charities, and causes as simple as buying arts n’ crafts supplies to things as important as literacy and antiviral HIV drugs. I commend them for raising the money, and for trying to cause some positive change in The World. I have no doubt that this money will do a lot of good; it’s just that something about it does not sit well with me.

The whole show seemed absurd. I usually like the absurd, but this was… preposterous. It was still a typical American Idol results show. So, after the video clip of the woman raising 14 little AIDS orphans in Africa, we cut to Seacrest telling some talentless hack that s/he’s “safe” for another week, because America loves them. How nice for them, to be safe and loved by an entire country. Then we cut to the people of Louisiana that America has somehow managed to forget about even though they live in slums of abject poverty. If only they could sing! If only they were willing to debase themselves for our entertainment! Then maybe America would care.

Yes! I know! I’m a huge cynic! But the whole thing was awful! Seacrest talked the whole evening about the “shocking” results that were to be announced that evening. Who cares?! You can’t aim to educate people about the plight of the poor in America and Africa, stress the importance of all of those lives, then hold the results of your stupid, trite, talent contest on the same level of importance.

The whole thing was like some bad parody of American hypocrisy. Except it wasn’t a parody. If only they had held the results another night. Then I might not have been so offended by it. I’m glad money was raised, I just wish they had gone about it differently.

It reminded me of Ricky Gervais raising money for Kenya.



Oh, and you should all donate money to some charities.