Surreality Television

Let's get one thing clear: I despise reality TV shows. I watched parts of some of the early seasons of The Real World, but it didn't take long for me to get bored with even that. But last night a friend talked me into checking out the premiere of My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss.

And I admit it: I'm hooked. I was hooked ten minutes into the show. This is one of the absolute funniest things I've ever seen.

You see, the people they've chosen to be contestants competing for an alleged "dream job" all seem to think they're God's gift to the business world, not to mention the opposite sex (although I'll admit, most of the female contestants are pretty hot.) But in fact, they're vapid, naive, and just generally idiotic (at least in a common sense kind of way).

And the actors portraying the corporate execs expose them every step of the way.

In the opening cocktail party, for example, they passed off discount-rack sparkling wine and appetizers made from Oscar Mayer bologna, Spam, and Cheez-Whiz as fancy hors d'oeuvres. These empty heads were heard making comments like "The champagne tastes expensive" and "Some of the appetizers were obviously more sophisticated than I was." And the punishments just keep coming.

I only have two complaints: the decision of who gets cut each week is made by a "secret mystery boss" that it looks like they probably won't reveal until the end, and they're promising the "biggest revelation in reality TV history" when they finally do. C'mon, guys--this is supposed to be a parody of "traditional" reality shows. Not taking your own show too seriously is one thing; becoming an inadvertant example of self-parody just cheapens the comic value. (And for the record, a friend and I talked it over a bit, and the "surprise boss" guess we came up with is George Steinbrenner.) The other problem is that while the job isn't real, the substantial cash prize is. I'd laugh all the harder at the show if I knew none of these bozos went home with any compensation at all.