Sometimes, and sometimes more often than just sometimes, I think the world is truly going mad. It’s not just the election of Donald Trump, or the triumph of his soulmate Nigel Farage in helping to take Britain out of the EU. It’s worse than that and it’s far more trivial than that. The world, or at least a sizeable chunk of it, seems to be losing the plot.
Today, the weather is the big news. It’s raining, it’s actually raining rather a lot. People everywhere are getting wet. Woe is me. If I leave my house and get into the car, I might get wet, too. And cold. My God: I might get cold a few days before winter begins. Who knew that might happen? What were people expecting? The hottest spell of weather since 1976? Millions flocking to the beaches a few weeks before Christmas? I know that as part of climate change the world is warming up, but not so you’d notice. Can you imagine what these people’s lives are like every time they draw back the curtains? They may wake up one day and found they spent much of their lives fretting about something that just happens. Get over it.
There are more serious things happening in our country than wet and cold weather. How about people losing their jobs, becoming ill, even dying? Even the smallest bit of perspective might be advisable, but no. The weather’s appalling, the weather’s shit, the weather, the weather, the weather. Oh get over yourselves and live with it. Please.
Worse than the weather at the moment is the sheer madness overwhelming the country about two “reality” shows on television, Strictly Come Dancing and The X Factor. And you know what is winding some people up? Other people voting to keep people they like in the competition.
The Strictly villain is former shadow chancellor Ed Balls. He is not a great dancer, but thanks to a number of weeks of training, he’s better than you or me (unless you are a professional dancer). If he is not better than some of the other celebrity dancers, than so what? It’s an entertainment show. People are being entertained by Ed Balls and are voting for him to stay in. Prior to Strictly, the BBC ran a real dancing competition for many years called Come Dancing which featured dancers. The show ran from 1948 to 1998 and was taken off because hardly anyone was watching. It was resurrected six years later in an entirely different format as an entertainment show, featuring well known people from the public eye. It’s a bit of fun.
Ed Balls is picking up huge numbers of votes because, I suspect, people are sick of being told who to vote for and not just in TV reality shows. In recent years, the four Strictly judges have sneered at the “lesser” dancers, effectively having a pop at viewers. Mr Balls has working his…er…balls off in the show and I think he should be praised, not condemned for still being in it so late on. He is a middle aged, slightly overweight man, like many of us. Why should we not vote for him if we see a little of ourselves in his efforts, especially as he is up against younger and fitter people (and professional athletes)?
I admit that I only watch Strictly in small chunks because I am not that interested in it as a whole. It certainly would not change my life whoever won it, but if people really are getting angry and stressed then they should get their blood pressure checked and consider a GP visit. It’s a telly show, that’s all.
And the X Factor – well!!! Well, what exactly? I have have never been a karaoke fan so the show has little going for it for me. I once watched a bit of the show some years ago when Take That were on (I think they might have been singing coaches, I can’t remember exactly) and apart from Gary and his tax dodging pals, I didn’t like anything else about the show. I know that one or two winners – and losers – have found fame post X Factor but that doesn’t float my boat.
The big star from this series is someone called Honey G. In the interests of accuracy, I have searched You Tube only to discover that the G actually stands for Gilford and she is not actually called Honey at all, her first name being Anna. She dresses like a young rapper and raps like a dreadful old rapper, which she appears to be. Having not seen any of the other competing karaoke acts, I cannot say whether she is the best or worst performer on the show, but I can say if she is the best, British music is in a worse state than I thought it was. The thing is that the public seems to love her and that’s all that matters. Like Strictly, the X Factor is above all an entertainment show. I can’t believe that people are getting worked up about it, to the point of hating the poor woman.
Of the many reality shows I don’t watch is I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and doubtless there will soon be an outcry about which celebrity was the best insect eater but lost to someone who wasn’t so good.
It honestly doesn’t bother me who wins any of these shows because ultimately none of it matters. By the new year, there will be a new series of Big Brother for people to complain about and can you imagine what the bloody weather will be like by then?
