(no subject)
Feb. 7th, 2006 10:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hnpccAn interview with Jonathan from TAR6. The guy's still a jerk.
Favourite quotes so far:
I wanted to… I wanted to have fun. I had a license to steal, a license to be bad, I wanted to just not be… I didn't want to be a creep. I didn't want to be loathed. I just wanted to be, you know, just this flamboyant character that was kind of popping around, testing all the boundaries of where we were and what we were doing.
Yeah fuck off. You get the opportunity of a lifetime and you decide to be some wierdo version of yourself that everyone will love. And why?
If they would have given me anything but the storyline they gave me, I would have stood up on a soapbox and said I am the greatest reality villain of all time.
Oh just fuck off and die already. At least Jonny Uckwit had his character down pat and was able to dissociate his rather sad self from his rather sad alter ego. Sheesh. And what exactly gives you "a license to steal" on TAR?
...If I ran the race with a different person other than Victoria, you'd never see that. But you would see a heightened version of Jonathan, which is … I'm willing to go places that most people aren't willing to go.
AD: Do you mean, like, personality-wise?
JB: Yeah. I'm willing to take a lot more chances. I'm willing to be a lot more open and a lot more out there and put myself, and really take more chances than most people would be willing to do with themselves and with the situation. And with that comes… .
AD: Well, yeah, and if the consequence of that is that some people think you're a jerk, or judge you based upon that, that's still an acceptable consequence to you?
JB: No. No. That's not an acceptable consequence, because that wasn't what it was supposed to be. It wasn't supposed to come out like that. It wasn't supposed to be like that. … No, no, it's not acceptable, ever.
And that's the bit where I feel sorry for him. "It wasn't supposed to be like that." "Not an acceptable consequence." No, we don't love you. You may or may not be as obnoxious in real life as you were on TAR6, but being "open and honest" and "willing to go places that most people aren't willing to go" does not make you loveable or even vaguely likable. Or, in fact, someone I'd want to be in the same room as for longer than 5 minutes.
But of course it was all editing (*sigh heavily*)
I mean… I believe that there was a woman. Her name is Amy, I forget her last name. She's a senior story editor. I believe this all started and ended with her.
Naturally. It's all some chick named Amy's fault that he looked like a complete and utter dickweed on national tv. Gotta be. She made him dye his hair blue, act like an uncaring tool, made the production staff ask the questions to get the answers she wanted, yada, yada, yada.
Don't get me wrong. Editing for storyline is an integral part of reality tv and events can be and are slanted for effect. But in the end, they can really only work with what you give them. So if you shove your wife and scream at her and act like a complete arsehole a lot of the time you really only make it easier for them to pick a storyline and stay with it. Yeah, they can hire actors to play you, but that really is only going to work in long shot: and pretty much nothing of what I hated was in long shot.
I would like a platform, and I'm not sure what that platform is. … I would like to do Survivor, because I really enjoyed playing the game of The Amazing Race, and what Survivor has to offer.
God willing he will just stay off my TV screen and fade into obscurity. And Casting? Just don't OK? Don't get the dickheads who want to play a character. Don't get the attention seeking whores who think that this is going to be the answer to all their problems and that America (and the world) will love them forever and think their God's gift. Get the guys who want to race, dammit. Even sane people can have a compelling storyline - and I'd much rather watch Joe or Jane Bloggs from Smalltown, USA and his/her friend/spouse/daughter/mother/son/whatever trying to work out French street signs or be confronted with things a long way out of their comfort zone than some idiot who thinks that reality tv is going to answer all their insecurity crises.
And hold off on the bloody models, I'm having trouble working out who the fuck is who on teams these days.
Favourite quotes so far:
I wanted to… I wanted to have fun. I had a license to steal, a license to be bad, I wanted to just not be… I didn't want to be a creep. I didn't want to be loathed. I just wanted to be, you know, just this flamboyant character that was kind of popping around, testing all the boundaries of where we were and what we were doing.
Yeah fuck off. You get the opportunity of a lifetime and you decide to be some wierdo version of yourself that everyone will love. And why?
If they would have given me anything but the storyline they gave me, I would have stood up on a soapbox and said I am the greatest reality villain of all time.
Oh just fuck off and die already. At least Jonny Uckwit had his character down pat and was able to dissociate his rather sad self from his rather sad alter ego. Sheesh. And what exactly gives you "a license to steal" on TAR?
...If I ran the race with a different person other than Victoria, you'd never see that. But you would see a heightened version of Jonathan, which is … I'm willing to go places that most people aren't willing to go.
AD: Do you mean, like, personality-wise?
JB: Yeah. I'm willing to take a lot more chances. I'm willing to be a lot more open and a lot more out there and put myself, and really take more chances than most people would be willing to do with themselves and with the situation. And with that comes… .
AD: Well, yeah, and if the consequence of that is that some people think you're a jerk, or judge you based upon that, that's still an acceptable consequence to you?
JB: No. No. That's not an acceptable consequence, because that wasn't what it was supposed to be. It wasn't supposed to come out like that. It wasn't supposed to be like that. … No, no, it's not acceptable, ever.
And that's the bit where I feel sorry for him. "It wasn't supposed to be like that." "Not an acceptable consequence." No, we don't love you. You may or may not be as obnoxious in real life as you were on TAR6, but being "open and honest" and "willing to go places that most people aren't willing to go" does not make you loveable or even vaguely likable. Or, in fact, someone I'd want to be in the same room as for longer than 5 minutes.
But of course it was all editing (*sigh heavily*)
I mean… I believe that there was a woman. Her name is Amy, I forget her last name. She's a senior story editor. I believe this all started and ended with her.
Naturally. It's all some chick named Amy's fault that he looked like a complete and utter dickweed on national tv. Gotta be. She made him dye his hair blue, act like an uncaring tool, made the production staff ask the questions to get the answers she wanted, yada, yada, yada.
Don't get me wrong. Editing for storyline is an integral part of reality tv and events can be and are slanted for effect. But in the end, they can really only work with what you give them. So if you shove your wife and scream at her and act like a complete arsehole a lot of the time you really only make it easier for them to pick a storyline and stay with it. Yeah, they can hire actors to play you, but that really is only going to work in long shot: and pretty much nothing of what I hated was in long shot.
I would like a platform, and I'm not sure what that platform is. … I would like to do Survivor, because I really enjoyed playing the game of The Amazing Race, and what Survivor has to offer.
God willing he will just stay off my TV screen and fade into obscurity. And Casting? Just don't OK? Don't get the dickheads who want to play a character. Don't get the attention seeking whores who think that this is going to be the answer to all their problems and that America (and the world) will love them forever and think their God's gift. Get the guys who want to race, dammit. Even sane people can have a compelling storyline - and I'd much rather watch Joe or Jane Bloggs from Smalltown, USA and his/her friend/spouse/daughter/mother/son/whatever trying to work out French street signs or be confronted with things a long way out of their comfort zone than some idiot who thinks that reality tv is going to answer all their insecurity crises.
And hold off on the bloody models, I'm having trouble working out who the fuck is who on teams these days.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 02:23 am (UTC)I don't mean what happens when they're actually working on a task so much. It's impossible to keep putting on a show for the camera all day, every day. People become involved in the job at hand, they can't help but forget the camera is there, so they end up revealing more than they want to. Still, if somebody is planning to goof-off then surely it's obvious that they should wait till the camera isn't pointing in their direction?
No, where the contestants most often stuff-up is in those short to camera interviews. I'd of thought it was obvious that if the interviewer asks you about a particular incident then you can be sure said incident is on tape so there's no point in lying. Amazingly though so many of them will try and alter the facts in order to make themselves look better. Now it's quite clear that the person who does the firing, Donald Trump, watches at least the edited version of the tape because he constantly refers to what the contestants have said and done in such a way as to make this clear. If it was me I'd be very careful in what I claimed while being interviewed and I'd assume when talking to Trump that he'd watched all the tape and act according. None of the contestants seem to doso and I'd of assumed they would know the score by watching earlier series of the show.
Instead they say the stupidest, most absurd, and patently self-serving things to camera as if Trump will never see the tape and fire them and as if millions of viewers won't see them too and snigger. It's as if the concept of there being any consequences for their actions is totally alien to them.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 02:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 03:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-08 05:20 am (UTC)Yeah that's something I've always wondered about too. That and how some people (particularly, but not exclusively, on The Apprentice) think they're going to get jobs IRL when they've been caught lying, slacking off, being arseholes, etc. Omarosa is one prime example, but there's also others who you just wonder: "what do the concepts of filmed job interview and national television mean to you exactly?"
I'd assume when talking to Trump that he'd watched all the tape and act according.
I guess part of the problem comes back to self-editing: just because we saw it one way doesn't mean it hasn't been re-edited in the contestant's mind to a much more favourable interpretation.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-11 12:23 am (UTC)That and how some people (particularly, but not exclusively, on The Apprentice) think they're going to get jobs IRL. . .
A little research shows that most contestants on the various reality shows have something to fall back on, some sort of job or business to return to. None the less when somebody like Toral from the last series of The Apprentice made such a song and dance about keeping her 'dignity' while acting like a petulant five-year old you have to think it did her credibility at the investment back where she (I assume) still works no good. All the time she squealed and grunted about not wanting to wear a costume because it would harm her dignity I was sitting there thinking that this performance would make a far larger joke of her in the investment banking industry now the footage has been screened. I wonder if she has had the sense to regret her choice?
I guess part of the problem comes back to self-editing
I believe you're right about this. Now that I think about certain contestants it's obvious that they have some sort of reality-altering mantra like 'I'm always right' firmly in place and everything that happens has to be altered to fit into this.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 09:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 08:22 pm (UTC)I just realized that I have no idea who won TAR Family. I don't even recall seeing any promos for it. I don't think it did as well in the ratings as was expected...
no subject
Date: 2006-02-08 05:16 am (UTC)Yup. And what's really wrong with famewhore casting. I thought maybe the interview would give me some idea of what was actually going on, but no, he really is just a dickweed.
I just realized that I have no idea who won TAR Family. I don't even recall seeing any promos for it. I don't think it did as well in the ratings as was expected...
No - even Phil hated it. I still watched it though. And don't forget that for me the US is foreign. And besides, it was occasionally hilarious to see 'Ugly American' in the US. I'd always thought you had to leave the country for that, but no, you can be small minded and xenophobic within your own country it seems. Heh.
It's still sad that I managed to come up with a family friendly around-the-world TAR race during the trip to Canberra and back though.