A show about jackasses

There are other shows besides Beavis and Butt-head and Jersey Shore that are worth mentioning on MTV. For this post, I will talk about one show from the early 2000s, after MTV started its 'shift' but before MTV became crap: Jackass.

Jackass is, like Beavis and Butt-head, not suited for everybody. Actually, Jackass is more likely to horrify you if you cannot stand the idea of people filming themselves do stunts where they will more than likely, if not inevitably (and in some cases that's the point) get hurt. The show fortunately tells you that "Neither you nor your dumb little buddies should attempt anything you see on this show."

The show came to be through a combination of the efforts of skateboarder/stuntsman Bam Margera and his "Camp Kill Yourself" (CKY) series, as well as Johnny Knoxville, a writer for the skateboarding magazine Big Brother (not to be confused with the reality series). Knoxville had an article idea that involved him as a self-defense human test subject, including testing a bullet-proof vest. The video of this last test was humorous enough that more masochistic films were made. Coincidentially, this kind of stuff was what Bam Margera's crew was doing in his CKY films, of which he was doing his first. Together, Jackass was created.

And so we have a show about these guys doing ridiculously stupid stuff like prodding people with a pingas-shaped iron brand (I never thought I'd say those words together. And yes, that spelling is intentional. This link will explain why.) or using a car to pull a tooth out. Yeah, there are too many examples for me to list. Again, the funny thing is that it's been a while since I've seen Jackass, and for some reason none come off the top of my head; these examples came from the TVTropes page.

There is also a movie based on Jackass. Actually, there are three movies. And the third one is in 3D for some reason. I've never seen these movies, but from what I can tell, they have the craziest and most painful stunts ever done by the crew.

Jackass is so horrifying to some that senator Joe Lieberman not only made MTV stop airing reruns temporarily, he also practically prevented a "Too Hot for TV" video release. So if you like Jackass and live in Connecticut, don't vote for Lieberman. If you're a moral guardian and live in Connecticut, maybe you should vote for him. If you don't live in Connecticut, and I know that most of this blog's current audience lives in Florida, then you can't really do anything about that.

-Erich

MTV vs. VH-1

When hating on MTV for straying so far from what it was about, people tend to forget that there's another music channel on television: VH-1, or Video Hits One.

Ah, yes, VH-1. Like MTV, it is also owned by Viacom and was (at first) a channel for music videos. It was created to compete with a channel called Cable Music Channel, but it was shut down before VH-1 even came into existence as a sister network to MTV. The main difference between pre-1990s MTV and VH-1 was audience: MTV was for teenagers, VH-1 was for older adults. So you would see people more like Mariah Carey.

VH-1 slowly headed towards appealing to the younger audience around the Nineties, and started adding a few shows. Unlike MTV when it started adding more shows, though, VH-1's shows were still very pertinent to music. On VH-1, you could see Pop Up Video, which WAS music videos but with visual commentary, and Behind the Music, a documentary-styled show about famous musicians.

Alas, VH-1 has also recently drifted away from what it once used to, but only in a somewhat similar fashion. This is because VH-1 expanded into covering pop culture; the most notable consequence of this is the "I Love The" series, which consisted of a few documentary miniseries covering a specific decade (a few exist for the '70s, a few more for the '80s and the '90s, and even "I Love the New Millenium."). Of course, it is necessary to mention the reality shows on VH-1 and especially to compare them to MTV's. In maintaining its recent focus on pop culture, its shows focus on former celebrities like Hulk Hogan. The second most important thing about modern VH-1 is that these are actually successful, with the finale of Flavor of Love, starring Flava Flav, having 6,000,000 viewers. Certainly better than MTV's shows about "teenage girls who feel the need to whine despite being richer than most countries." (quote taken from the TVTropes page for VH-1. I thought it was good and fitting.)

Of course, the first most important thing about modern VH-1 is that you can see music videos on VH-1...
in the afternoon. Yeah, you know you like my usage of bold, italics, and underline all at the same time.

-Erich

Network Decay

In my last post, I linked to the TVTropes page for Network Decay. This post is about other pretty bad cases of this phenomenon, which is not exclusive to MTV.

Network Decay is practically like a virus that makes a channel no longer stick with the original intended concept. This is often a result of the first off-concept shows being so popular that the channel owners decide that it's better to add more of these shows, as was the case with Beavis and Butt-head. This is never a good idea. This post will cover some examples that are just as bad as MTV's.

First is Discovery Channel. At first, it was mostly based on shows about science of some sort. Perhaps the best example of this is Mythbusters, one of the best shows on the channel. There are, in fact, other shows that belong on Discovery, namely Dirty Jobs and Man vs. Wild (and other similar shows. Discovery sure likes that concept. Not that I mind. It's the upcoming examples that grind my gears). In truth, Discovery is not so much a horrible example of Network Decay as a personally distressing one. There is a reason that the spin-off channel called the Science Channel was made, and it's because Discovery is now mostly shows like Deadliest Catch and Gold Rush. These shows are what I have come to call 'docu-soaps,' a combination of documentary and soap-show drama. Actually, these examples are relatively good shows. If I were to give an example I absolutely despise, it would be American Chopper. God, I hate that show. Even as a docu-soap, it sucks, as it amounts to a dysfunctional relationship of a motorcyclist father to his motorcyclist son.

Next is History Channel, which suffers pretty much the same problem. A channel based on historical documentaries, especially World War II documentaries (earning it the nickname "The Hitler Channel), History has also experienced a docu-soap based Network Decay. Here, examples include Ice Road Truckers and Ax Men. I can see Deadliest Catch belonging on Discovery, but I fail to see why Ice Road Truckers belongs on History, even after considering the "History made every day" slogan they recently adopted. That slogan is why I can see Pawn Stars and American Pickers, again decent shows, as fitting, but IRT belongs more on Discovery than History. Then again, I hate IRT almost as much as American Chopper.

Okay, so these two examples weren't as bad as I thought. However, G4TV, I assure you, is maybe worse than MTV. If you haven't heard of G4, it's probably because it's usually on a cable channel higher than 100, meaning you need a better cable package. Or you're using DirecTV, which actually dropped G4 recently. Why? Well, G4 used to be about video games. As a gamer myself, this was perfect for me. Then came a merge with a channel called TechTV, which was sort of a computer-geek channel. No big deal, the channel then became known as G4-TechTV and had two themes. Then, for some stupid reason, G4 (it no longer is known as G4-TechTV) started airing COPS and Star Trek reruns along with other crap. The ONLY remaining shows that actually belong on G4 are X-Play (video game reviews) and Attack of the Show (tech-gadget reviews [think iPad] with a bit of Daily Show mixed in). God, I miss shows like Judgment Day (X-Play but IMO better) and Cheat! (video game cheat codes. IIRC it was sponsored by Pringles at one point). And in this case, I can only think of ONE other show worth watching: Ninja Warrior, which is like a Japanese Game Show.

But what about Turner Classic Movies, or TCM? By this point, you're either wondering how this is a case of Network Decay, or raging at me for including it in the visual. There's actually a reason I put the logo separate from the others, which are rather clustered: TCM is a glorious aversion to Network Decay. To this day it still remains dedicated to airing, well, classic movies, almost all of which are before 1980. And they do a great job at that, too, since not only do they have few commercials, but they also appeal to traditionalists in their 'modifications' for television airings. Anyone remember" monkey-fighting snakes on this Monday-Friday plane"? Which, to be fair, was necessary, since you can't say "fuck" on American television. Actually, if TCM were to air Snakes on a Plane in the distant future, they'd probably still keep in the original line without ANY censoring. They're that cool.

-Erich

Beavis and Butt-head

First, I must apologize for taking so long to make a post, as I've been taking my time (admittedly too much time) in thinking up some darn good posts on the subject. It is only now that I am ready to present them, so get ready for a few posts from me.

While it is true that MTV is one of the most egregious cases of Network Decay in the history of television, I feel that it is necessary to bring up what may be considered the only good non-music show, and ironically (am I using that word correctly?) one of the first: Beavis and Butthead. Created by Mike Judge before he made King of the Hill, Beavis and Butt-head is one of MTV's older shows. This and The Real World began as filler content between music videos and gained so much popularity that MTV thought that it was a good idea to make more not-music shows. Big mistake, dummkopfs.

One of the things I remember the most about Beavis and Butt-head is the Great Cornholio, a sort of alter-ego that Beavis takes on by pulling his shirt over his head. Cornholio then runs around the city stating who he is and declaring that he needs "TP for [his] bunghole." I seem to recall that this may have even been one of the first clips I ever saw, but I can't say for certain. Hey, I was only three years old (yes, the show is that old) at the time when my sister showed me this show.

As such, since it's been so long, I admittedly don't remember much else about the show, other than whenever Butt-head would snarkily respond to things that were said recently. The best example I can think of at the moment is "Huh huh, you said 'come'". Basically, it was the "That's what she said" of the '90s.

The humor of this show is by no means suited for everyone. If you hate South Park for being inappropriate, you'll hate Beavis and Butt-head almost as much, with both shows proud of their TV-MA ratings. If you hate South Park because it just plain isn't funny, I can still recommend Beavis and Butt-head.

I think that Beavis and Butt-head has actually returned on MTV recently, so there is now a reason to watch that channel other than the you-have-a-better-chance-of-being-hit-with-a-meteor-than-seeing-one music video.

Beavis and Butthead, along with The Real World, may have started the shift away from Music Television, but it still stands that Beavis and Butthead is nevertheless one of MTV's best programs, if you're into that sort of humor. Can't say the same for The Real World, though...

And to be fair, they do wear Metallica and ACDC shirts.


-Erich

The Future of MTV

In the near future one would think that the viewer ratings of MTV will remain the same as they keep airing these shows that literally have nothing to do with music. Yes they play some music early in the morning or very late at night. the music though is simply a filler until they can air their normal programming. As time goes on I would not be surprised if they stopped airing all the music award shows as well. Now for the actual shows that they air, oh boy it can only get worse from here. They will continue to show controversial shows that push the envelope. Eventually shows such as Skins will be aired on television because it will be seen as "appropriate" for the viewers that watch them. Unfortunately this does not say a whole lot about our American society today, but at this point there is not a whole lot that you or I individually can do to change our country's direction. It would take a company such as MTV that holds much of the market power and the viewers trust to make such a move. By the looks of it though, things will not be changing anytime soon
Garet

Music Isn't Controversial

Not only does MTV avoid playing music videos to play inappropriate reality TV shows, but they have presented much controversy over the years.  Take for example, Teen Mom and Sixteen and Pregnant.  These shows are glamorizing teenage pregnancy; the girls in the shows end up on magazine covers, and even get to have their own TV show and make lots of money.  And this is all because they accidentally got pregnant at way too young of an age.  Sixteen year olds may now think- hey, she got pregnant and got famous, why can't I?  Is this really the way we want younger generations to look at child birth?  It is supposed to be a beautiful, monumental, life changing moment, not a glamorous one.
The news report above even mentions how these shows are now presenting questionable abortion topics.  Indirectly, the show is pro-life, because the girls all have their children, which isn't either right or wrong, but with American's sensitivity today, it is a big deal.  One girl on the show even ended up getting an abortion, which may offend certain audiences as well.  MTV should really be more careful of what type of messages they are portraying in their shows.  Maybe they should just go back to music videos and avoid the controversy.

Chelsea

MTV's Good Business Decisions

There is a reason why MTV is still as popular as it is. This is because they are very good at what they do. You may ask what exactly I mean by this. Although I do not personally agree with what they put on national television they are in touch with their target audience. Year in and year out MTV large amounts of money know their audiences interests. This audience being the ages of 12 to about 18. They do this so that no 4 year period goes by that they do not know exactly what their audience wants to see. This is why the producers of this network have gone from playing exclusively music( like they did more than 20 years ago). To now where they play mostly reality, or reality type shows. These are all smart business decisions that greatly appeal to the consumer. Which at the end of the day, is the main goal for all television networks.

MTV has not only done a good job making their consumers happy, but also making these consumers buy into their product. These young people that MTV appeal are greatly influencing our culture which in turn is making them want more and more of this product that MTV uses because they think this is "cool" and how they should act. Which in reality is not necessarily the truth, but by the looks of it nothing is changing anytime soon

Garet