17 Replies to “They Closed Down All The Freak Shows, Put ‘Em On Discovery Channel”

  1. There were many contributors to the development of television, including Vladimir Zworikin and Philo Farnsworth.
    From Farnsworth’s wiki page
    ‘Although Philo T. Farnsworth is sometimes quoted as telling his son Kent, with regard to television:
    “There’s nothing on it worthwhile, and we’re not going to watch it in this household, and I don’t want it in your intellectual diet.”
    His family’s website makes it clear that this is Kent’s summation of his father’s view, rather than a quote.’

  2. More specifically to the point of the post – we have become a nation of indolent gawkers, more interested in watching the events of strangers sequestered in confinement, or idiots dating each other, as opposed to living our own lives. We are losing our connections with the outside world

  3. But don’t you know? The freak shows on TV are considered “documentaries” so it’s all ok!

  5. Well, I am just glad the kind Southerner outbid the Freak Show Guy.
    Mainly because the Freak Show Guy would have made the puppy live like that for the rest of his dogey days to add to his collection of freaks and sell a few more tickets.
    ,

  6. I had a five legged grasshopper in my garden last week, just a little nipper, moving in tight circles, as opposed to straight ahead.
    Probably wouldn’t be suitable for the Coney Island freak show though.

  7. Interesting how the freak show and MSM news media operate in the same theater of sensation yet one is deemed to be low brow poor taste vatering to those who amuse themselves by gawking at disfigured people and animals, while the other is sanitized by the politically correct notion of a “human interest story”.
    AFAIC both cater to rubbernekers looking for a morbid sensation.
    MSM still pimping geeks.

  8. I imagine calling these glossy freak shows documentaries takes the curse off of watching them and therefore makes the gawkers merely interested parties, not slack-jawed droolers. Take the Michael Jackson funeral. I’ll bet there are still people whining about that.

  9. Turn off your TV. In the universe of television, having a weird -dog- in a freak show is eeeeeevile, but having those poor girls in a “documentary” is completely reasonable.
    TV is anti-human. Shut it off. Just reach out to the cable plug with a pair of side cutting pliers. You know you can do it.

  12. Television is just like any other consumable, you have to pay attention to what, when and how much you consume. You know, like candy, food, booze, honest work, sex or politics: too much of a good thing is bad for you 😉

  14. Excellent juxtapose Kate.
    In a similar vein:
    To many in the msm Sarah palin and family fair game for a freakshow expose, but obama’s family and geneology is not.

  16. If the conjoined twins are the same ones I saw on TLC last year, it is a fascinating story. They were one body but two separate heads. Each had control over ‘their’ side of the body. They showed them taking the drivers exam and they had to take the test twice, with each ‘head’ being in control separately. Very interesting watching these girls try to live a semi-normal life under extreme circumstances.

  17. Call me old fashioned, but I have a hard time with any human being called a freak – I think it amazing when persons with severe obstacles are able to do something with their lives – causes me to consider my own life. I thoroughly understand the curiosity regarding persons who are quirks of nature. I think we have come along way from the days when it was popularly believed that these persons should be exterminated in vitro.

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