The Real World

Okay, time to once again level my sights on something that sucks, and revolutionize our very culture as a result. This time I’m calling out The Real World, a poorly named departure from reality and shame entering it’s 300th season on MTV. Get ready for suck.

The basic concept of the show is as follows: you take the seven most desperate people you can find at Senor Frog’s, invite them to take time off of their jobs as receptionists and out of work actors to come live in the worlds tackiest house in whatever town seems cool and hasn’t been used yet, give them unlimited alcohol, and then film them. How did this ever get made? I blame the terrible competition on TV at the time this concept was introduced. Wings, you have failed the American people yet again.

I have a new idea for your crappy spoken word introduction, Real World producers that are assuredly reading this blog every week looking for ways to make your show more horrendous. Ready? Okay!

“This is the heavily edited story-
of what happens when seven highly confrontational personal trainers-
are forced to live in an eyesore condo together-
and abandon all semblance of manners or shame-
and start getting drunk.”

You’re welcome, producers.

I just don’t understand the appeal of this show. It is like any other reality show, but with less likeable contestants, and no actual point to it, like the others where someone can win or lose or get kicked out (except when people leave The Real World because of drugs or drinking, which is always hilarious). So with no purpose or competition, there is no conflict other than the intense suckiness of all the denizens of the house. But there’s conflict aplenty, in the form of slurred cussing and sloppy sex, due in part to the copious amounts of alcohol being foisted on the shameless morons.

I’m trying to figure out the target demographic for this show. I think it’s people that wish they had awful roommates, but instead live alone, and want to know what it’s like to live with a bunch of idiots that don’t have personalities. Or maybe it’s targeted at people who want to turn on the TV and immediately have a reason to go on a shooting spree. Those are huge untapped markets, I would assume.

And The Real World can’t blame its suckiness on pioneering a genre, ever. The other early reality show was, in fact, much much better. I’m talking about Cops, of course, also known as The Wacky Adventures Of Meth! Cops is still my favorite reality show to this very day, while The Real World is still the most boring one ever made (yes, worse than The Hills, but only just barely). So if you want to blame someone for creating the formula for an extremely boring reality show that doesn’t involve tasing meth addicts, blame The Real World.

So for creating terrible reality TV, crapping up the airwaves for nigh on 20 years now, and for making boring people all over the country want to go on reality TV to debase themselves, I am giving The Real World a big fat F-. If you would like appeal your grade, or just drunkenly yell at me, then cry, then go have sex with your roommate in a hot tub, or if you just have a good idea for something else that sucks, I can be reached at johnnyjive@hotmail.com

Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo

So this post is going to be the F- Blog’s first foray into popular culture, though many of you may argue that the bum on the bus was popular, I debate his lasting presence on the cultural scene. I mean, what’s he going to do to follow up? Drink wine and fall asleep in the park? Ask me for change on my way to Subway? We’ll just have to see.

But more to the point, this entry is concerned with the film John Rambo. This Sylvester Stallone vanity project got me out to the theaters twice (that’s right, twice) to try and comprehend the condensed suck I saw the screen vomiting forth. John Rambo, you get an F- and here’s why:

Your movie was the funniest thing I have seen all year, by far. I thought you were going to be a boring war movie, or a boring jungle combat movie, kind of like Predator if the titular predator wasn’t in it. But after being in the theater for about four minutes, I was laughing hysterically at the buckets of flying guts careening across my field of vision. I seriously saw what I think was a Burmese guy’s smoldering lung fly into the air before splashing down comically into a rice paddy. I wish I could say that about every movie I’ve watched recently (I’m looking at you, The Producers). He fucking vaporizes the driver of a jeep with mounted machine gun. He rips a guy’s throat out with his bare fucking hands. Yeah, that was his movie. This movie was like a 100-minute heavy metal music video without the pesky heavy metal.

Unfortunately, Stallone thought it would be a good idea to have the titular character, John Rambo, actually talk. It’s an easy mistake to make, I can almost understand it. But it was a grave mistake indeed. He tried to carry the extreme nature of the film over into the dialogue, which results in half-slurred gems like “fuck the world,” cascading out of the diagonal sneering mouth of Mr. Stallone. His pseudo-philosophical speeches stayed in the realm of humorless drama for the entirety of the film, ensuring that any moment when someone wasn’t exploding or being cut in half, the audience was still laughing.

I also loved how he completely dehumanized every non-white actor in the film, choosing to forego subtitles for the most part, turning them into gibbering caricatures of what Sly thinks south Asian people are like: evil sunglasses-wearing rapists, or rice-planting bullet-magnets. If a white character died, the camera was quick to zoom in on their suffering, so the audience knew that someone important was having their guts blasted out. But if a Burmese person died? Oh man, they were getting mowed down by the truckload, don’t even worry about them, Sylvester. We’ll just assume they deserved it for their godless heathen lives of wickedness, or whatever.

I think this movie was basically some kind of awesome joke Hollywood played on Sly, where he brought this insanely awful screenplay to them, and they were like “oh man, this is great! Why don’t you start shooting it tomorrow, little buddy?” the same way their refrigerators at home were plastered with pictures scribbled by their two-year-olds. “no, Sylvester, I love the character, I really (snickers) identified with a man who’s neck is wider than my waist, and how he’s filled with conflict, like whether or not to kill everyone with a machine gun or a machete that he just made himself in like 45 minutes. That is the kind of depth you just don’t see in those namby-pamby movies everyone else is putting time and effort into.”

Before I give this grade, I have to confess: I actually paid to see this movie, both times. It was fucking hysterical. The second time I saw it was at a second run theater, and there were homeless people asleep in some seats up front from the show before ours, who didn’t wake up and leave until the people started exploding. Yes, they would rather be back out on the streets than watch this movie again. But not me, I was in the back playing air guitar to the Iron Maiden song in my head while I watched the townspeople blow up like gore-filled piñatas.

That being said, Sylvester Stallone, I am giving you and your film John Rambo an F- (but an A for effort/being completely hilarious). If you would like to appeal this grade, or threaten to jam a homemade machete into my torso and then emote about it, or if you have suggestions for other things that suck, email me at johnnyjive@hotmail.com

The Continent of Asia

So this one is going to come out of left field, but this update is to give an F- to the continent of Asia. Yeah, I’m as surprised as any of you, I never saw it coming. I mean, all the guys wear suits, the food is good (mostly), people are constantly yelling, it seems pretty awesome. But that’s just the surface, covering up the filthy suck that pervades the continent.

Now, keep in mind, I’m doing Asia here, which includes India. I could sit here and rail on it for being overpopulated, or smelling horrendous, or being generally disgusting. But I won’t (other than that sentence I just wrote where I did). What I will say is that when Bollywood movie stars die, those people fucking riot. For days. Like, set fire to shit and choke each other and go nuts. The worst we ever did for a dead movie star in America is pretend that, after Heath Ledger died, that a Knight’s Tale was good and artistic. Whoops!

Now I’ll move North, into what I call “Classic Asia.” I won’t go into the veritable sweaty rape-fest that is the subway system, or the tentacle porn thing. No, my complaints are more subtle (idiotic). One of my biggest problems with Asia is the whole chopsticks thing. Let me preface this by saying that I know how to use chopsticks, and also I love having silverware that so easily encourages drumming on the table. But what I hate is people ripping on white people for not knowing how to use it. They always give me plastic forks at Chinese restaurants because I am extremely white (I’m talking like, ABBA white, almost). If they get on my case for not knowing chopsticks, I fire back with this: who’s the culture that never advanced its silverware technology beyond the use of two sticks? I think that’s how chimps get ants out of anthills on the Savannah. I feel like them handing out forks totally admits that forks work better and are easier to use. Just like the difference between Windows and Mac.

And while we’re on food/food related inventions, this culture doesn’t use cheese. What the fuck. I mean, not just that they didn’t figure out how to make it, ever, but even after they were exposed to it, it never made it into their food. Seriously, that sucks. And yes, to answer your question, I have had the Chinese dish “crab cheese,” but I don’t count that, because it resembles neither crab, nor cheese. Basically, this is a culture that invented fireworks, but not cheese or silverware. I can’t say that my priorities, as an inventor, wouldn’t be similar, but then again, that’s why I’m not creating my own culture, isn’t it?

Also, Japan, please answer my question: are you aware of the insane ironic enjoyment of your culture? There’s no way you’re serious about your TV/movies/making Hello Kitty your cultural ambassador to tourists (seriously they did that recently). Please, tell me, I don’t honestly know if you’re making all these insane TV shows and laughing at them with us, or if you’re serious. There’s no way you really can be putting out an insane cartoon about magic angel robots from space who have to fight some kind of giant plants or whatever the fuck and not see the retardedness of that. I simply can’t accept that.

Until I get some answers, Asia, I’m going to have to give you a big red F-. Deal with it.

If you have answers to that question, or if you want to tell me how awesome chopsticks are and that I suck, or if you have any other ideas for things that suck and deserve an F-, email me at johnnyjive@hotmail.com

Guy drinking Olde English on the bus at 8:30 am on July 17th

To the homeless man drinking a can of Olde English on the bus this morning, I’m giving you a grade of F- and this is why:

On my way to work this morning, a very dirty man got on the bus (in the free area) around Westlake center. He then proceeded to lift up a newspaper and pretend to read it. While he did this, he simultaneously drank a can of Olde English 800 High Gravity malt liquor, hiding it from the busdriver, and probably also the dorky security guard in the front of the bus. Nice work, dirty guy.

Homeless man, if you’d like to appeal your grade, please email me answers to the following questions:

1) Why are you on express bus? You don’t seem like you’re the type to be in a hurry to get anywhere. The weather is nice these days, take a walk.

2) Why are you out at all, drunk or not, at 8:30 in the morning? I’m going to work, where the hell are you going? Something tells me the good panhandling starts around lunch, so if I were a bum, I’d probably sleep in.

3) Seriously, drinking Olde English at 8:30 in the morning? That’s more of an after dinner drink for me. I would thinking something sweet, like a dessert wine or some Kahlua would be more appropriate. For 8:30 in the morning. At least drink regular beer, you could not possibly need malt liquor at that hour, the day hasn’t even been around long enough to start sucking.

4) Why were you pretending to read the business section of the paper? Your ruse might have worked a little better if you didn’t pretend to be a filthy, sweaty man, checking in on your tech stocks. While reeking of beer. Maybe next time, try reading the funnies. Garfield makes me want to drink, people might sympathize with you. Like “drink up buddy, Family Circus has been going downhill lately, ever since they got rid of ‘Not Me.’”

Homeless man, please go to the library and get on a computer and email me justification for your actions this morning. And everyone else, please email me if you know of things that suck.

I can be reached at johnnyjive@hotmail.com.