Am I the only one

July 3, 2000 10:46 PM

Am I the only one who can't stand the testosterone driven crap that's proliferating cable? As a sensitive, new age man, I wish FX would just play M*A*S*H reruns ALL the time.
posted by aladfar (19 comments total)

You still watch television? You still have cable?

Wow.
posted by ZachsMind at 11:06 PM on July 3, 2000

lol... yeah, I'm with Zach on that one.

But the only thing I can figure, as a strategy, is that the cable honchos think young white males are the only audience fickle enough to be "grabbed" on impulse. This is the kind of thinking that leads to CBS getting sucky ad revenues, even though they have decent sized audiences, because the advertisers think CBS's audience is "too old for advertising to work on them".

I'll wait a while for you to boggle on that one... :)

posted by aurelian at 12:18 AM on July 4, 2000

Um . . . I don't watch television. I was just asking for academic purposes.

Really, how "analog" do you think I am?
posted by aladfar at 12:31 AM on July 4, 2000

If you want to get digital about it, when it comes to "monetizing the eyeballs" on cable, the only things that deliver the numbers are Wrestling and things like it. (Apologies to those of you who don't want "Iron Chef" lumped in with "Toughman"...) And I don't think of "The Sopranos" as a "chick show", either
posted by wendell at 1:06 AM on July 4, 2000

I gave up one mind numbing box for another.

Streaming M*A*S*H files! Someone get my VC on the phone!


posted by Mick at 1:20 AM on July 4, 2000

I for one am for the "new" testosterone-driven programming. With magazines like Maxim, FHM and Loaded the "real guys" are finally being heard. Unlike the namby-pamby Details and Esquire men we had been forced to emulate for a good part of history. Men will be men!
posted by owillis at 7:33 AM on July 4, 2000

My main problem with The Man Show is that it's usually not very funny- which is strange, since Jimmy & Adam were very funny on the Kevin & Bean Show (the morning program on KROQ).
posted by dogwelder at 9:13 AM on July 4, 2000

I have no clue where the Man Show or other similar shows came from. But I wouldn't forget about the Baywatch/boobie bouncer shows which I believe started the trend. I've pretty much given up on TV, the only shows I'll even watch anymore are the Fox Sunday evening cartoon lineups. Give me more Futurama, The Simpsons, and King of the Hill. Now how did *that* ever happen?
posted by jdiaz at 9:20 AM on July 4, 2000

The Man Show actually had its moments. When I was still watching cable I caught a few of their shows. I LOVED their "Sufferage" piece. They set up a table at a mall or something with signs and posters and a petition saying they were going to "stop women's sufferage in this country." I couldn't stop laughing. Or when Jimmy would walk around asking complete strangers to have sex with him. When they'd do improvisational stuff, that's when they'd actually be funny.

And the old beer guzzling man at the organ was always amazing to me. I can't do that with water.

But the endless stream of fart jokes and unoriginal "we're men so we scratch ourselves in public and like it!" stuff got boring by episode two. It was true! It's all true, but that doesn't make it entertaining. I'm behind the concept of the show though. Over the last twenty years or so, men have become pussy-whipped. Things like the feminist movement and the growing tolerance of male homosexuality and political correctness and the end of the sexual revolution and all that kinda stuff has taken the balls of the average red blooded american heterosexual male and encased them in dry ice. And if we complain someone says, "you should be more sensitive to her needs" or "oh you're just a closet case."

The Man Show's trying to say We're men. We're stupid. We don't like asking for directions. We will burp and fart and scratch ourselves in public. We do have a one track mind. We want sex. We like beating the living shit out of one another over a pigskin. We shoot things with heavy machinery. We pee standing up. We spend the first nine months of our existence fighting to get out of the womb and the rest of our lives trying to get back in there. We're men. Either accept us as we are or leave us with our power tools and our extreme sports and our shiny new cars. GET OFF OUR BACKS about being sensitive or we'll go find a club and bash you over the head and drag you back to the cave where you belong." That's what the Man's Show is trying to say. And I applaud that.

I'm just not going to help them with their ratings cuz, well, my girlfriend wants me to take her cat Snoogums to the veterinarian and I just don't have time nowadays.
posted by ZachsMind at 10:52 AM on July 4, 2000

Assuming for a moment tthat men have been "pussy-whipped", are the idiotic "Man Show" stereotypes really any better?
posted by harmful at 12:13 PM on July 4, 2000

Idolizing the flaws of the male persona is as fruitless as trying to completely annihilate them. Politicans know that the highest level of electability is to be a moderate.

When the storm comes the mighty trees topple and the humble grass yields.
posted by john at 1:31 PM on July 4, 2000

So we should all go get some grass, then?
posted by dogwelder at 2:30 PM on July 4, 2000

Sure, although it won't do much for our mighty trees, what the hell.

Although it's nice to have guy (adversarialist?) shows to counteract the chick (co-operationalist?) shows, I don't think M*A*S*H is quite the middle ground or anything anymore.

The Baywatch Bouncing Boobie shows aren't filling my needs as a Man, and it stopped being sexy about the same time that Der Hasselhoff grew larger, ah, boobies than the ex-bunnies that made up the rest of the cast. The Man Show (which I've seen about once) seems real fratty and infantile, and I have yet to see any alternative on the TV.

Not that I'm looking hard anymore. That's why I'm here, with all of you, instead of watching Extreme Chicken Farming or whatever.
posted by chicobangs at 3:43 PM on July 4, 2000

aldafar: does that "sensitive man" schtick still work with the ladies? ;)
posted by Zeldman at 2:08 AM on July 5, 2000

once again, i am amused by the gender split in the postings to this thread. but then again, all we're good for is being ogled and giggling in your general direction, right?

because you know what? -- so much of the 'we're men' definitions of these shows is directly linked to being an asshole and using women as nothing more to stare at/talk about -- it's like it's worse than fifth grade at times, women all have cooties, they're untouchable as people -- hello, breakdown of gender relations much? hello the male gaze is taking back this and every night?

it turns my stomach. especially in the wake of the central park group grope. especially in the wake of the article in the new york times magazine last week where actresses were talking about how issues of maxim were serving as casting directors' bibles.

and please, don't condescend to me and say that i have all those other magazines that were targeted to me.
posted by maura at 11:39 AM on July 6, 2000

why did she ask you if you thought the central park incident was okay? i'm not sure i follow what exactly prompted that remark.

i have to say that it put things into a lot of perspective for me; watching those videotapes was like watching a nightmare. and i wasn't commenting on the nature of the people who weren't talking so much as i was commenting on the nature of the commentary above, and who was performing said commentary. (whew, meta!) i believe i'm the first woman to post in this thread? maybe other people are smarter than me and just won't get involved.

i know that this is going to make me sound like i fall into the 'bitter beeotch' crowd -- but it shouldn't. all i really ask is that people think about things beyond, you know, their own two-foot radius of self-recognition.
posted by maura at 1:42 PM on July 6, 2000

She didn't ask me if I thought it was okay. She asked WHY I thought it was okay. In retrospect, she had been watching this program for about 45 minutes before I walked in, and the program itself kept showing men-in-herd behaviour, arrogant "she was asking for it" cops, etc. I walked in, sat down, and was suddenly the target of misplaced anger. She realized it when I (not so gently) pointed it out, but it made me feel bad and defensive all at once - like everything I did/believed could be negated in one sweeping "guilty by association" comment. I suppose I had a moment of emotional flashback when i read your post.

Oh, and I wasn't suggesting that you were being bitter - what I was saying is that in the "discussion" I mentioned, those were the only viewpoints being expressed. If one were to assume that the people involved represented the whole of the female perspective, it would have sounded a bit the way I read (mistakenly?) your original post.

Perhaps we both should have just stayed out.
posted by CrazyUncleJoe at 2:51 PM on July 6, 2000

Uh.. I still think Maura's cute. Does that make me sexist?

I think she's smart too. Smarts in women have always been a turn on for me. Especially when they're smarter than me, which is well, most of the time. Whether or not she'd look good on a Cosmopolitan magazine has been irrelevant.

There are times when I'm like Jimmy Kimmel. There are times when I'm like Alan Alda. Most of the time though I'm just ..well, like I'm just me. And I don't know if just me is an exagerration of those stereotypes or just something in between.

I think it's fun to make fun of the stereotypes, but most of all I'm simply amazed all you people still watch cable.
posted by ZachsMind at 9:50 PM on July 6, 2000