Let's give the Post credit for giving credit. This is more than most websites do, where people are assigned to simply re-write news from the original source. Since facts can't be copyrighted, it's not technically "plagiarism."
The article was supposedly about the quick demise of the two female judges who had replaced Mel B and Heidi Klum. Having watched -- suffered through -- much of this "guilty pleasure," fast-forwarding a lot, I can't say that the two women were terrible. They showed a lot of poise for first-timers, and their burbling -- er, judging -- did contain a decent amount of accuracy. AGT is a heavily scripted confection. It's possible that the ladies' original comments after acts were "Ow wow," and "Awesome," and somebody on the staff wrote more cogent things which were then taped and inserted later.
It SEEMED like both were doing a decent job. The Post -- er, VARIETY -- researched the firings, and insisted that the black judge had worn too many "ethnic" hairstyles (as if the producers couldn't ok them beforehand, or resort to wigs) and the blonde judge made too many taste-challenged mistakes in wardrobe. Well, yes, she wore some revealing blouses but she had nothing to reveal. She was flat-chested, so there wasn't a lot of cleavage on display.
The Post -- er, Variety -- seemed to contradict itself on the firing of the black judge. She was fired even though the show "generated 25 million social media impressions, approximately half of which engaged directly with Union (the black judge). Why fire the most popular judge on social media?
The article pointed out that "This year’s “AGT” finale drew approximately 10 million viewers, down 3 million from the year before but top rated in the 18-49 demographic." Bad news and good news, huh? NBC's Jimmy Fallon is now losing in the Late Night war, but NBC chortles that he has more 18-49 viewers, the ones who are more prone to buy any shit advertising in a TV commercial.
The fact is, "America's Got Talent" has some good sob stories, sometimes very bizarre variety acts, and remains the only outlet for such oddities as sand paintings, close-up magic, and new stand-up comedians (who aren't actually new, but usually pros who have been playing the comedy club circuit for ten years, waiting to get a TV break).
The lead story for the article was about Jay Leno, of all people. Jay was a celebrity judge on one segment. In the course of the backstage hi-jinks, he ad-libbed a wisecrack that got the black judge upset. No, it wasn't a black joke that Kevin Eubanks would've laughed off. It was about Koreans eating dogs. For the record, don't Koreans eat dogs? In Korea? It might be a bit of a stereotype, but unlike saying blacks love watermelons, we know EVERYBODY loves watermelons. Not EVERYBODY eats dogs. Koreans do, so what's the stereotype? Everyone knows the stereotype is about Koreans in Korea, not in America. There are parts of the world where people eat rats roasted on a stick.
So one of the judges made a big stink over Jay's joke, and how un-PC it was. Fine. It was edited out. It wasn't a great joke anyway, but ad-libbing comedians don't have a great percentage rate of great wisecracks.
PS, it's estimated a MILLION dogs are eaten in South Korea. How high the figure is in North Korea is anyone's guess. This number should alarm dog lovers, and some might even suggest that a Jay Leno joke would only help shame the practice. It's the same joke-shaming that was used by ethnic comedians (such as Chico Marx) whose broad parody of stereotypical accents led to more assimilation. Artie Kaplan's song "Bensonhurst Blues" had a line, "Your grandmother's accent still embarrasses you." But yes, the next generation made sure NOT to have that accent, because it was more distracting than colorful.
The bottom line with AGT is that it's become wearisome and predictable. Cute kids will make it into the finals. Rottenly annoying aerobic "dance" groups will make it. Maybe two out of ten in the finals will deserve to be there. Along the way, there will be the endless distractions of not enjoying a performer's routine because of constant cut-aways to see the reactions of the judges, as they stare in awe or feign fright over an acrobat's stunt. The show will also help incompetent magicians hide their obvioiusness from the eager channels of YouTube where "reveals" are popular and the moment of trickery is exposed with a big red arrow. Worst of all, the show will remain a vehicle for Simon Cowell's chicanery.
It used to be that Simon got attention for insults. Now, he's transformed into the worldly wise genius (who gave us so many boy bands). At least once every season, he'll grandly raise his hand and STOP the karaoke music on somebody. After a suspenseful pause, he'll declare, "I don't like the song. Give me another. Go away for an hour, learn another one, and perform it." What follows is, of course, a massive triumph, as the supposed amateur somehow memorizes another song and performs it flawlessly." First off, a judge is supposed to judge, not give favoritism to a struggling act. Secondly, the more often it happens, the more stagey it looks.
At this point, it seems Simon even rehearses his mistakes, the same way a Kardashian rehearses an eye-catching "wardrobe malfunction." The big hilarious moment from the last series was when he told a comedian "your fate is in your hands." And then, oops, he forgot, the comedian was born with dactyl hands and that was the subject of 70% of his jokes.
Did Simon deliberately say the wrong thing to get massive attention, YouTube hits and Twitter screeches? We don't know for sure, but as the show's ratings continue to dip, it's obvious more and more people no longer care.
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