A Tale of Three Talk Shows

G. and I had dinner with his family last night to celebrate birthday, anniversary, and induction into an honor society. It was a nice atmosphere, very Italian restaurant-ish. The only speedbumb was the fact that our waitress sent half our order for take-out, delaying our meal about an hour and a half. In the meanwhile, we ate lots of bread and I drank a little too much chianti on an empty stomach. To top it all off, my meal wasn't that great. But the conversation was quite lively, which brings me to the subject of this post.

For some reason, we got on the topic of Oprah. Oprah was universally panned for turning her show into an Oprah-fest no matter what the day's topic. Dave Chappelle is on? Oprah talks about herself. Actually, she manages to talk about herself all the damn time (other popular topics in relation to herself: John Travolta, her plane, her dogs). It surprises me how she can get away with so much ego (she's on every cover of her magazine) and still have a ca-zillion fans. G. even had a student who firmly believed that Oprah as president would solve the world's problems. I know she gives a lot of money to charity (and I know it's a LOT of money) and uses her fame to highlight serious issues. Yet she also uses her fame to milk her celebrity for all its worth.

Now on the subject of celebrity. Did anybody catch Isaac Mizrahi for E! during the Golden Globes? It was hilarious. He kept asking the celebrities totally inappropriate questions about underwear and the like. It was so much more entertaining that those other kiss-butt red carpet shows and, may I venture to say, even subversive. The whole purpose of those shows is to publicize these celebrities' careers and clothes and life and make all of us schmoes feel like fat, ugly, poor slumps (alright, I'm speaking for myself). But Isaac didn't play by the red carpet rules and was borderline rude-- he undermined the red carpet! Now, Isaac can get away with this behavior on the red carpet and his talk show because he's gay and a little flamboyant and flighty, so it's behavior that is disarming and not dangerous (per se). Cut to last year's E! red carpet events where Kathy Griffin did the same type of schtick, but because she's a comedian and a woman, it's unacceptable (still subversive however). So, she's out, and cute "harmless" Isaac is in.

Isaac's show is not all about HIM in an Oprah or Tyra way. His slip-ups and mistakes are funny precisely because they work against the polished veneer of other talk shows. And he has fun with the mistakes; he seems genuinely tickled by things that don't go well. Now take another talk show with mistakes, Martha Stewart. She tries so hard to be polished in front of the audience and to partake in witty banter with her chefs and celebrity guests. She fails miserably precisely because her personality is humorless and rather bitchy and no matter how much she tries to suppress it, these traits always emerge. Whether she's making a bed with some guy from Las Vegas or cooking with Carmen Electra, they always end up the foolish Goofus while Martha is the (visibly) triumphant Gallant. Every single time. Martha Stewart worked in the edited confines of her last show, Martha Stewart Living ; it doesn't work with an unedited show and live audience.

So what's the point? I guess there is no point if you aren't into noticing these types of things or watch much TV (I do both in spades). However, I think that Isaac's show, plus Kathy Griffin's biting stand-up and the hilarity of E!'s Talk Soup and VH1's Best Week Ever (all of which poke fun at reality TV, celebrity "news", and talk shows) could be early signs that celebrity worship is in decline. It has reached a point of ridiculousness that is unsustainable. These shows highlight the cracks and shows us how stupid it all is..."Brangelina"???. Meanwhile, WE'RE IN A WAR PEOPLE!!!

And that's how it looks from my little corner of the world.