Page 143 - A Handbook Genre Studies in Mass Media

CHAPTER 5

a. What are the differences in content and structure?
b. What do these differences reveal with regard to the two
countries?

Genre Analysis: Cultural Context of Celebrity Genre
by Adriane Hall

You Could Not Write This Stuff

VH1’s self-proclaimed “sideshow”—The Surreal Life, which completed
its fifth season in 2006—lives up to its P.T. Barnum predecessors. The
reality show places seven celebrities in one tight space for two weeks of
acts more shocking than sword-swallowing and fire-eating. Sandwiched
between two other shows starring former celebrities, The Surreal Life
epitomizes VH1’s new brand: Celebreality. The network develops each
show to serialize—perhaps exploit—the oddities of celebrities, to pre-
sumably make money off America’s obsession with fame.
Whether seeking or observing fame, Americans want to experience
something outside of their realities. The Surreal Life exposes both of these
aspects of fame, constantly asking whether audiences want to see a celeb-
rity as a character or as the truest form of himself or herself. The last two
episodes of the series especially center on that idea, specifically concerning
the feud between two housemates and how far one of them is willing to
go to achieve notoriety. Examining these episodes using the ideological
approach sheds some light on both the obsession and exploitation of fame.
Like with many of the original sideshows, the “freaks” were not taunted
as outcasts, but embraced for their peculiarities by the owners and opera-
tors of the shows. In short, they put themselves on display, allowing for
themselves and others to profit from their gawking audiences. The stars
of The Surreal Life, while not bearded ladies or conjoined twins, expose
their faults, greed, and bizarre antics for the same reason—to profit off a
TV audience eager for something incongruent with their own realities.
Celebrity is by no means a new concept, especially when viewed
through the lens of Leo Braudy, a professor of literature who has focused
on the study of fame throughout history. Alexander, Caesar, Cleopatra,
Joan of Arc—the names he says stick in a person’s mind—draw images
of individuals too unique to fit within usual societal bounds. The quest for
fame, he argues, is a reflection of society, and larger, more heterogeneous
populations will produce more people seeking eternal renown.

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