My Super Sweet 16.....Why?
 

Where the hell do they get these brats and why encourage them to act this way by giving them air time? Why would anoyone spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for some snotty 16 year old to try and lay claim to the most "off the hook, the chain, or whatever other catch phrase of the month" party of the year?

I watched a few episodes of the show out of curiousity after seeing it spoofed on SNL and not believing it was real. Part of me is appalled at the actions of the teens and their parents, part of me thinks that it is all staged beyond belief, but they do a seemingly good job in just making everyone just seem like a realistic bitch.

It's interesting to me to see the generation gap at work in the reaction to shows like these. I look at something like that and think about how awful it makes those kids look. How spoiled they are and how much they look like unattractive people who no one would aspire to be anything like.

But then there are kids my son's age who watch these shows and do aspire to be just like the idiot, bratty kids on the show. I guess it goes hand-in-hand with the general desire to be nothing-but-famous (and even being the center of attention and being placed on a pedastal above your peers is a degree of fame, even if the party existed without the TV show) that a segment of the population currently fights for.

Almost all current celebrity and reality TV serves the purpose of us common folks being able to point fingers and laugh. By current celebrity, I mean the media where Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Jessica/Ashlee/Joe, Nicole, Britney/K-FED, etc are the main courses. We set them up to knock them down. The central theme is to point out the shortcomings, foibles, excesses, and general waste of space that these people appear to represent. My Sweet Sixteen is one of the most over-the-top incarnations of this phenomenon. Certainly one of the attactions is that the kids are apparently not "in on the joke".

My favorite was the recent one with LA Reid and Pebbles's son in NY. P Diddy showed up, Jermaine Dupri DJ'd, and Kanye West performed. This big tub of a preppy loser (the son) took the term spoiled brat to new heights.

Honestly though, it's kind of like too much of a good thing (making fun of celebrity/wealth). Like chocolate cake with chocolate mouse and chocolate sauce with chocolate sprinkles and chocolate chips on it. Enough to make you sick.

I've come to the conclusion that the kids in this show are wealthy beyond belief, a bit spoiled... but MTV is telling them to bring out the attitude for the camera. Some of the things these kids say is just so wild, I have a hard time believing MTV producers don't encourage them to say these things because...ughh... it's what people want to see.

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Everytime I've caught this show, it's only been for 1 minute at a time. The reason for that is that I can feel my blood pressure rising as I watch it and have to force myself to change it for the sake of my health. Seriously, I don't know that I've ever hated a show as much as I hate this one.

Watched this for the first time a weekend or two ago as I was flipping channels. Daddy took the brat car shopping, and she saw a SUV she liked(Range Rover I think) and was all in love with it...then she found out it was used and she's "Ewwww, it's used?". Then I think it was the same girl who flew with her mom to Paris to look for a dress for her party. After trying on a few, she came out in a dress that most hookers would call skanky. Either this girl was blessed or had implants already...either way it made me feel dirty(and wondering where such girls were when I was in high school) seeing it and I changed the channel.

half the kids there need to be slapped and then the parents need to be hit with a bat for taking their shit......

and by the way.... this little girls act like the only sluts...

I don't understand the anger for the show. It's laughable to me to see how important these kids think they are. I think if your angry when you watch something like this, it's really just your jealousy for their money. The rub is that money does not equal happiness.

I could see people being angry that this kind of vapid idiocy is consistently celebrated on television with these materialistic morons being held up as aspirational role models to America's youth.

The point of the show isn't to make fun or show that money doesn't buy happiness. The target demo of MTV is too young to see that. This show is there to show young people how to act, how to be and what to strive for. These shows exist to show that fame and being the center of attention is the ultimate achievement.

It's not jealousy to wish that youth entertainment projected more worthy goals and role models... or even offered a more balanced view instead of having 95% celebration of fame whores.

Granted, the show doesn't make me mad (I wouldn't watch it at all if not for my wife being interested in every single bit of reality TV that's ever been broadcast even though reality TV hates women), but I do think the world would be better off if shows like this (and nearly all of the rest of the MTV line-up) ceased to exist.

The Showbiz Show with David Spade did a funny bit on this show last night, during a segment titled "Why They Hate Us."

I'll tell you why.......some of those girls have seriously kickin' bods!

There should be a guy at the end of the show that just goes up to the kids and smacks them really hard in the face. Roll credits

The one about the gay black guy is the funniest. "I'm a diva"

I don't think you give enough credit to parents. Most high school students find this show as ridiculous as adults. The kids that will be warped by this are those that have bad parents or none at all. And to be honest, seeing the wrong way to act with money is a problem that these kids will probably never have.

Are there really kids out there that watch this show and think of them as role models instead of people to be despised?

I don't know. I guess having two teenaged sons and seeing the people they hang around with and the things they consider to be important has led me to think this celebration of stupidity and fame whoring is having an effect on kids (and people in general).

Television and other media have always had an effect on how we, as a people, view ourselves and what we aspire to be. It's not the primary effect, but it attaches itself to us in ways we might not even realize.

Personally, I find it abhorrent that television is so intent on attempting to roll back any kind of gains made by women over the past 35 years or so by presenting the ideal woman as stupid, vapid, materialistic and obsessed not with contributing but with simply being famous. I just don't think the whole "Women are Dumb" culture is really something that's going to be helpful in the long-run.

Just as the Go-Go 1980s (when I grew up) had kids putting posters of Porsches up on their walls and attempting to emulate Michael Milken or Donald Trump, the Celebration of Stupidity that is the early 2000s is very likely leading kids to put up posters of Paris Hilton and attempting to emulate her by being as stupid and as selfish as possible.

Of course, seeing where Michael Milken ended up, I don't know which is worse.

But it's more annoying than maddening. I wish it was something I could ignore (but, like I said, my wife is obsessed with this stuff despite being 30 years old at this point).

Yes. I can introduce you to a few.

Same here.

I'm only 26, but I can tell you right now that I'm damn sure that if I had children I would never let them watch a show like this.

Well said, Dan, in both of your posts. I agree 100%.

I think these reality shows actually quite cynically try to have their cake and eat it too. They present their subjects with a "wink-wink" satirical recognition that such behavior is both detestable and subject for ridicule. By the same token, they also must be aware that there is a large callow, boorish, and/or emotionally/mentally underdeveloped audience out there that sees these "people" as role models to be emulated and celebrated. Thus, the shows themselves are expressing a complete contempt for their audience at the same time they are exploiting their interest.

I do think most reasonably intelligent adults see these shows as the lowest common denominator of our entertainment culture, which thankfully (mostly) reduces them to the fringe freak shows they really are.

Dad: How much is the house for the weekend?
HouseDude: 50k
Dad: wow how about 25k?
Sweet16: Come on dad it's only 50k!
Dad: ok

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