Television, cynicism, and you: SUSAN BOYLE IS A FAKE!
Don’t get carried away with the title, this isn’t a post slagging out hairy Scottish virgins (both of them, Susan Boyle and Gordon Brown).
With every unexpected, nay unbelievable, revelation of hidden fugly talents, you will find people who doubt what they are seeing, and expect it to be some orchestration of the reality television format. It would be naive to think this doesn’t happen, with story-line writers on reality and the highly constructed nature of “reality”. It takes an awful lot of work to make something look “genuine”.
With the global television, radio, print, and even YouTube saturation of Susan Boyle, people are going to question what they are seeing. Is it real? Is it fake? Did the producers make her up to look like that? Her biography is almost too perfect, can it be true?
Business insider collected some of the quotes that really sum up what a lot of people are saying, and being heavily criticised for.
“I wonder if she’s a plant – maybe a musical actress in her 20s who retired to have a family, then 20 years later was recruited and given a new identity for the show. The last couple of seasons of AI have had more plants than a nursery.”
The old Yahoo Answers: Is Susan Boyle story is fake, or a setup from inside the show in order to get more viewers?.? [sic] gets responses that don’t even make sense:
how would you feel if someone said that about you?! do [sic] be so mean. I believe her.
See, you’re AWFUL if you process what you watch on television, HOW DARE YOU CRITICALLY ENGAGE WITH THE WORLD AROUND YOU!
Perhaps the true cynicism around the Susan Boyle “YouTube Sensation” isn’t the questioning of autheniticity, but the response you find eventually on almost every discussion on newspapers and video sites alike:
I Don’t Care
or
Who cares?
Which is perhaps the most interesting part of this whole phenomenon. Are you surprised a fat slapper with a depressing story who can sing gets the public in a flap? This is the kind of stuff people lap up! People are openly saying that they don’t care whether something is a truth or an untruth! This would mess with a happy little inspirational story.
When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.
PS I’m the second result on Google for “Susan Boyle is a fake” AWESOME! I am finally famous!
10 Comments to “Television, cynicism, and you: SUSAN BOYLE IS A FAKE!”
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http://yourtv.com.au/news/index.cfm?i=158764
Susan Boyle offered $1 million to lose virginity on camera
An American porn company is hoping to cash in on the phenomenal popularity of Susan Boyle, offering her US$1 million to lose her virginity on camera.Boyle is the dowdy Scottish singer who was launched to instant fame after appearing on the UK reality series Britain’s Got Talent, where she stunned the show’s judges with an angelic rendition of the Les Miserables song ‘I Dreamed a Dream’.
People all around the world are captivated by 47-year-old Boyle’s voice, her frumpy appearance and her unusual personality — she claims she’s a virgin and has never even been kissed.
Clips of her debut performance have been streamed by millions of people on the internet. (Click here to watch an interview with Boyle.)
Now the Los Angeles Times reports that US-based adult entertainment company Kick Ass Pictures has offered Boyle big bucks to have sex on camera… but the offer is only good for the next week.
“We want to get this movie shot and out while Susan has the world’s attention,” said company president Mark Kulkis. “Besides, after 47 years of virginity, I’m sure Susan is also anxious to get something cracking as soon as possible.”
It’s very unlikely Boyle will accept the tacky proposal — she’s reportedly a devout Catholic.
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LaurenA1 says:
I only just watched it this morning but it looked pretty fake to me. Maybe it was the anvilicious editing (disbelief from the crowd! disdain from the judges! sidelong glances from Ant and Dec!) but it really seemed as though Simon Cowell knew exactly what was going to happen. I think it’s really unlikely that she would have gotten that far without Cowell being told how good she was. Are there preliminary heats on that show?
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Rounds upon rounds of pre-auditions and producers intefviewing and coaching.
Do three people interview 100 000 people sight unseen?
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Anders says:
Yeah, don’t care either, sorry Simon. Not that I believe it happens the way these crap shows would have us swallow.. so she is dowdy (slapper’s a bit harsh?), and she can sing pretty well, so that’s something but hardly groundbreaking…BUT it started this big debate (again) about image vs talent, style vs content – that’s a really good debate, but truth is it’s been done and forgotten too many times already.
I still think it is worthwhile to have these ‘debates’ about talent/beauty all the more so if it’s actually a set-up lie, sure it’s just more tepid media manipulation, utube to the the ‘tube. We are all hoodwinked by the stinkbox. Our Kocky spews out his softcock rascist/sexist banter on sunrise, blogs fill up with smelly tripe, and that silly simon bowel is still a fatheaded saveloy with too much money. Is there any other news?
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Slapper seemed nicer than ….. Slurry? I was being “deliberately essentialistic”. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it!
You’re a true cynic Anders, and Nietzsche would be proud. There probably isn’t some nice ultimate truth here, and who’s to say that it’s worth any more than our own perceptions.
I like how you’ve grabbed onto the idea of raising debate on these dichotomies that we have in place. The sad thing is, we only have these scales of talent/beauty, because these are the frames of reference we have to make sense of the world.
I think the whole issue that stuck in my mind, was that a refined voice and performance doesn’t come out of NOWHERE. In my mind there is training and experience in play. I think this is why the Paul Potts story was less satisfying: there was a history of training and some experience behind his performance. We had beauty coming out of the beast’s mouth already, but is this why the machinations of television feel they need to revise the story?
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Ten people and twenty opinion, this is so typical for human’s rice.
The JEALOUSY is the bigest sickness ever and is no medicine for that.
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Eulalia Mayford is a real person?
I assumed it was a listener with a sense of humour, mimicking the non-sensical and impassioned defenders of Susan Boyle. What is the world coming to?
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25167820-5013110,00.html
Life on this overpopulated Planet is a joke and unfortunatelly you can not buy a medicine against greed and stupidity.
Posted by: Eulalia Mayford of Sydney 9:59am March 11, 2009http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/comments/0,22058,25378915-5001021,00.html
This middle part of the body made a lot of troubles on this Earth. Ha, ha ha! The Big Creator gave you a brain as well. Try to use it.
Posted by: Eulalia Mayford of Sydney 9:00am today
Comment 9 of 81I really have better things to do than google comments …. now back to online stalking Susan Boyle
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Susan Boyle has a great voice and for me she was one of the best contestants.
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from that photo i’m wondering if susan boyle and gordon brown are the same person? or at least twins separated at birth….now that would be a story…