Fallen For "Idol"

Yes, as ashamed as I am to admit it, I've been watching American Idol, but I can rationalize it. After all, if I'm to be a semi-professional commentator on Pop Culture, how can I continue to ignore the biggest Pop Culture phenomenon of the nascent century.

I like being a cartoonist, because people recognize that not everyone can do it and that I have a special talent and skill. But apparently everyone thinks they can sing, and sing well enough to be the next winner of American Idol. How else do you explain people who sing worse than me (I refer you to the audio portion of this post for my rendering--or maybe rending is more appropriate--of Home On The Range) showing up in droves for the first round of auditions and getting indignant when told, and not even insultingly most of the time, by Simon Cowell that they might not have what it takes to be a professional singer?

Of course, some of it is just about getting on TV. Is it even possible that some of these people know they suck and are even being delibarately bad just to have a shot at getting on the show, even if getting their five minutes of fame means being verbally abused by Simon and the other two stooges? Being on TV does seem to be the ultimate goal in our society these days. It's this overwhelming need of people to see themselves on the boob tube that has made things like The Jerry Springer Show and its ilk and the whole so-called "reality" TV genre possible, making TV sometimes seem like a race to see how low people are willing to go just to be able to call up Aunt Myrtle and say, "Ya gotta watch Fear Factor t'night! I'm gonna be on it!"