Thursday, March 20, 2008

Damn You Andy Warhol

Yeah, I’m pissed at Andy Warhol. I’m pissed because his work is contributing to the dumbing down of society and the destruction of America. Now, I know what you’re thinking, “How can that be? He did Campbell Soup! And that Marilyn Monroe thing! The man is a genius! An American icon! I love Andy Warhol! Damn you Faheem!” But you see, I’m not talking about his traditional works here.

I’m not so much upset as to what he did as I am to what he said. Remember that quote, “In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes?” Well it has proved to be all too prophetic and I’m convinced that Andy’s prophecy is contributing to the destruction of America. Bear with me a moment.

The other day I was watching TV and I stumbled across one of VH1’s most popular shows Flavor of Love (part 18 or whatever). For those of you who aren’t familiar with the show, it has a bunch of degenerate women trying to win the love of rapper Flavor Flav – a man who closely resembles a crack addict turned burn victim.

I really wouldn’t have a problem with this show if it didn’t give so much exposure to the ghetto ass, trailer trash, nasty skanks who parade along like they’re hot shit. As a result of this show, socially undesirable nobodies who have probably worked for nothing in their entire lives all of sudden become famous. As millions of people across the world go unnoticed for the important things they contribute to society these whores are enjoying their “15 minutes” and people actually give a shit enough about them to keep watching every week.

Andy Warhol envisioned the horrors of reality television decades before it came into being. He allowed these worthless individuals to gain exposure for doing nothing other than acting completely worthless on television and it absolutely pisses me off.

Now, I know what you’re thinking:

“Andy Warhol’s ‘15 minutes of fame’ didn’t create the mess that is reality television. His quote was simply providing commentary on the nature of pop culture and the attention span of the average American. Reality television was bound to come about with or without Andy Warhol!”

Well, that’s completely wrong and I still think Andy Warhol’s an asshole. You want my counter argument? Haven’t you read the book The Secret? It states that you can create something if you think about it hard enough and believe in it. I’m convinced that Andy Warhol utilized “The Secret” and created reality television by stating that quote and believing in it. So yes, Andy Warhol is directly responsible for the “famous” trash that is being produced by Flavor of Love.

And the bigger problem is that Flavor of Love is not the only reality show that gives exposure to generally worthless individuals. You can’t change the channel without seeing some talent less hack, obnoxious asshole, or dirty whore try to make something out of themselves. It’s like the only thing that people care about these days is gaining exposure and becoming famous. And that’s fucking sad because there are bigger things going on in the world right now other than some talent less hack’s attempt to gain fame. Did anyone care to notice that yesterday marked the 5 year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq?

Honestly, media gives the impression that nobody gives a shit about anything other than themselves. What ever happened to the good old days where we had positive role models in the media like Rosie the Riveter? Well, it appears that instead of building tanks and warplanes, Rosie the Riveter is running around on VH1 trying her damnedest to bang Flavor Flav. What the fuck happened to this country? Thank god Andy Warhol wasn’t around when we were fighting the Nazis. Then we’d all be fucked.

So, at what price are you willing to gain your 15 minutes of fame? If you’re willing to throw yourself all over a D-list celebrity or degrade yourself in any other way on national television then please do the whole world a favor and gain your 15 minutes in a more constructive way. For starters, how about getting eaten by an exotic animal . . . .

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree, fuck Andy Warhol. But I hate him because his art more so.

Bon said...

holy shit, you somehow managed to write a blog post involving both The Secret and the "crack addict turned burn victim" (genius!) Flava Flav... your writing is magical.

even though I greatly appreciate Andy Warhol's art, he was a strange son of a bitch so I wouldn't put this past him. nice work.