whenever it is on and I'm not working, I'm compelled to watch it for a half hour or so, only to be revolted at myself for watching this trash.
Like all the other reviews have said, there are basically three types of shows. The first is the show that's on every other episode, the one that tries to find out who is the father of the poor kid fathered by some nasty whore. It always starts out the same, where the woman is angry that the father would deny he's the kid's father. The father will then call her every nasty name in the book on a minute video or so, to get the crowd against him. It really feels scripted, to be quite honest. The guy will come out, get booed, and the two will exchange words that you can't hear because have of them are beeped out. Povich will give the results, and half the time the guy is the father, and half the time he isn't. If he is, the woman will berate him for a minute and he will make some half hearted comment about how he will be a real father, when you know this poor kid will grow up to be a criminal or a stripper, never really given a good chance in life. If he's not the father, he will do a little dance, berate the woman for a minute who has gone backstage crying, while Povich will make a vain attempt to console her. The subset of this show is whores who have cheated on their boyfriend of the week, and want to take a test to make sure the child they had together is really his. Another subset of this show is 'cheating' boyfriends, which usually involves a 'sexy decoy' (read: some whore Maury paid off to flirt with the guy) flirting with a guy caught on camera, much to the girlfriend's chagrin. The 'sexy decoy' whore will come out and berate the guy, probably for violating her high moral standards or something. The girlfriend will then leave the guy, only probably to go back to him when she can't make her trailer home payment or when the project she lives in kicks her out of her house.
The second show is sending kids to boot camps. South Park make a perfect parody of it already. The most amusing part of this is seeing this angry black guy, Dee West, come out and scream for five minutes or so. The kids go to boot camp or juvi or whatever, and are all magically reformed and all go to thank the glorious Povich for his sage wisdom. A subset of this show is the abusive husbands who also get yelled at by West or whoever and are sent to jail and amend their ways, all nicely in an hour.
The third show is kind of a grab bag, usually either animals, overweight babies (which is the one that truly disgusts me), people afraid of condiments, guessing whether a tranny is a man or a woman, and tall fat people who are dating short skinny people, because that's just funny.
I'll confess, maybe I watch this show to make my pathetic self feel better compared to the wastes of humanity that are on this show. That being said, I wonder how much of the show is scripted because it all sounds the same. Still, it brings out the worst stereotypes of all their guests. Then again, it brings them out in blacks, whites, and latinos, so I guess Povich is an equal opportunity basher. No Asians though, I wonder if Connie put the nix on that.
Povich himself is absolute slime. Say what you want about Jerry Springer, but that guy knows and admits he is scum. Povich portrays the attitude like he's actually doing humanity some sort of service, which is bizarre. That being said, I'm watching the show right now and listening to that Dee West guy berate a bunch of husbands who proudly proclaim they beat up their low self esteem wives, so I can't say the show is horrible. Still, like I said before, I watch it partially due to the train wreck factor, and partially due to the fact that I feel better about myself after watching it.
Like all the other reviews have said, there are basically three types of shows. The first is the show that's on every other episode, the one that tries to find out who is the father of the poor kid fathered by some nasty whore. It always starts out the same, where the woman is angry that the father would deny he's the kid's father. The father will then call her every nasty name in the book on a minute video or so, to get the crowd against him. It really feels scripted, to be quite honest. The guy will come out, get booed, and the two will exchange words that you can't hear because have of them are beeped out. Povich will give the results, and half the time the guy is the father, and half the time he isn't. If he is, the woman will berate him for a minute and he will make some half hearted comment about how he will be a real father, when you know this poor kid will grow up to be a criminal or a stripper, never really given a good chance in life. If he's not the father, he will do a little dance, berate the woman for a minute who has gone backstage crying, while Povich will make a vain attempt to console her. The subset of this show is whores who have cheated on their boyfriend of the week, and want to take a test to make sure the child they had together is really his. Another subset of this show is 'cheating' boyfriends, which usually involves a 'sexy decoy' (read: some whore Maury paid off to flirt with the guy) flirting with a guy caught on camera, much to the girlfriend's chagrin. The 'sexy decoy' whore will come out and berate the guy, probably for violating her high moral standards or something. The girlfriend will then leave the guy, only probably to go back to him when she can't make her trailer home payment or when the project she lives in kicks her out of her house.
The second show is sending kids to boot camps. South Park make a perfect parody of it already. The most amusing part of this is seeing this angry black guy, Dee West, come out and scream for five minutes or so. The kids go to boot camp or juvi or whatever, and are all magically reformed and all go to thank the glorious Povich for his sage wisdom. A subset of this show is the abusive husbands who also get yelled at by West or whoever and are sent to jail and amend their ways, all nicely in an hour.
The third show is kind of a grab bag, usually either animals, overweight babies (which is the one that truly disgusts me), people afraid of condiments, guessing whether a tranny is a man or a woman, and tall fat people who are dating short skinny people, because that's just funny.
I'll confess, maybe I watch this show to make my pathetic self feel better compared to the wastes of humanity that are on this show. That being said, I wonder how much of the show is scripted because it all sounds the same. Still, it brings out the worst stereotypes of all their guests. Then again, it brings them out in blacks, whites, and latinos, so I guess Povich is an equal opportunity basher. No Asians though, I wonder if Connie put the nix on that.
Povich himself is absolute slime. Say what you want about Jerry Springer, but that guy knows and admits he is scum. Povich portrays the attitude like he's actually doing humanity some sort of service, which is bizarre. That being said, I'm watching the show right now and listening to that Dee West guy berate a bunch of husbands who proudly proclaim they beat up their low self esteem wives, so I can't say the show is horrible. Still, like I said before, I watch it partially due to the train wreck factor, and partially due to the fact that I feel better about myself after watching it.