There goes Honey Boo Boo, the pudgy pageant princess whose family antics captured the hearts of millions. There goes Honey Boo Boo, the flatulence-doling, word-slurring, road-kill-eating redneck that made modern parents everywhere cringe with embarrassment. There goes Honey Boo Boo, canceled after allegations that Mama June is dating a convicted sex offender.
The 9-year-old and her family are famous for being an "honest" representation of a family, and their lives are accompanied by a funny music track and some "clever" editing. What was supposed to be an example of a loving, if offbeat family, was portrayed as a gross-out comedy by the folks at TLC, and not surprisingly, the reality of this reality TV show is much darker than pet pigs and glitz pageants.
What must be “redneckognized” is that glorifying redneck culture in reality television glosses over the danger of a real disease: ignorance. Ignorance makes it okay for people to teach their children to speak incorrectly. Ignorance encourages eating food that was scraped off the road. Ignorance allows a convicted sex offender near its children. While I don’t support many things TLC does besides “Say Yes to the Dress,” I am thankful that they finally put an end to this particular string of ignorance invading the homes of Americans.
It’s no secret that these shows are stupid. They are obviously stupid. People, myself included, watch this trash with the pretense that they’re “just laughing at the stupid people.” Fine. But as my father often points out loudly once he sees what my sisters and I are watching during the summer, that excuse is invalid when your viewership allows these idiots to be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for being the Snookis, JWowws and, most recently, Honey Boo Boos of the world.
Reality television is the scourge of entertainment. It’s not creative. It’s not productive. It serves no greater purpose. It celebrates people that date sex offenders or evade taxes like Mike Sorrentino from "Jersey Shore" or are involved in domestic violence like JWoww from "Jersey Shore" and generally cause harm to society. The cancelation of "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" due to the presence of a sex offender is a prime example of how this voyeuristic genre of stupid is poisoning society.
What do we do? Change the damn channel. Refuse to let the stupid into our homes. This may seem dramatic but these people are real and they are destructive — not only to themselves but to those around them — and by allowing them into our homes, they are destructive to us. It’s stupid. Plain and simple. Let’s stop. Let’s bring back the sitcom.