Real World and The Book of Faces: Part One

Recently MTV hosted a "Real World" Award show in which they gave awards to the most bat-shit crazy person, hottest chick, and biggest whore (I just realized that if one girl got all of these awards, she would have the triple crown of why I love women).

MTV threw this promotional stint for their numero uno reality program's 20th season taking place in, where the fuck else?, Hollywood.

First and foremost, let me mention that A. Rob and Big is my new number one reality program on MTV, but after the series finale and numerous man-tears rolling off my face, I have to crawl back to the fishbowl of drunken hook ups and the most moronic debates on culture and lifestyle I have ever seen (a gorilla with down's syndrome and my ipod could have a more meaningful conversation on religion relations in the US than Parisa and Trisha's debate on Real World Sydney) and B. this season of the Real World: Hollywood is by far the most audacious casting I have seen .

For example, have you seen these superficial, mildly-offensive previews? Case in point: new blond bombshell Kimberly's answer to who should play her in a movie.

AND I QUOTE: "Paris Hilton. I looooooooovvvvvvvveeee her"

MTV really knows how to capture the culture and transition of a new generation by sweeping up seven of the biggest shallow, insanely hollow 'tards of our generation. They couldn't pick up one mildy intellegent person? Where is the Jacquese? The Teck? The Kelley? Fuck it, give me a libertarian fuck like Puck!?

But nope, we get attractive people who spend more time on their hair then the presidential race. Maybe my old age of 23 is catching up to me and I am out of touch with youth culture. Or maybe, just maybe, MTV is actually doing the right thing.

Case in point an article by Jeff Gordiner in Details magazine. In it, Gordiner asserts that The Real World, regardless of fist fights, drunken stupors, and a sexually-confused black man slapping a small white chick with Lyme disease, the show is an American classic.

"When The Real World made its debut 16 years ago, nobody knew that it would lead to today’s glut of reality programming. But as the series enters its 20th season, it’s begun to look like something we never expected it to be: an American classic," Gordiner said.

Among other things, Gordiner believes that the Real World opened the door for YouTube and Facebook.

"Flip through the book (Real World book) today and contemplate Kat’s favorite song (“Africa,” by Toto), Puck’s favorite snack (“Nuts, exotic ones”), and Becky’s preferred mode of transportation (“I usually walk”), and it doesn't take long to realize that you’re looking at an early, analog blueprint for a social-networking site: the beta version of Facebook. “We’re living in an age where everyone has to be famous,” Gordiner says. “There’s a current belief that every small thing I do is fascinating, so I’m going to share it with all my friends.” If you think about it, what The Real World ultimately wrought is the friending of America, a borderless and invisible network in which everyone’s on a first-name basis with everyone else. We started out with seven strangers. We ended up with thousands, maybe even millions, of best friends forever."

So, is Facebook a channel of being in our own season of The Real World? The truth is disturbing. Check in for part two of this series.....