I pit you Judge Judy. I pit you to hell!

The BBQ Pit
1

Is it just me, or is Judge Judy the vilest, grinch-faced, lizard woman to ever appear on TV? Every word she spits from her thin, pursed, snake-lips is slathered with condescension and propelled by hatred. Just take a couple minutes to really imagine what life would be like if fate had handed you Judge Judy as your mother. I mean, really take the time to let the horrors of that dodged-bullet unreel in your mind’s eye.

And yes, I’ve heard the argument that the plaintiffs are all dumbasses and deserve whatever they get. But that’s really what makes it that much worse. She’s so poisonous to those dull-witted ding-dongs, that I actually start to feel sorry for the idiots who actually agreed to appear in her court. At which point my self-loathing for even watching the show becomes like a snake eating its own tail.

Wouldn’t you actually pay serious money to NOT appear in her court. Who here wouldn’t cringe to find out that not only is your baby’s momma suing you, the case will be presided over by the “honorable” Judge Judy, and your humiliation will be televised? Because guilty or innocent, the one guarantee is that you would be treated like human filth. And still, people actually agree to it.

Isn’t the word “honorable” devalued by using it to describe a shrill, screaming, harpy? And for what reason does a judge lower herself to behaving like a shrew? So that she can better cut-down a revolving door of freakish losers? That’s just shooting fish in a barrel. Why can’t Ken Lay & Jeffrey Skilling get Judge Judy?

So America, you have to boycott Judge Judy. Not just for the reasons I listed above. We need to take Judge Judy and put her someplace where her bile could actually do some public good. Like having her join the White House press pool. Oh , to just once hear the sneer in her voice as she addresses the Press Secretary as “Young Man”. Now that’s a show I could get behind.

2

I’d never watch or be on a show like hers. As far as evil goes, I think Nancy Grace is as vile, frightening and demonic as anyone I’ve seen on television.

3

My understanding is that she was genuinely loathed by her coworkers when she was a “real” judge.

What I hate is the way she has such a double standard about what is and isn’t relevant to a case. The plaintiff has separated from the defendant and is arguing over furniture left in her house. The defendant is trying to tell something that they think is relevant (how much it is relevant you don’t know) but Judge Judy goes into her monkey dance about how “MA’AM! MA’AM! I DECIDE WHAT’S RELEVANT! ALL I WANT YOU TO ANSWER IS DID HE BUY THE FURNITURE WHEN YOU WERE TOGETHER!” (Well there are several extenuating circumstances that may need to be heard to fairly decide this case that can’t be given in a yes/no answer: perhaps he bought the furniture but then he took a car that she paid for and this seems fair for her to keep, or perhaps he bought the furniture but she sold her own and gave him the money to get his teeth fixed, or whatever).

However, the next case involves Plaintiff and Defendent who have a child together and Plaintiff is suing for half the child’s medical expenses that she paid.
Judge Judy: “And you never married him even after you had a child together? Why didn’t you marry him? Do you have other children? Did you marry their father? Does he have other children? How many different mothers? Did you marry them sir? Why not?”

Alright, I can truly understand people having issues with folks having kids out of wedlock by a variety of partners, I’m a bit prudish on that myself, BUT it’s not the least bit relevant to this case. He admits he’s the child’s father, she’s the child’s mother, the only issue is whether he owes part of the child’s medical bills that she paid and if so how much.

I’ve also heard her go off on litigants who were being respectful but using improper grammer. “Learn English! You need to learn proper English! How do you expect to be taken seriously if you talk like that!” I dislike poor grammer and diction as well, but I also understand that some people really and truly don’t know any better- they grew up in a home where that type of syntax and vocabulary and the like is used (be it ebonics or redneck or pidgin English or whatever), they associate with people who talk the way they do, they weren’t great students in high school, etc.- in those cases the only issue is “can you understand what they’re talking about” and if so, get the hell over it. It’s not your job to play Henrietta Higgins to their Eliza, especially when you’re never going to see them again.

Did anybody else see this one? It was a good while ago: the defendant was a real piece of work piece of trash teenager- obviously wasted, the father of three kids and all of about 18, unwashed mullet and a T-shirt they had to digitally blur the caption of, and I think he was being sued by a baby-momma. She started reading him the riot act about acting like a man, he interrupted her long enough to say “Fuck you, bitch” and walked out. She damned near had a stroke and her bailiff (what’s his name? He’s going to kill her one day just like Caligula’s guards, I’ve no doubt, and he’ll have laughed at one of her stupid jokes not two minutes before when he does it) even looks wide eyed and… uh… what exactly are we going to do?.. about the incident. Thing was, of course, that while the defendant legally agreed to be bound by her verdict in exchange for payment for his appearance (and the verdict went to the plaintiff as well as the defendant’s appearance fee up to the judgment amount), there was jack shit she could do about the “fuck you, bitch” walk-out. She can’t hold anybody for contempt, she has no legal authority whatever other than essentially the right to make enforcing contracts (and that extended by the show’s lawyers rather than the state) and you know that had this happened in her courtroom she’d have gunned him down and then had him revived and tortured but the look on her face as she realized just how powerless she was made you forgive the little white-trash kid for this one incident of arrogance. (For all the other incidents of arrogance I’m hoping he gets sent away and used for medical experiments, but this particular one was cool.)

4

I’ve never seen her show, but I read one of her books a while back. The thing that struck me most about her was that at no point did she admit to ever feeling doubt or regret over any decision she’d made. To her, the closest she came to making mistakes were times when she allowed herself to pay attention to the opinions of others.

The woman’s a hardcore fundamentalist, worshiping herself.

5

I can’t stand how she refuses to believe that anyone of her generation could possibly be in the wrong. I’ve seen it so many times, a son or daughter telling of the injustices or petty vindictiveness of their parents and Judge Judy will pretty much say she doesn’t believe them because she would believe an older person over a younget person.

Does she think dishonesty, meaness and crazy are cured by age?

6

Huh? I’ve never seen this. Yes, she does bring a huge number of prejudices to her kangaroo court, but I’ve seen her call older people liars many times.

What I hate about her is how she truly believes that she can tell the truth about every person in every situation, without fail. Yeah, when you decide what the truth is, and then enforce it with a verdict, it’s pretty easy to delude yourself into thinking that you’re infallable. In fact, I’ve seen Judge Pinchface manufacture plenty of traps to trick people into lying.

Here’s a previous thread about one such case.

7

As for why people come onto the show in the first place; I once had the opportunity to interview for an editing position on a similar show. What you have to understand is that the combatants… Er, plaintifs and defendants… Are put up in decent hotels, have good meals paid for, and get chauffered around in limousines while in town. That, and the ‘noteriety’ that comes from being on television is often enough to make people abandon what little common sense they have to jump at the chance. And hey, if they have a chance at getting vindication, or at least the ability to bitch on television, it’s often seen as a plus.

8

Whatever her judicial role prior to the show, Judy is now an actress playing the role of judge. If there is a backlash about her actions, then either she will change or she will be cancelled. As for the plaintiffs/defendants, ArrMatey! pointed out that there is a selection bias at work there. To some people, being on TV, no matter how bad you are made to appear, is goal enough.

You could not pay me enough money to be on any court show.

9

I always wondered why more people don’t do this. I didn’t think any of these TV judges had any power to hold you in contempt, etc. So if you are losing the case anyways–why not have your say.

I mean if you are going to put yourself out on national TV anyways–why be shy then?

I haven’t seen that many of these shows–but usually the person is getting berated, etc–I am thinking, man if that was me I would tell her to stick it.

Now I wouldn’t do that in a real court–might think it–but I would like to think I am smart enough to realize in a real court there might be consequences :slight_smile:

10

I honestly don’t understand the popularity of court shows. If there were just one, it’d be one thing. But on the local Fox affiliate here in the DC area, there’s like a three hour block of court shows: Judge Judy, Judge Joe Brown, and I think one or two others. I’ve tried flipping through them when I’m playing hooky from work, and they all seem exactly the same to me.

Seriously, what’s the appeal?

11

You kidding me? Free all-expenses-paid trip, a fee for my appearance, the possibility of $5,000 more on top of that…and all I have to do is listen to one crazy bitch cast unfounded aspersions on my parentage? You wouldn’t take this deal?

Somebody’s never done customer service work… :wink:

12

I had a friend whose wedding dress was ruined by the dry cleaners she took it to after her wedding. They refused to do anything to remedy their mistake, so she filed suit in small claims court. The Judge Judy show called her and asked her if she’d be willing to have her case heard on the show. She was more than willing to do so, as she wanted to let everyone who watches know what incompetent jackasses that particular cleaners were, and warn people never to take their cleaning there. The cleaners, of course, refused to appear, then miraculously agreed to buy her a replacement for the ruined gown. Under similar circumstances (as the plaintiff), I’d agree to appear on her show, too.

13

PREACH IT, BROTHER! :cool:

14

My question is why do they have baliffs? These aren’t really court proceedings, they’re just game shows in televidion studios. What is the balliffs’ job on these shows? I doubt they actually have any security duties (the studio would have its own security people), so I guess they’re just props. They’re there to play Ed McMahon and laugh at the judges’ stupid jokes.

I’m also another one who wonders why more people haven’t told Judge Judy to GFY. Maybe they have and those segements just never get aired.

15

Armed bailiffs at that. Like Rusty Burrell from Judge Wopner Days, Judy’s Petri Hawkins Byrd wears a belt and pistol. (Rusty from Wopner was bailiff at Manson’s murder trials, incidentally, while Hawkins-Byrd bills himself in appearances as “the world’s richest bailiff”- at least he’s honest about why he’s on the show.)

16

Just to take the opposing view:

I love Judge Judy. I’d watch her 24/7 if I could.

OK, perhaps that’s an over statement, but I do see the appeal of the show.

In a wishy-washy, bad-guys-finish-first world, Judge Judy provides an oasis of decisive, er, judgement. No long term lingering of niggling problems here, just rapid, absolute decisions and clear labels at the end of who’s right and who’s wrong. Would that the rest of life be so black and white.

Unlike my situation in my real life, when some snivveling jerk lies to her face, she doesn’t have to pretend to go along - she calls him/her on it. RIGHT NOW. When someone tries to play her for a fool - she points out that she does not, in fact, have stupid written across her forehead. She says all the things to jerks that other middle-aged women in this culture can not but wish they could.

17

I dunno. What’s the appeal of a car wreck?

Seriously, let me see if I can explain it.

The litigants are often – well, let’s just say that the term “intellectual colossus” doesn’t come to mind. It’s fun to see the judge smack these people down. Joe Brown and Marilyn Milian are great at this.

But sometimes it’s the judge that goes off the deep end. Extreme illogic and absolute power make for fascinating viewing.

In short, it’s a freak show.

18

All of those judge shows are exactly alike, except they’re all slightly different.

Judge Judy had an annoying bit to it for a while. They’d open the show with some attention grabber newsflash, like they were one of those classy Fox news shows. This one time, the opening voice said ominously, “They took her children!” Wow, I thought. Kidnappers, right?

Wrong. Turns out that “They” were the babysitter, suing for unpaid wages.

19

Yes I have, but that was two decades ago (although one might consider consulting customer service work, but that’s probably not what you meant).

And yes. I get to visit cities all expenses paid as is…and I get paid for it. Bonus is that when I leave, I still have my dignity.

20

Not that I’m an expert on civil litigation, but after what I regret to say is extensive viewing of these shows, The People’s Court is the only one I’ve seen that seems to be conducted more or less along the lines of an actual small claims court. Generally the various judges that have hosted TPC concern themselves with applicable case law for the states in which the litigants reside, and there is somewhat less of the cheap, sneering moralism that infests most of these shows. Of course, they haven’t been above stunt casting as well, having had both former NYC Mayor Ed Koch and Judy’s husband do stints as judges.

Judge Judy I’ve forced myself to watch a few times, but three or four episodes was sufficient to make me want to empty a shotgun into my TV whenever her face appears on its screen.