I think the disclaimer started after the fire incident. Not sure though, but I seem to remember it that way.
I remember hearing about something where someone did this on a childrens’ show and told the kids to get the green stuff out of mommy’s purse and mail it to him. Ended up getting a bunch of money in the mail or something. Not sure if this is true either.
Gee I’m just a bundle of facts huh? :rolleyes:
I believe that this type of action is against the law, possibly via the FCC. Why? To protect people from themselves. Someone back me up on this?
Someone commented earlier that “next thing you know we’ll be blaming teen suicide on rock music”. That was tongue-in-cheek…will the person (ijgrieve) who “missed” that joke please put down the matches and gasoline? Thank You.
I seriously want to see what this little moron has to say about what he did to himself. And despite what he says, I want him to be sterilized and kept in a straightjacket for the rest of his life, so that he will not have any impact on our gene pool.
God help us all.
Ooh, ooh, I bet I know where you heard that one! It was Soupy Sales.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by c_goat *
**
You’re thinking of Soupy Sales. He did say it, but he didn’t really get any money out of it (and he got in trouble, too). See http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/soupy1.htm
Listen. People are really stupid. Unbelievably stupid. Half of the people in the world have an IQ in the 90s or less! There are people that would send money to Dan Rather. Remember the joke e-mail that was going around just prior to the election? The one that said “Because of expected crowding at the polls, all [Republicans/Democrats] are to vote on Wednesday”? People believed that – the Florida Secretary of State had hundreds of people calling to make sure that the polls would still be open on Wednesday. And, unfortunately, you have people that do what they see on TV. In fact, so many people do what they see on TV, that companies spend billions of dollars each year on advertising, to make people do one thing or another.
So, the question isn’t “are these people stupid”; of course they are. The question is, does TV owe a duty of care to stupid people. And, if they do, does a smartass disclaimer suffice to provide the level of care they owe? (How can it, given how incredibly, bafflingly stupid these people are?)
Please, oh please tell me this was a joke. It looks like it at first glance, but coupled with the tone of the rest of your post, I’m worried that you might be serious.
Reassure me, please?
[quote]
from Joe_Cool:
**Please, oh please tell me this was a joke. It looks like it at first glance, but coupled with the tone of the rest of your post, I’m worried that you might be serious.
Reassure me, please?**
[quote]
It was meant to be funny. (Isn’t it? Just a little?)
It was meant to be funny. (Isn’t it? Just a little?)
Hey, thanks for the Seriously Stupendous Soupy Sales Simulpost ENugent and pldennison. I thought it was him, but I didn’t want to say it was him, and sound like I was spewing baseless facts (like saying half the people in the world have an IQ under 90).
I remember where I heard it now too, this guy I work with believes every urban legend there is. He was talking about that yesterday (that he got a bunch of money from it). This morning I heard him saying that there was a list of people the Clinton’s had killed. I found the story on snopes and sent it to him (the Clinton one). Ignorance fightin’ at work!!
Yes it was. I liked it. It’s just that you went on to talk about a bunch of genuine stupidity, and I thought for a minute you might have forgotten that you started out with a joke! hahaha
What kind of idiot sets himself on fire? I’m 13 years old, and I’m damn smart enough to know that I shouldn’t set myself on fire. I don’t even need a disclaimer to tell me that! Are these the people I’m growing up with? People who set themselves on fire because Johnny Knoxville did? What is the world coming to?
Wooo, look at me, I’m gonna be like Johnny and douse myself in gasoline and light myself on fire! But get this, I won’t even use a fireproof suit! If anything bad happens, I’ll just blame it on MTV and sue them for all they’ve got, despite their repeated warnings not to do any of this stupid crap!
This really does embarrass me. It just makes us seem even more like the extremely impressionable children that the media makes us out to be. Sure, maybe there’s a couple of people like that, but… ugh. This… this is all just so stupid.
And I don’t see how this is MTV’s fault at all. They had disclamers every commercial break, so if you light yourself on fire, you probably made a concious desicion to do so.
[DenisLeary]
Let me make sure I’m crystal clear on this issue, ok? Heavy Metal fans are buying Heavy Metal records, taking the records home, listening to the records and then blowing their heads off with shotguns? Where’s the problem!? That’s an unemployment solution right there, folks! It’s called natural selection. It’s the bottom of the food chain, ok? I say we put more messages on the records. “Kill the band, kill your parents, then yourself, ok!? Make sure you get your whole head in front of the shotgun. Thank you for calling! Thank you for calling!”
[DenisLeary /off]
I was just having this conversation last night about how people don’t take responsibiliy for their own actions. There was a commercial where s group of guys wrestle some grizzly bears for their lunches and at the bottom corner were the words DO NOT ATTEMPT.
IMO Hollywood is not responsible for the action speople take in real life. Someone copy-catted a scene from Money Train to for a robbery. The film was blamed. Hey, here’s a though, why not blame the man who comited the crime? He obviously wanted to do it because no one forced him to rob the subway.
And those idiot kids who laid down in the middle of the highway cuz they saw it in The Program? How dumb were these kids not to realize these are professionals on a closed road with all the drivers knowing they’re laying there?! The scene in question was pulled from theatres. So now, works are being censored for the protection of those of us who are in reality, just trying to take themselves out of the gene pool for the greater protection of us all but are too stupid to do it in a more effifcient manner.
We really need to stop pandering to the future Darwin Award winners of this world and start taking responsibility for ourselves.
Ok, I apologize for all the misspellings in the above post. It’s 11:30pm here and I’m a half hour away from getting off work. I’m not functioning at top speed.
I wonder if I can jump from my roof with an open umbrella and then, after breaking my legs in the fall, sue Disney cuz I saw Mary Poppins fly using only an umbrella.
Umbrellas really should come with a warning label just for that reason.
Of course a lot of people are stupid/extremely impressionable. Otherwise we wouldn’t need warning labels on chainsaws that read “Do not attempt to stop blade with hands or genitals.” Of course, this doesn’t completely exclude MTV from all responsibily for everything. Obviously, (unless the parents or the kid is just using it as an excuse) this show had an influence over the kid, so, in this particular instance, the disclaimers were ineffective. I’m not sure of how to solve the problem, short of complete censorship. And no one wants that. But you can’t deny that TV has it’s influence. (Otherwise there wouldn’t be commercials…)
“Do not attempt to stop blade with hands or genitals.” I agree with Dark Lord Davidson… God help us all.
Yes, TV has some influence, but when TV’s “influence” overrides common sense (one DOES NOT set oneself on fire seems rather common sensical to me) I don’t blame the TV.
Yes, that commerical I just saw for McDonald’s made me want to have a Big Mac. But nothing forces me to drive to McDonald’s and get a Big Mac. Taken a step further, the argument that TV’s influence caused me to do something that was out of my control means I should be able to sue advertising companies to get my money back for anything I bought that I’ve seen advertised. I didn’t WANT to buy this stuff, I saw it on TV!
Bottom line is, barring some mental problem, you are responsible for your own actions.
I agree there should be more emphasis on taking responsibility for one’s own actions, and less reliance on the media to tell us what to do. I also feel the media have an obligation to run relevant disclaimers, as a worthwhile attempt to protect the less astute and more vulnerable, without so distorting their programming that it is annoying for the rest of us.
But I see all of this as fairly unimportant right now. Kids do dumb things, and even the most vigiliant parent cannot be there all the time. From what I understand, this kid was playing with other kids, and until we have the full facts we don’t know to what he extent he is the victim of his own crass ignorance - maybe others contributed.
Whatever, there’s a kid very badly hurt in hospital and a family that’s going through pain and hell wondering if he’s going to be okay, and what the consequences will be. I’m concerned for them, and it must just make it worse for them to see their own son vilified in this way, or to see this discussed as an interesting debate on media ethics.
Next time, it could be your kid brother, or your son, who gets hurt. I understand the sentiments expressed in this thread, but have some heart, people.
Look I feel for the kid but to have the idiocy of blaming the show is just beyond the gall. If I was to do something like this, I would be HUGELY embarrassed to say something as dumb as “I saw a guy do it on TV so I thought I could do it. Of course, he was wearing fireproof gear but I thought my jeans soaked in gasoline would do fine.” Do you know how retarded that sounds? If they dared to try and sue them, the jury would be rolling in the aisles.
And Joe Liberman, the big dumbshit he is, does a Ed Meese and immediately calls MTV the blamer. I am sure the yutz did not even watch the show, had no idea where the actual big WARNINGS were, then goes public waving his little “savior” flag going shut it down. God help me, I thought he may have made a good VP and to see something like this. Give me strength…
The kid is in for it though. Can you imagine the thing he is gonna get from anyone who knows him? I mean I don’t know the kid and I am calling him a dumb shit. His friends are never gonna let him live this down.
And I have a heart. I was a kid once and did HIGHLY stupid things. And I did them for stupid reasons like trying to impress someone or emulate something (revert darkslide on a rail I saw Rodney Mullen do…nice set of stitches in my noggin to show my attempt) but I take FULL responsibility and don’t blame anyone but myself.
Oh how I love Dennis Leary…
Its a mad, mad, mad, mad, mad world. Perhaps they should show Johnny Knoxville getting a part time job, or cleaning up after himself, or volunteering in a community help programme.
I mean, if people are dumb enough to mimic what they see on TV, why don’t they implant some images like that into the Dimrods’ heads?
Plus, It would be pretty funny to people who actually get the joke. 