They seem like decent (but mental) lads. Utterly useless of course but at least they don’t pretend to be anything other than a novelty and an amusing diversion.
I take small comfort from the fact that the most memorable “talent” to come from the program end up being sub-Karaoke novelty acts. I suspect Simon Cowell would feel his artistic integrity thoroughly shaken were he to actually have any.
More worrying is the endless parade of X-factor mediocrity, adequacy and crushing cruelty.
Maybe it bothers me more than it should, perhaps I have an over-active empathy gland but everything about the x-factor makes me sick. They could set up the auditions and selection process so as to minimise stress and trauma to vulnerable people. They don’t. Instead they do everything they can to maximise it, They want trauma and tears and breakdowns. They engineer it that way. That very fact makes me hate the lot of them.
And hate is a word I use very sparingly, if ever. The X-factor and programs like it are corrosive.
They are fascinating in their extreme vacuity. Either they are brilliant performance artists who have been putting us all on for years or they are the human equivalent of labradors - happy, doofy, energetic idiots. I’ve seen them on various shows and am inclined to pick the latter option.
I don’t hate them but I marvel that people can be so utterly stupid and still remember to eat and breath.
ETA: The spouse recently pointed out that they’re the human equivalent of Bananas in Pyjamas.
I would be interested in seeing a show like the X factor played straight, as in having the judges being sorta independent. As it is they praise certain acts not because of any ability but because they meet the demographic they are targeting this particular year. Its all so obviously false it seems a bit pointless.
Do the show straight, with no vetting of the people beforehand. At the minute the judges know already who the good and the bad are going to be, and their reactions are always so forced as a result.
Then again, perhaps if it were ran without any interference at all it would be pretty boring. Who knows.
Personally I’d be far more interested in hearing them perform their own material in their own way. However there is already such a competition out there called “the rest of the music business”
Yeah that’s the first place I saw them too. I’ll admit that the first thing I did was pause the video and go looking for more info on “what the fuck is Jedward?” before even finishing the episode.