# MTV Sweet Sixteen - is this fucking show for real? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 11, 2005, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mtv-sweet-sixteen-is-this-fucking-show-for-real/316657 "2005-08-11T23:12:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Side_of_the_Floyd)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mtv-sweet-sixteen-is-this-fucking-show-for-real/316657/41 "2005-08-12T05:01:17Z")
The first link doesn’t work for me. As for the second, that’s actually pretty cool! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@The\_Hook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hook)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mtv-sweet-sixteen-is-this-fucking-show-for-real/316657/42 "2005-08-12T05:11:53Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > It’s “I wanna be a Hilton”? I thought it was “I wanna bang a Hilton”. 🙂 That was last week’s Fear Factor. This is a whole new different show. ---
**Author:** ![VegemiteMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/df788c/32.png) [@VegemiteMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VegemiteMoose)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mtv-sweet-sixteen-is-this-fucking-show-for-real/316657/43 "2005-08-12T05:25:42Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > I think we need to declare a moratorium on this type of reply to threads with people complaining about tv. Yes, we all know that you can change the channel or turn it off. Yes, we all understand that you can vote with your remote. That doesn’t change the ire that some shows generate in people; enough ire to actually go to the trouble of posting a rant about it. > > No, nobody has to watch it, but they don’t have to make it, either. Hey **featherlou** , I would normally agree with you. Maybe it’s just the phrasing that got to me. Nobody has to “happen” to view a “few” episodes of any particular program. Takes me less than 15 seconds to see what’s crap and what isn’t. It’s not the “don’t watch it if you don’t want to see it” thing. It’s the “don’t sit there in appalled fascination for 1 and a half hours or more and then complain about the programming you’re contributing to” thing. Fuck, switch to PBS and watch how cardboard’s made, read a damn book, spend the time writing to this message board writing to MTV’s board complaining. ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mtv-sweet-sixteen-is-this-fucking-show-for-real/316657/44 "2005-08-12T05:26:43Z")
It’s not all girls. The boys are just as bad, but they want more sex. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mtv-sweet-sixteen-is-this-fucking-show-for-real/316657/45 "2005-08-12T06:10:42Z")
> [@FilmGeek](#): > > It’s not all girls. The boys are just as bad, but they want more sex. The boys are just as bad about their sweet sixteen parties? ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mtv-sweet-sixteen-is-this-fucking-show-for-real/316657/46 "2005-08-12T13:50:56Z")
Ah, I say the producers told these girls and their families exactly what they wanted to see - it’s all acting. (Well, maybe not \*all \* of it.) And the price fo these parties is almost certainly being paid out by the show. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mtv-sweet-sixteen-is-this-fucking-show-for-real/316657/47 "2005-08-12T13:54:40Z")
> [@Ellis Dee](#): > > The boys are just as bad about their sweet sixteen parties? Oh yeah, The one show I watched, well about 80% before I blacked out, featured a boy from the suburbs of Philly. I remember the part where he and dad took a trip to NYC to audition ‘dancers’ to be on stages or in cages at his party. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mtv-sweet-sixteen-is-this-fucking-show-for-real/316657/48 "2005-08-12T14:02:20Z")
> [@Harborwolf](#): > > And there lies the secret to reality television. It gives even the lowest of us someone to feel superior to. For me, it gives me a better understanding of how cool my teenaged son & daughter turned out… must’ve done something right… ---
**Author:** ![beagledave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mtv-sweet-sixteen-is-this-fucking-show-for-real/316657/49 "2005-08-12T14:13:22Z")
> [@smiling bandit](#): > > Ah, I say the producers told these girls and their families exactly what they wanted to see - it’s all acting. (Well, maybe not \*all \* of it.) And the price fo these parties is almost certainly being paid out by the show. I say you’re [wrong](http://www.mtv.com/onair/dyn/sweet_16/about.jhtml). > [@](#): > > …Meet the kids who are determined to go all out to mark this major turning point in their lives, **the parents who lavish every wish** , and find out first hand what it’s really like to turn 16 these days. ---
**Author:** ![Stringer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Stringer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringer)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mtv-sweet-sixteen-is-this-fucking-show-for-real/316657/50 "2005-08-12T14:29:25Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > I thought it was “I wanna bang a Hilton”. Maybe if I had some fireworks and short length of hose… ---
**Author:** ![cruel\_butterfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5daacb/32.png) [@cruel\_butterfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cruel_butterfly)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mtv-sweet-sixteen-is-this-fucking-show-for-real/316657/51 "2005-08-12T14:39:41Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Yeah, it’s terrible. **Ellis Dee** ’s comment reminds me that there is/was a show on UPN called _Bridezillas_, which may have had a similar premise. I hate shows that do this, but I’m actually HOPING that MTV is ridiculing these spoiled bitches instead of just catering to the wannabes in the crowd by offering them all this crap. I’ve sat through one of the Sweet 16 shows. My stepdaughter told me about one episode featuring a girl who used to live in our hometown so I had to watch it just to see pictures of our podunk little craptown. I was appalled by how much of a little bitch this girl was. MTV is not ridiculing these girls; they are celebrating them. One only needs to look at Paris Hilton’s meteoric rise in popularity to discern that the current young generation is being taught that money and prestige and Louis Vuitton and Prada and itty-bitty Chihuahuas are all you need to get anywhere in life. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mtv-sweet-sixteen-is-this-fucking-show-for-real/316657/52 "2005-08-12T14:54:58Z")
> [@micahjn](#): > > Maybe if I had some fireworks and short length of hose… From what I’ve heard, fireworks and a short hose don’t go together. As for that Hilton show, Mama got it all over her brats in the looks department. May be a bitch but she fine. ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mtv-sweet-sixteen-is-this-fucking-show-for-real/316657/53 "2005-08-12T15:32:08Z")
> [@cruel butterfly](#): > > MTV is not ridiculing these girls; they are celebrating them. One only needs to look at Paris Hilton’s meteoric rise in popularity to discern that the current young generation is being taught that money and prestige and Louis Vuitton and Prada and itty-bitty Chihuahuas are all you need to get anywhere in life. I’m confident that for most of them, the cold, hard bitchslap that is reality will take care of this attitude. Most people will have nowhere near the money and prestige it takes to pull this off successfully. If you’re a vacant-headed 22-year-old middle-class chick in from a small town, it’s exceedingly unlikely anyone is going to let you design purses or hand you a reality show. I work with college students trying to enter the real world of work. It’s quite a shock to some of them that no one is waiting to shower them with cash for all that fun they had at frat parties and bars and clubs while pulling down a B average and doing absolutely jack-shit else. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mtv-sweet-sixteen-is-this-fucking-show-for-real/316657/54 "2005-08-12T15:52:30Z")
See, this is why the aristocracy has something to be said about it. Sure they inherit the money, but they also inherit some class, treat the staff nicely and don’t blow everything in one trip to Tiffany. Then, in a few generations when death duties, divorces, bad business decisions and one too many coke heads in the family tree deplete the wealth, at least the class will remain. Plenty of people manage to grow up with money and still act like decent human beings…it’s the parents who give them this sense of entitlement, no-one else. I can’t see these girls taking care of mom and pop in their old age, or even springing for a nice retirement home and that is quite appropriate revenge on these people for inflicting their spoiled spawn on the world. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mtv-sweet-sixteen-is-this-fucking-show-for-real/316657/55 "2005-08-12T16:23:59Z")
> [@VegemiteMoose](#): > > Hey **featherlou** , I would normally agree with you. Maybe it’s just the phrasing that got to me. > > Nobody has to “happen” to view a “few” episodes of any particular program. Takes me less than 15 seconds to see what’s crap and what isn’t. It’s not the “don’t watch it if you don’t want to see it” thing. It’s the “don’t sit there in appalled fascination for 1 and a half hours or more and then complain about the programming you’re contributing to” thing. Fuck, switch to PBS and watch how cardboard’s made, read a damn book, spend the time writing to this message board writing to MTV’s board complaining. Yeah, I can see your point. If it’s that awful, don’t tune in every week. But I still say that tv producers don’t have to much such terrible shows. They _do_, and we all know why they do, but they don’t have to. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mtv-sweet-sixteen-is-this-fucking-show-for-real/316657/56 "2005-08-12T18:07:12Z")
> [@irishgirl](#): > > See, this is why the aristocracy has something to be said about it…Sure they inherit the money, but they also inherit some class… I see your assertion and raise you Chuck, Di, Fergie, Randy Andy, Nazi Willy, and all of Rainier and Grace’s kids. ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mtv-sweet-sixteen-is-this-fucking-show-for-real/316657/57 "2005-08-12T18:18:30Z")
> [@smiling bandit](#): > > Ah, I say the producers told these girls and their families exactly what they wanted to see - it’s all acting. (Well, maybe not \*all \* of it.) And the price fo these parties is almost certainly being paid out by the show. I distinctly remember the episode with the girl who was half Jewish and half something middle eastern (can’t remember what she was exactly…but she had the really slutty dress that mom flew her to Paris to find, bitched about wanting a Land Rover and not a Mercedez, and was carried into her party by big men). At the end of the party, dad brought out the check book and wrote the two hundred and something thousand dollar check. And I think MTV is making fun of these girls. Look at the editing- they make a point to show how stupid, spoiled, and bitchy these girls are. MTV could have easily turned it into a “Look how cool this party is!” show, but instead it is a “Look at these brats and how they get whatever they want including a crazy party” show. Just my $.02 ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mtv-sweet-sixteen-is-this-fucking-show-for-real/316657/58 "2005-08-12T19:26:03Z")
> [@](#): > > by **Beagledave** > > I say you’re wrong. Do you expect their website to be anything other than promotional? The whole point of the show is that the kids are spoiled rotten. That’s what the producers want. It doesn’t matter whether it’s true or not. I’m not saying it couldn’t be real. But seriously, I think they are just showing off for the camera. If the show is paying for it (and expenses are easy to arrange) 250 grand a show is not neccessarily out of the ballpark. It all dependws on how much commercial revenue it gets. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mtv-sweet-sixteen-is-this-fucking-show-for-real/316657/59 "2005-08-12T21:08:31Z")
> [@MTV Sweet 16 page](#): > > Meet the kids who are determined to go all out to mark this major turning point in their lives, the parents who lavish every wish, and find out first hand what it’s really like to turn 16 these days. Forgetting the “what it’s really like” part, in what way is 16 a major turning point in anybody’s life? In some states you get a learner’s permit to drive, but what the fuck did I miss? ---
**Author:** ![beagledave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mtv-sweet-sixteen-is-this-fucking-show-for-real/316657/60 "2005-08-12T21:50:35Z")
> [@smiling bandit](#): > > Do you expect their website to be anything other than promotional? The whole point of the show is that the kids are spoiled rotten. That’s what the producers want. It doesn’t matter whether it’s true or not. > > I’m not saying it couldn’t be real. But seriously, I think they are just showing off for the camera. If the show is paying for it (and expenses are easy to arrange) 250 grand a show is not neccessarily out of the ballpark. It all dependws on how much commercial revenue it gets. You made a claim (without any kind of evidence) that the show probably provided all of the expenses for the party. I provide a cite that the **parents** are the ones who “lavished” the gifts and whatnot…and you’re questioning my cite? Okay… :dubious: Of course the kids acted differently because the cameras were there (Most people DO act different in some ways if they know they’re being filmed.) But part of the premise of the show (which one can surmise from the website) is linking the kid’s behavior with their parent’s behavior. If the parent’s are not involved financially…that pretty much defeats that particular point of the show. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mtv-sweet-sixteen-is-this-fucking-show-for-real/316657.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mtv-sweet-sixteen-is-this-fucking-show-for-real/316657.md?page=4)