# My Super Sweet 16 - what is this? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 22, 2008, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-super-sweet-16-what-is-this/474011 "2008-11-22T18:02:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shinna_Minna_Ma)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-super-sweet-16-what-is-this/474011/1 "2008-11-22T18:02:59Z")
My kids were watching some MTV show called “My Super Sweet 16.” I happened to catch a few minutes of the show here and there. I saw (among other things) a kid screaming and crying at her parents because they didn’t like the color of the car they got for their birthday and birthday parties that must have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Are these 16 year old kids really as shallow and callous as they seem to be? Where do they learn this stuff? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-super-sweet-16-what-is-this/474011/2 "2008-11-22T18:12:49Z")
> [@Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](#): > > My kids were watching some MTV show called “My Super Sweet 16.” I happened to catch a few minutes of the show here and there. I saw (among other things) a kid screaming and crying at her parents because they didn’t like the color of the car they got for their birthday and \*\*birthday parties that must have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. > \*\* > **Are these 16 year old kids really as shallow and callous as they seem to be? Where do they learn this stuff?** Mummy and Daddy, where else? ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-super-sweet-16-what-is-this/474011/3 "2008-11-22T18:16:53Z")
The nice, reasonable kids don’t make good TV. ---
**Author:** ![EpicNonsense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c37758/32.png) [@EpicNonsense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EpicNonsense)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-super-sweet-16-what-is-this/474011/4 "2008-11-22T18:19:04Z")
POS show if you ask me. If you want to spend $100K for your little princesses birthday, please don’t air it on TV. Nobody gives a shit. All it does is bring false hope to the little kids watching. Great message you’re getting across. Damn rich people! ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-super-sweet-16-what-is-this/474011/5 "2008-11-22T18:48:56Z")
I haven’t seen the regular show, but I did see one episode of _Super Sweet 16: Exiled_. They sent a 16-year-old girl to a village (somewhere in Central America) for a week – she was cutting plantain, helping build a canoe, no running water or electricity, etc. I don’t know what the girl was like before – she handled herself remarkably well. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-super-sweet-16-what-is-this/474011/6 "2008-11-22T20:10:29Z")
> [@EpicNonsense](#): > > …please don’t air it on TV. Nobody gives a shit. Would that this were true. But I suspect they’ve done their market research and the ratings are acceptable. ---
**Author:** ![EpicNonsense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c37758/32.png) [@EpicNonsense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EpicNonsense)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-super-sweet-16-what-is-this/474011/7 "2008-11-22T20:19:48Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > Would that this were true. But I suspect they’ve done their market research and the ratings are acceptable. I forgot this was on MTV. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-super-sweet-16-what-is-this/474011/8 "2008-11-22T21:16:56Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > The nice, reasonable kids don’t make good TV. True. Don’t you think most people watch this kind of show just for the snark value? ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2008, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-super-sweet-16-what-is-this/474011/9 "2008-11-23T00:13:15Z")
I love MSS16. Of course, it is all about snark value. I suspect the kids ham it up plenty for the camera, though they probably are too clueless to realize people are looking at the to laugh at them, not to admire them. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2008, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-super-sweet-16-what-is-this/474011/10 "2008-11-23T01:29:12Z")
What i don’t understand is why kids continue to agree to be on this show. If they watch it at all they must see that the birthday girls are ALWAYS portrayed in the worst possible light. Is their need for attention so great that they don’t care if they are made to look like vapid materialistic wastes of flesh? ---
**Author:** ![Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shinna_Minna_Ma)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2008, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-super-sweet-16-what-is-this/474011/11 "2008-11-23T04:40:48Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > Is their need for attention so great that they don’t care if they are made to look like vapid materialistic wastes of flesh? I guess so. I wonder what these kids are like as adults? Probably just the same, no doubt. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2008, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-super-sweet-16-what-is-this/474011/12 "2008-11-23T16:22:46Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > Is their need for attention so great that they don’t care if they are made to look like vapid materialistic wastes of flesh? Yes. Look all those a-holes and douchebags you know as an adult didn’t become that way overnight. MTV finds the wealthiest, most spoiled and obnoxious kids they can find and then films what is in essence a glorious celebration of them. What is mind bottling to me is why their classmates kowtow to their nonsense and don’t kick their ass. “Ooo I REALLY hope I get invited to some stupid jackass who I barely know’s party.” Shows like Gossip Girl, The OC and 90210 portray spoiled uber-rich kids as attractive, smooth, suave and sociopathicaly manipulative on a Machiavellian level. The ones you see in MSS16 are gaudy, loud, shrill, childishly stupid and demanding (“I WANT IT NOWWW!!”). ---
**Author:** ![Taenia\_spp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5e925/32.png) [@Taenia\_spp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taenia_spp)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2008, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-super-sweet-16-what-is-this/474011/13 "2008-11-23T18:36:19Z")
One of my former roommates went to high school with one of the girls featured on the show. He said that, yes, she was as stuck up/arrogant/spoiled in real life as they had portrayed in the show. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-super-sweet-16-what-is-this/474011/14 "2008-11-24T22:27:12Z")
Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-super-sweet-16-what-is-this/474011/15 "2008-11-24T22:36:43Z")
Everything I know about this show I learned from [David Rakoff](http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=328). ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-super-sweet-16-what-is-this/474011/16 "2008-11-25T01:52:04Z")
> [@Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](#): > > I guess so. > > I wonder what these kids are like as adults? Probably just the same, no doubt. Watch a few episodes of “The Real Housewives of [Orange County] [New York] [Atlanta]” and you’ll get the idea. ---
**Author:** ![Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uosdwis_R.Dewoh)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-super-sweet-16-what-is-this/474011/17 "2008-11-25T03:28:02Z")
Charlie Brooker’s [take](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b7mwTK564o) on My super sweet sixteen. ---
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-super-sweet-16-what-is-this/474011/18 "2008-11-25T04:01:51Z")
I’ve seen - I think - just about every episode of MSSS and what really stands out about them is how lame all the parties wind up looking. They’re really elaborate and opulent, but who cares about that aside from the birthday harpy?