[QUOTE=I’m Ron Burgundy?]
Are we talking about a television program?
Protesting on TV is not a good idea. Broadcast TV is a business, there to make money. If you want to protest on it, you had better be the one supplying the ad revenue for the program. It is like a group of McDonald’s employees holding an anti-war protest inside a McDonald’s.
[/QUOTE]
Precisely. So You Think You Can Dance is a TV program. Furthermore its broadcast in prime-time on a major network. Its producers want to reach as broad an audience as possible, get the highest ratings possible, and make as much money as they possibly can. Anything that might make a portion of their audience turn the channel or not tune in next week is something they want to avoid. The choreographers are also invested in the success of the show as they are pulling in hefty paychecks and getting exposure like they never have before, including Emmy nominations. So in other words, offending people is at odds with some of their other goals, so they’d rather not. Of course I’m of the opinion that offending people won’t do shit for changing people’s minds, it just closes them. I also think that anti-war dances and wearing tore-up uniforms, etc. is just masturbatory bullshit that, again, will do nothing toward getting us out of Iraq any sooner.
Having said that, I watch the show regularly, and I had mixed feelings about it when it aired. First of all Wade’s dance was crap. I laughed everytime the dancers screamed, which I’m pretty sure was intended to evoke the opposite reaction. The song and the peace symbols and the general message I didn’t see as being offensive at all. It was basic hippy-trippy anti-war pap, but its not like it made any specific reference to the war in Iraq or in Afghanistan or anything.
The part that bothered me was when they made the dancers make their own shirts with some anti-war message on it. Again, the dancers all put some sort of vague slogan on the shirt chosen not to offend. But what if one of the dancers is pro-war? I guess they could have put “Death from Above” or something on their shirt, which would have been hilarious. The problem I have is that the show was essentially forcing these dancers, who are there for a dance competition, to make a political statement. Sure, the dancers could have refused, and risked losing a chance to finish the show, and made a big stupid stink over the whole thing, if they had felt strongly enough about it. But putting the dancers in a situation like that is poor show management. They came for a dance competition, not to play a part one of the choreographers pet political projects. Its just smacks of unprofessionalism.
As for Mia’s jacket, I didn’t even notice it.
Whooda thunkit? So what happened to you?
