# Why must we suffer the "lesser" Kardashians? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 15, 2013, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-we-suffer-the-lesser-kardashians/666283 "2013-08-15T04:52:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-we-suffer-the-lesser-kardashians/666283/41 "2013-08-18T09:31:26Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > (archaic: I wish I could reform the Ottoman Imperial bureaucracy, and no one would be the vizier.) Well played. šŸ™‚ Sadly, World War I and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk beat you to it. šŸ˜‰ ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-we-suffer-the-lesser-kardashians/666283/42 "2013-08-18T15:41:31Z")
The movie Poltergeist did a lot to take clowns from creepy to outright terrifying for a lot of people. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-we-suffer-the-lesser-kardashians/666283/43 "2013-08-18T16:14:16Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > Parisā€™s sister is much prettier. Paris was maybe vaguely known as an party-girl heiress before her sex tape but only among those who were super-plugged into the paparazzi circuit. She didnā€™t ping on anyoneā€™s radar on a national scale until the sex tape. Well, the sex tape and her reality show with Nicole Richey. The two kind of came out concurrently so itā€™s fuzzy as to which was the chicken and which was the egg. As I said, Paris Hiltonā€™s initial claim to fame was as a model. And the reality show came first. The sex tape was released just before the show aired to piggyback on the assumed popularity of the show (Hilton never gained anything from the tape as her show was already shot and scheduled to air before the tape was released). ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-we-suffer-the-lesser-kardashians/666283/44 "2013-08-18T18:33:09Z")
I remember first encountering Paris Hilton when I was living in Manhattan circa 2000. Iā€™d read the Post on the subway on my way to work, and her name would come up now and then in the society pages. As far as I could tell, she was just this rich kid with a famous last name who went to lots of parties. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-we-suffer-the-lesser-kardashians/666283/45 "2013-08-19T00:04:06Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Hilton never gained anything from the tape as her show was already shot and scheduled to air before the tape was released. Ah, well unless you call going from a D-list nobody to a household name ā€˜not gaining anythingā€™ Iā€™d have to disagree. She may not have profited from it, but so what. Sheā€™s already a bazillionaire. Hilton ā€˜made her bonesā€™ as it were 100% from her sex tape(s). And for all her whining about it initially sheā€™s loved every minute of mega-fame since. ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-we-suffer-the-lesser-kardashians/666283/46 "2013-08-19T17:42:55Z")
The core of the question is an interesting one. If you start with the posit that the satellite Kardashians are less beautiful than Kimā€¦ a relatively safe assumption based on current definitions of attractivenessā€¦ I think the appeal of the remainders is gravitating to the _lifestyle_ (rich, young, partying, etc.) Consider, which would do better ā€” an _even less attractive_ woman dating a basketball player, living in an impossibly large mansion, being silly, etcā€¦ or _one of these girls_, say, reading the phonebook? Kate Upton can read the phonebook in a bikini and some will watch. Beauty/attractiveness is one element, a big oneā€¦ decreasingly appealing ā€œtalentā€ must be supplanted by content thatā€™s otherwise compellingā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-we-suffer-the-lesser-kardashians/666283/47 "2013-08-19T17:59:55Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Ah, well unless you call going from a D-list nobody to a household name ā€˜not gaining anythingā€™ Iā€™d have to disagree. She may not have profited from it, but so what. Sheā€™s already a bazillionaire. Hilton ā€˜made her bonesā€™ as it were 100% from her sex tape(s). And for all her whining about it initially sheā€™s loved every minute of mega-fame since. Sighā€¦ Again, the sex tape was released after her show was scheduled and filmed. The sex tape was piggybacking on the show, not the other way around. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-we-suffer-the-lesser-kardashians/666283/48 "2013-08-19T18:48:12Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Kris Jenner is definitely an evil genius, as I have little doubt that Kimā€™s wedding of the century to that retarded football player Basketball ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-we-suffer-the-lesser-kardashians/666283/49 "2013-08-19T21:11:06Z")
> [@johnspartan](#): > > or _one of these girls_, say, reading the phonebook? Khloe Kardashian is uglier than a dogā€™s ass, and yet weā€™re subjected to her non-stop anyway. Kimā€™s at least easy on the eyes, if rather cretinous and vapid. I donā€™t know much about the rest of them. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-we-suffer-the-lesser-kardashians/666283/50 "2013-08-19T22:17:53Z")
> [@gwendee](#): > > I do wish sheā€™d resisted a few procedures. She was a strikingly beautiful girl. I had no idea that Kim Kardashian had had plastic surgery. I found this video comparing before and after ā€” [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P12KXcf8Csk](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P12KXcf8Csk) ā€” and Iā€™ll have to say that unlike some surgery victims, whatever she has done hasnā€™t turned her into a monster. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-we-suffer-the-lesser-kardashians/666283/51 "2013-08-20T01:19:54Z")
Kimā€™s talent is being a profoundly brilliant gay-activist performance artist. By getting a semi-famous basketball player to marry her and then make their wedding _the_ social event of the year on TV and then immediately dumping him, Kim demonstrated how homosexual marriage couldnā€™t even begin to do the kind of damage to straight marriage that a heterosexual sham marriage can do (cf. Britney Spears overnight Las Vegas weddingā€¦ such an amateur). And speaking of ā€˜lessersā€™ā€¦ Ashlee Simpson. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-we-suffer-the-lesser-kardashians/666283.md?page=2)