Life > February 24, 2005

By Christopher Browder

Old Gold & Black Reviewer

MTV’s The Real World will always be the best reality show on television. That is the simple, unavoidable, indisputable truth.

I know some of you are probably thinking, “Come on! I love the challenges of Survivor, the excitement of The Amazing Race and the drama of The Bachelor. They don’t even do anything on The Real World besides bicker and complain like little babies!”

Spare me.

First of all, I would like to say that you are right.

I do not think I have ever seen anything on The Real World that I could not have witnessed on an elementary school playground or in my own dorm room.

The cast members are consistently self-absorbed, self-obsessed, whiny, overdramatic, pretentious, immature, irresponsible and overwhelmingly unlikable.

Sometimes there is that one person who is vaguely cool for half a season and then turns out to be the worst of the bunch. But on this year’s season in Philadelphia, everyone pretty much sucks.

While some of you may argue that this is why The Real World is inferior to other reality television, I am saying the exact opposite.

The Real World rules because no one on it is actually cool or interesting in any way.

This is due to one key thing: America loves to judge. Everybody does it. Whether they admit it or not, in the back of everyone’s twisted little mind they are secretly and often subconsciously judging everything and everyone around them, for better or for worse.

The problem is that this is not socially acceptable.

No one wants to be seen as a judgmental person, because that means they are close-minded, egotistical and obnoxious.

This is why America needs The Real World. This show allows us to sit on our couches and judge others to our heart’s content.

It is nearly impossible to watch without blurting out lines like “She cannot be serious,” “I cannot stand that guy,” or “These people are the most self-centered people I have ever seen.”

Months and months of footage are condensed into 30-minute episodes of seven strangers at their worst, saying their dumbest thoughts and committing their most horrible deeds.

The show’s creators know that we want to see these people make fools out of themselves so we can feel better about our own mistakes and flaws.

We can laugh at how silly Cristina on The Real World: Paris looked when she chewed out CT for eating her peanut butter, even though the night before we got angry at our roommate for playing his music too loud.

We can criticize this season’s cast for always being late to work, even though we consistently walk in late to our own classes, if we make it there at all. The thing is, in real life, if our friend Cristina got mad about some eaten peanut butter, then we might tell her to relax a little, but we could not tell her she was being ridiculous because she would be quick to point out our hypocrisy.

We keep our mouths shut because we know that everyone is imperfect, including ourselves.

But on The Real World, the cast cannot fight back, so we are free to be the biggest hypocrites and most hateful jerks that we can possibly be.

Another reason that The Real World is so much better than most reality TV is because nothing happens.

There are no games to get in the way, so all we see is how intolerable these people really are.

Honestly, I do not care how fast someone can paddle a canoe across a lagoon full of piranhas while blindfolded, because I never have to do that in real life, so I have no point of comparison.

But I do have to live with other people and I have had a job. I have been away from my family and friends and I have had people eat my peanut butter.

This means I can judge, which allows me to feel better about myself every Tuesday night at 10 p.m.