Ugh, it’s that time of year again – “big brother”. the british obsession with this noxious programme just boggles my mind. this show is on about 6 months out of the year, and spawns no fewer than 5 different offspring programmes, which are repeated ad nauseum throughout the day on various channels. my irritation with “big brother” comes not only from the show(s), but from the fact that it is nigh on impossible to escape. You can’t *not* see it, hear it, read about it. it’s so omnipresent that in spite of never actually watching it, i know almost as much about it as if i was a “BB” devotee. it’s insidious.

so they cycle “big brother” through. then, alternatively they have the “celebrity big brother” variant, where they take “celebrities” and stick them in the house for a month. i should, i suppose, explain straight off the bat that the term “celebrity” is played with very loose and fast around these parts. A british celebrity is, in fact, rarely ever known outside europe. It’s a small nation, but a powerful one, and quite honestly i am completely flummoxed as to why there are so few british celebrities of international stature. in comparison, u.s. celebrities are, as a rule, world renowned, and i suppose that says quite a lot about the predominance of american culture in general. still, the disparity between even b-list american celebs and u.k. media darlings is huge. i can probably list on one hand the number of british superstars who’s fame translates across the pond, and the vast majority of the rest of them, most americans would never have heard of.

i give you exhibit a – this year’s “celebrity big brother” line up:

Michael Barrymore
Traci Bingham
Rula Lenska
Samuel Preston
Pete Burns
Maggot
Jodie Marsh
Faria Alam
Dennis Rodman
George Galloway
Chantelle

if you only recognised 2 (or even 3) of those names, you’re not alone. see the pathetic bios here. i’m sure dennis is firing his agent even as we speak.

think this is an off year? check out the previous rosters here.

it’s going to be a very long month.

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big brother, reality television, dennis rodman