Good Lord, first Honey Boo Boo, now these Duck Dynasty people?

[Denninmi]

I just don't get it.

[Taverner]

1. The fetishization of redneckery

Or at least a caricature of redneckery

[Tom Ripley]

25. It's both (I call the latter "necking up", as opposed to "corking up", as it is just another...

kind of minstrel show)

[shanti]

2. I don't either

And refuse to watch them.

[Aristus]

3. The ratings success of these shows is due to people who are

1. Too lazy to change the channel.
2. Too stupid to think of something better to watch.
3. Too ignorant to consider turning the TV off and doing something else.
4. So enamored of bullshit and mediocrity that the programming they watch actually appeals, not to the worst in them, but to the meh in them.

Lowest-Common-Denominator Programming.

Something to put on the screen in between commercials.

Entertainment for people for whom life is nothing more than a moment-by-moment flow of sensory input.

[nolabear]

11. I'm not a fan but I don't think that's it.

I think the Duck Dynasty crowd is an example of people that a certain segment of the population identifies with, and they've made a bunch of money and are famous. Those who identify feel elevated and those who feel superior feel elevated.

I don't know about Honey Boo Boo but Duck Dynasty is hardly "reality". Those guys are smart, slick and pretty much scripted. But people seem to like them and what the heck.

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

16. ^This in spades ^

Especially this part;Too stupid to think of something better to watch.

Sounds like my brother in law,who DVRs all those kinds of shows,and who can't follow the plot line of a Flintstones cartoon.

[pipi_k]

18. Notes from

a "lowest common denominator" person with nothing better to do than watch "trash" in between commercials...


I know who Albioni, Rodrigo, Vangelis, and John Williams are, and can identify some of their works.

I know the names of all six of the wives of Henry the VIII, how they died, and how many of their children lived beyond infancy to become monarchs in their own right.

I know what the Bayeaux Tapestry, Battle Abbey, and the Domesday Book are, and who was responsible for their existence.

I know who Michio Kaku, Brian Cox, Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, and Neil DeGrasse Tyson are.

I have read books by Orson Welles, Oscar Wilde, Jane Austen, can recite a couple of poems by Robert Frost, and one of my favorite poems by Edgar Allen Poe is "The Bells".


Oh, and I like Duck Dynasty.

[westerebus]

20. Well played...

[OriginalGeek]

38. :-)

I just got finished reading A Brief History Of Time and am looking forward to reading his latest.

I don't think I'm anywhere near as smart as he is but I'm pretty well convinced I'm not a moron.

About most things.

My wife will look at a stack of clothes I've folded and tell you something different.

[OriginalGeek]

4. It's a good show

They're fun. I make no apologies for enjoying it.

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. Ditto.

[pipi_k]

14. I don't

apologize either.

They make me laugh. It sucks having depression and anxiety, so anything that takes my mind off of myself is good.

[NYC_SKP]

5. Not fake, it's an American success story from rags to riches.

Long before the TV show, this family built a business that made them millions.

'Redneck' Millionaires Built 'Duck Dynasty' in Duck Call Business

For Phil Robertson, the ear-splitting squawk of a duck call is the sweet sound of success.

A former college quarterback from Monroe, La., Robertson gave up a coaching career for his love of duck hunting when he discovered he could whittle a better duck call than any on the market -- a move that eventually made him millions of dollars and earned his family their own reality TV series.

For 25 years, Robertson said he stood in his dilapidated shed and handcrafted duck calls out of cedar trees native to Monroe-area swamps.

"I'd drive up to these Walmarts and they'd run me out, 'you think we're gonna buy old duck calls off the street?' I said, 'Hey man, Colonel Sanders started with one chicken and... that's good chicken, man," Robertson said.

His first year, Robertson said he sold $8,000 worth of duck calls, and his wife Kay somehow managed to feed four boys on that salary.

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/redneck-millionaires-built-duck-dynasty-duck-call-business/story?id=15961955#.T4H3ytl5nXo

I say "Good for Them!", though I'm not a fan of the show and have only seen a few minutes of it.

[pipi_k]

15. Not only that, but...

even though the show's producers lay out scenarios for each show, the dialogue is mostly ad lib.

That's what I most enjoy about it. Those people are naturally funny, in a low-key way.

[NYC_SKP]

19. I did not know that!

I'll have to sit and watch an episode.

[pipi_k]

28. Oh yeah...

Especially Uncle Si.

You never quite know what he's going to say next, and you can tell it's ad lib because the rest of the guys are genuinely amused by it.

The other one who makes me laugh is Jase, who does perfect deadpan.

[onehandle]

7. People are morons. nt

[pinboy3niner]

8. Elisabeth Hasselbeck will spend her first week at FNC with...the Duck Dynasty folks

Last edited Mon Sep 16, 2013, 01:58 AM - Edit history (1)

She joins Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade on their morning show on Monday, making her Faux debut.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck raves about joining 'Fox & Friends' in new promo -- VIDEO
http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/09/15/elisabeth-hasselbeck-fox-and-friends-promo/

[NYC_SKP]

21. Can we send Elisabeth Hasselbeck out on a survival show, please?

Something brutal like "Naked and Afraid", not so much about the nakedness, it's all blurred out, but more for the afraid part.

[tabbycat31]

29. correct me if I am wrong

But wasn't she a Survivor cast member?

[NYC_SKP]

33. Now that you mention it...

You are right.

So highly qualified to be a quasi-journalist, eh?

[Arugula Latte]

9. I just said to my husband: "What the f@#$ is up with all these redneck shows?"

There's also that swamp one, where they hunt alligators, and some other ones, too.

[kelly1mm]

10. We prefer 'Appalachian Americans', thank you very much!nt

[Arugula Latte]

26. There are rednecks everywhere, though.

[HappyMe]

12. I have seen Duck Dynasty a few times.

I thought they were smart and funny. For a bunch of 'rednecks' they behave a hell of a lot better than the Real Housewives women, who regularly get drunk and scream or hit one another.

I don't understand why people watch Dancing With the Stars or Survivor.

[Burma Jones]

13. Hear Hear.....Table Slap.....Nodding.....Other displays of Agreement

[pipi_k]

22. Oddly enough...

they remind me a bit of some of my own family even though I'm Massachusetts born and bred.

Uncle Si is my maternal grandfather.

The Robertson brothers are like my paternal uncles and aunts (without the beards...ha ha) with their sense of humor. I used to love going to my dad's parents' home where the aunts and uncles would gather on a regular basis and I, being just a kid, would listen while trying to be invisible and trying even harder not to laugh so they wouldn't kick me outside to play in the yard.

I miss them all so much.

[blueknight]

17. this is a REALITY show,

and as we all know, reality shows are anything but REALITY. they start out that way, and then become scripted garbage. having said that, we all have different taste on what we like and dislike. if you enjoy it, watch it, if you dont, change the channel. very simple, really

[Phentex]

23. People have different tastes...

there's something for everyone!

[Tom Ripley]

24. Duck Dynasty: Like Deliverance, less rape-y!

[HappyMe]

27. Sure.

[madmom]

30. I have to say I love reality shows for one simple reason...

My electric bill is much smaller because my TV is never on. Can't stand any of them!

[MicaelS]

31. It's showing the appeal of working class Americans...

Outside either coast. As in the "flyover country". There are lots of people out there like that. As opposed to a bunch of spoiled, rich, whiny people on either coast who scream at each other much of the time, and spend the rest of their time shopping.

[Paladin]

34. Just another bunch of millionaires, trying to pass for redneck. No thanks. (nt)

[Kaleva]

32. Uncle Si is a hoot.

He fought the Vietnam War all by himself.

[frogmarch]

35. I watched Duck Dynasty once,

and I got a kick out of it. I'm not the most learned, brilliant person around, but I'm not stupid either. Also, I'm not from the South, so my enjoying the show had nothing to do with my being from there.

I've never watched Honey Boo Boo, though. I saw a short preview of it once, and I decided that was more than enough for me.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

36. I like it...

I think these guys aren't as dumb as they let on. Some of their humor makes pop culture references that would probably be lost on a "dumb redneck."

Unlike other reality shows, I'm laughing with these guys, not at them.

[frogmarch]

37. I agree! They're actually quite

sharp, I think. When I watched the show, I too laughed with them, not at them.

[alphafemale]

39. I have no use for any reality show....At All.

Despise every one of them

Do they also make Cupcakes?

The dregs of what people will watch is staggering.