Thursday, October 13, 2011

My Relationship With MTV: A Tale of Bad Taste

            Why is almost everything I like lame? How did good taste pass me by? Throughout my teens I was constantly on the hunt for what I should like. The emphasis being on should. I wanted to like things with substance, critically acclaimed things. I wanted to have good taste. I used to investigate. I used to try things, but still, somehow, the good things apparently passed me by. In a nostalgia heavy culture where anyone can go to the mall today and get a Led Zeppelin or Ramones T-shirt for some reason I’m wishing I could get my hands on a nice 311 t-shirt or Limp Bizkit poster. I’m just kidding, I may have bad taste, but no one wants a picture of Fred Durst in their home, but seriously I do still love those bands and I don’t really have any taste. Who’s to blame? I think that one entity more than any other is to blame. MTV.

            I was 11 when I first started to break away from my parents musically. That is when I first started putting on MTV. There are a few moments which stand out in my mind marking this time. One was the Ice Cube video “Bop Gun” which featured George Clinton. Ice Cube’s opening verse always intrigued me. He starts out, “1993, much more fi-e-i-ounce.” I remember this specifically because the video was shown in 1994 and Mr. Cube holds up four fingers in the video when he says three. It always perplexed me, but I’ll never forget when I started watching MTV because of it. Another moment that marked my foray into the world of MTV was the death of Kurt Cobain. The media coverage surrounding his death really made me take notice of Nirvana. Before his death I just thought that all grunge was Nirvana, bands like Sound Garden and Alice in Chains were all being branded in my mind with the title of Nirvana. I’ll never forget watching SNL and seeing Eddie Vedder lifting the left part of his shirt to reveal KC written over his heart on his under shirt. I remember it because I was thoroughly confused. Prior to this moment I never was really able to distinguish between Pearl Jam and Nirvana, I just knew they were both cool. In addition to that I always thought Kurt was spelled with a C. So I didn’t even really get that it was a memorial thing, Eddie just looked broken up while the rest of the cast of SNL waived and smiled, but in any case I figured this Nirvana is something I should look into.

Luckily for me, that was the perfect time for a clueless suburban kid to get into MTV. Everything was easily palatable. Grunge was turning pop with a lot of videos with bright colors and interesting visuals. “Heart Shaped Box” while gritty in sound was an explosion of neon colors and striking visuals. “Black Hole Sun” was practically a cartoon with its characters over exaggerated smiles and disturbing take on suburbia, I remember excitedly waiting for the moment in the video when the girl spit out her ice cream. Alice in Chains put out “I Stay Away” which used Claymation. I was hooked. The thing that got me to listen to Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” was now selling me on grunge. On the other side of music was Dr. Dre and his G-Funk, the 70’s funk hooks and feel were the perfect spoon full of sugar I needed to help the hard core lyrics go down. Who cared what they were talking about as long as I could sing along to the George Clinton chorus?

In addition to the music of the time there was now The Real World. I started watching The Real World in the second season during re-runs. Even back then MTV had a proud tradition of showing the same show seemingly on a loop. So despite the fact that my parents had control of the television when the show premiered I was still able to catch up to not only that season, but the one that proceeded it and by the time the third season came around it was something that my mother and I would happily watch together. I can’t truly explain what was so gripping about The Real World. I think it may have been the lack of a narrative. You could come in to the show at any point and immediately pick up what was going on. It was simply people arguing about issues set to a cool soundtrack. The first scene I can ever remember seeing was the David pulling the blanket off Tammy controversy. It was loud, it was dangerous, and it was everything that I needed to get me into the show. By the time Tammy had slammed her bedroom door into Beth’s head I was hooked and I’ve never looked back.

What’s interesting about my experience with MTV is how drastically it shaped how I saw music. MTV was basically how I saw music and if you wanted my attention you better be overt. I basically had to be told what to like or someone had to die. I got into grunge because Kurt Cobain died. I listened to Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. after they died. Biggie is the one that truly made an impact. Why? Because of two men, the first was Diddy, then know as Puff Daddy, and the second was Hype Williams. Together these two took the death of Notorious B.I.G. and built themselves an empire in my mind. I never watched Yo MTV raps, but I always watched MTV News and the Week in Rock. Partially because Yo was on at night when I was watching sitcoms and MTV News was on every hour, ten to the hour and the Week in Rock was on weekend mornings when my dad was playing racquetball. Therefore, I never really knew much about Biggie when he was alive. “Big Poppa” was on MTV Jams for a little while, but it was never as big a deal as Dr. Dre or the grunge of the time. Plus, while Dre and Pac were reenacting Mad Max with autotune Biggie was hanging out with his friends in a brownstone. Where was the production value? However, when the two of them died it was all over MTV news so I was forced to notice. After that Diddy took over. Every breath you take was a huge hit to me. It felt important, it was more than just another song it seemed to bring with it a narrative, plus it was directed by Hype so even though it was a memorial we still had neon colors and a motorcycle in which Diddy actually fell off. Diddy’s music seemed to matter more because it brought with it a story of a man losing a friend. Plus Diddy knew who to sell to people like me, it doesn’t matter what you say as long as you say something and it’s set to a song I already know. He then paired that with Hype Williams style and it was a match made in heaven for a dope like me. I got to listen to cool versions of songs I knew while people in shiny suits and bright colors danced around in front of explosions with a fish eye lens. What more could I ask for? So, the Week in Rock told me I should listen to Diddy, Diddy played songs I knew, and Hype took it from there. I feel like every video I saw in the mid to late 90’s was directed by Hype Williams and personally I wouldn’t want it any other way. Because of Hype I discovered Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliot, Q-tip, Nas, and Jay-Z, although it wasn’t until Jay Z retired that I truly took notice. Once again, it took a news story for me to take notice of something that a lot of people had been aware of for some time.

In 1997 MTV moved to Times Square and it really seemed like I was part of something. They went to the biggest, flashiest part of NY and had shows that felt improvised and new. In the beginning Toby was the face of the new-look network. He was British and he was pretentious and watching him made me feel smart, but when the show MTV live turned into Total Request Live everything changed. Boy bands emerged. Now there were two camps, boy bands and those who hated boy bands. I was firmly planted in the hating boy band camp and luckily my camp was full. Lesser known bands like Korn and Blink 182 now realized that if they wanted to compete they would have to dress up their image. Korn put out got the life and while they didn’t sound much different, now the lead singer, Jonathan Davis, was wearing a neon green velvet coat. Their entire video for “Got the Life” was a satire of everything that music video had become, but what did I care, there were once again bright colors and striking imagery. Blink 182 got everyone’s attention with humor, they just ran around their music video for “All the Small Things” naked. So that’s how it went for me, I was sixteen and my psyche was split into two sections, anger and humor, they both felt rebellious and novel and they both were led by MTV.  Limp Bizkit closely followed Korn which I was delighted by. Limp Bizkit was more palatable, more cartoony, more rap inspired, and their music videos were basically rip offs of the style that Hype Williams created. Fred Durst basically took everything he saw Puff Daddy do in 1997 and made it angrier and to me, at sixteen, that meant it was artistic. I thought being artistic meant you were creative and being creative meant you went against the mainstream and at that time through my MTV window, the Backstreet Boys were the mainstream and anyone who was against them was creative and for me, the angrier the better. No one ever told me about The Romantics.

When I turned 18 my horizons expanded. I went to college, I found out I was poor, and for the first time I strayed from my MTV, right into the arms of MTV2. 9/11 happened and my anger turned to depression. It was a smooth transition. My depression wasn’t clinical by any sense, it was the type of depression that can best be described as “I’m thinking and thinking makes me sad.” Thank god for Linkin Park and the birth of emo. The anger of the late 90’s gave way to the sadness of the early 2000’s and I was along for the ride. Woodstock 99 made everyone hate the angry frat boy so I joined the whiny introspective camp luckily for me Staind worked as a nice transition from Limp Bizkit to Linkin Park. Basically, I followed whoever was headlining the Family Values Tour. So despite the fact that they were popularized by the same tour I casted aside Limp Bizkit and followed the new and improved version Linkin Park. To me bands like Linkin Park and Incubus were intelli-rock. These guys were dealing with issues, not just yelling about them. From there MTV2 showed me bands like New Found Glory, Thursday, and Saves the Day. New Found Glory was just punk enough to make me think it was smart and the other two were so angst filled that I was sure it was good.

Everything came to a halt when I moved to New York in 2003. When confronted with actual taste and pretension I simply couldn’t hang. MTV was out of the music business and well on their way to the exploitation of teens, business. I no longer had guidance. I no longer had a rudder. Now, I just had people that were richer and smarter than me telling me that I had no taste. So, I turned inward, I became self actualized to an extent. I stopped the quest for what was good and began the quest for what I liked. I realized the things that were at the core of what I had liked all along, I was simple. I liked bright colors and catchy hooks. I became ok with my taste being unpopular. To some degree, I relished it. I would play New Found Glory and Good Charlotte extra loud in my apartment, just in case someone with good taste could hear. I became lame. Fortunately for me, MTV did leave me with two parting shots in 2003. Jay-Z retired and Kanye West arose. MTV covered both. Jay-Z was finally big news to the network and Kanye was an artist on the rise. To this day these two artists remain my favorite, they were the stop I got off on and for better or worse I have MTV to thank for that.

In truth I have MTV to blame for most of my personality. Without them maybe I could’ve been cool, maybe I would’ve discovered bands that make people respect me, maybe I’d have some taste. Did MTV create my bad taste or did my bad taste bring me to MTV, who knows? All I know is, I hope the next season of The Real World is awesome and I hope Hype Williams is doing well.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

A Discussion of the Women's Movement and the Top 5 Worst Women on The Real World

            Last week I wrote an article discussing the worst Real World cast members of all time. It was a list of 5 and I stand by it. The one glaring point that was made to me later was the fact that there were no women on the list. I’ve thought for a little bit as to why that is. I certainly considered putting women on the list, but the reality of the situation is perhaps more offensive than placing them on the list could ever be. I think women were left off the list because I feel sorry for them. The opinion is as condescending as it gets, but I think that’s truly why they were excluded. No matter how terrible a Real World girl was, I always hated the bully mentality of their male counterpart more. The men that I chose seemed to fight to be awful; it appeared to be a choice that they made. Conversely, the women on the show appear at least to me to be victims of their own circumstances. Perhaps years of watching The Challenge has let me peak behind the curtain a little too much. I heard too much about what goes on behind the scenes. I’ve heard too many male cast members talk about the girl’s “daddy” issues. I’ve seen too many steroid induced tirades unleashed upon hungry girls with new breast implants whose only defense is to cry and hope for the mercy and pity of their attackers. Our culture is almost certainly too hard on women in general and the Real World is no exception. I think that the problem is two fold one is the Real World rule that states that a physical altercation is automatic grounds for expulsion, but another is the women’s movement as a whole.

Even as I write that it feels terrible to say, but hear me out. The quest for equality is not simply the path to being paid 25% more. On a deeper level, it’s challenging the ruling class, it’s redefining how society sees you, and unfortunately for women it’s attempting to share power with an entity that is physically stronger and more aggressive than yourself. That is not to say that it isn’t a fight worth fighting, but it is a fight and fights by their very nature leave the challenger bruised and broken and to some extent that’s what we see on the Real World. Equality, on some level, legitimizes victimization. In a fight between person A and person B, if A is commonly accepted as superior, then any attack on B by A would be interpreted as victimization and bullying, but if A and B are equal than a fight between the two is a fight about issue where whoever is right wins. The problem is in a fight between a man and woman the man will almost always have the upper hand because he has the physical advantage, if negotiations break down he can simply decide to hurt the woman, she doesn’t have that same option. Therefore, to some extent her victimization is legitimized by her own struggle for equality. To some degree it is the women’ struggle for equality that makes the despicable action of yelling at a woman justifiable. Either that or the men on the show are cowards.

Many of the fights that occur on the show between the sexes are the result of a women fighting for something and the male seeing that as an opportunity to cast aside any semblance chivalry and merely attack a weaker opponent. I’m always amazed at the fact that when a man is yelling at a woman on the Real World you almost never see another man rush to her defense. I’m always screaming at my television wishing that someone would put the bully in his place, but to the contrary the male cast members almost without exception choose to stay above the fray when it comes to fights that do not directly involve them. That leaves only the fellow female cast members to come to the defense of the woman in the argument. In addition to the women’s movement, the other factor that cannot be ignored is the Real World’s embargo against physical altercations.
Physical fighting is not always a bad thing. At its best it can level the playing field. It keeps people from saying things they shouldn’t. It lets people know where they stand. It can teach lessons and keep people in check. For me personally, getting into fights as humbled me and made me less brash, but on the Real World being humble and less brash are two characteristics that will lead to you getting less screen time. That may be the exact reason why the rule is there in the first place. The drama that is created by people simply knowing that they can’t be hit in the mouth for what they say has led to some of the greatest moments on the show. Who would say anything to CT if he knew he could just hit you and go on about on his merry way? Maybe people would tease Dunbar less if he were allowed to commit the atrocities that must be constantly running through his mind. That rule could be to blame for so many women getting screamed at over the many seasons of the Real World. If no one can get hit and the only thing that would usually stop a guy from yelling at a girl is the threat of him getting punched then removing that threat might give him free rein to be as monstrous as he wants to be. In any case it is the consistent victimization of the women on the show that was probably the driving force behind their exemption from the list of worst cast members, but alas their day is over because now it is time to countdown the top 5 worst female cast members of all time.

Coming in at number 5, a big name, Irene from Seattle. Irene was immortalized in Real World lore due to the parting shots that she made to fellow cast member Stephen. She asked to speak to Stephen alone and in that final moment she told Stephen that he was a homosexual. Following that interaction, Stephen brandished the stuffed animal that he had stolen from Irene, threw said stuffed animal in the water beneath their home on Pier 70, and capped the entire interaction by stopping her car and slapping her in the face. Honestly, this move almost exempted her from this list and added Stephen to the previous list. Stephen was an idiot and has since come out of the closet, but on a week to week basis Irene was not fun to watch. Over the course of the season Irene’s biggest obstacle was the fact that she had Lyme disease. In interviews following her appearance on the show she claimed that it was MTV’s manipulation and not her disease that led to her erratic behavior. Irene was bothersome on a couple different levels. She tried to come in between Nathan and his girlfriend. She attempted to talk fellow cast member Janet to leave the show. She complained more than any of her house mates and she would go on long rants about whatever would come to her mind. She was by far the most manipulative of all of the cast members and in a wonderful act of irony has done more complaining about MTV’s manipulation of her than maybe any cast member in the history of the show. Irene was a dazzling mix intelligent for her age, but stupid for a person. Her intelligence brought with it an arrogance and penchant for malevolence that never seemed justified. In general I didn’t like the fact that she agreed to go on the show well into the show’s run and then was deeply offended in the way the show was run. I feel like she should’ve known what she was getting into.

Coming in at number 4, a personal favorite of mine, Brooke from Denver. Brooke was a special kind of crazy. On the surface she was a perfect southern belle, but beneath her beautiful visage laid a troubled girl on the edge. Her most shining moment came when she went to get her nails done. She took to the streets of Denver on her own looking for the nail salon. After her odyssey took her through what she described as the ghetto she returned home frazzled and weary. She shared news of her ghetto exploits which were not taken well by her black roommate Tyrie, she then exploded, called her mother, and complained that she was in Hell. I’ve always enjoyed Real World cast members lost on their own because simple logic dictates that if we are able to see her, she wasn’t alone. She had to have been flanked by at least one camera man, a sound guy, probably a PA, and a story producer all of which probably had a van waiting for them around the corner. She couldn’t have been a likely target for any sort of crime. I just love that while we are watching someone go through the great turmoil of being lost there is a team of people that know exactly where they are and where everything is and the only thing they do to help is stop themselves from giggling (probably), but I digress. Brooke was a prissy and whiny as anyone who’s ever been on the show and her outbursts were numerous and loud. Her face would concoct in mysterious and delightful ways. She’s on the list, but her mania was truly the highlight of an already great season

Coming in at number 3, we go from my favorite on the list to my least favorite, Montana from Boston. Montana was awful. She was the hipster archetype before such a thing existed. She had all of the irritating foibles of Summer from 500 days of Summer only she didn’t look like Zooey Deschanel. I know how shallow that statement is, but let’s face it, awful behavior is more palatable coming from an attractive person. Montana was pretentious and judgmental. She had a long term, live in boyfriend in New York however that did not prevent her from straying. She carried with her a sense of entitlement, but that sense brought with it no accomplishments. She once complained that she tired of living with 18 year olds. It’s important to note that she was confiding this fact to her 18 year old roommate Elka. She was nearly removed from the show when she allowed the children whom she was responsible for to drink wine. Basically, she was wanted the world around her to be mature and sophisticated, but she was neither of these things.

Coming in at number 2, Kimberly from Hollywood. Kimberly was the second coming of Brooke. She too was a southern belle with all sorts of entitlement and she too had a slight penchant for the word ghetto. When in an argument with her roommate Brianne she requested that she “not get ghetto with her.” Her big goal was to be an entertainment reporter for E News, but aside from attending one audition which MTV set up for her she made no attempt to make that dream a reality. She had possibly the strongest accent that the show has ever seen and made no attempt to lose the dialect. She was the epitome of every person with big dreams and no action. In addition to that she was basically drunk most of the time, she was rude to her roommates, and generally had an air of superiority, but unlike Brooke, she wasn’t really fun to watch.

Coming in at number 1, the grand mother of them all, Beth S. from Los Angeles. Beth was the model by which all irritating women on the show would be judged. We saw her first in the show’s second season, but we got to know her even more in later years on the challenge. Beth has never been popular. She never really yelled or did any action that was overtly extreme. Her biggest foible was basically falsely accusing someone of rape. Dave the comedian from LA was kicked off the show after an incident with current Basketball Wife, Tammy. What started off as a playful interaction turned ugly when David pulled the covers off of underwear clad Tammy. It was Beth who fanned the flames and eventually led the charge for kicking David off the show, comparing what he did to rape. Beth was always in everyone’s business, seemed to relish controversy, and was generally annoying, which is probably her biggest quirk. Erratic behavior can be forgiven, but being annoying is unforgivable and that’s what Beth was until the end.

So there you have it. That’s my list. Please don’t be mad.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Top 5 Worst Real World Cast Members

“The Real World” is just something I can’t get away from. I’m 28 years old I should be moving on. I should have a wife and kids and own a home, but instead I sit in my home for an hour a week and watch seven strangers picked to live in house and find out what happens when people stop being nice and start getting real. “The Real World” isn’t the reason for my arrested development, but rather a reflection of it. I personally believe that a person can be intelligent and functioning and still like terrible reality television. This may be more self serving than I’d like to admit. I think that railing against reality shows like “The Real World” doesn’t make you more intelligent. I believe that in a free market, competitive culture where someone else’s laziness and stupidity can only result in your gain, the truly intelligent people accept the culture around them, keep their mouths shut, their heads down, and quietly go to work. I’d like to think I’m one of the intelligent ones, but I’ve never kept my mouth shut and unfortunately, by my definition, that takes me out of the running.
With all of that in mind, let’s talk real world. The latest season of “The Real World” premiered last week. The newest installment is based in San Diego for the second time in the show’s history. I find it a little weird that the show has been on for so long that it is now batting around San Diego is up. They’ve revisited cities before, New Orleans, New York (3 times actually, New York twice & Brooklyn once), Las Vegas, and LA (it was called Hollywood the second time). Personally, I think that they should keep trying new cities, but I guess we’ll all just have to wait with baited breath for “Real World: St. Louis: The Reckoning.” Anyway, this newest installment has most of the usual suspects, good looking people eager for the fray too young to understand that what they think is neither important nor will matter to them in 3 years. There was however a stand out character. On the show you can be a stand out for good reasons; see Isaac (Sydney) and Leroy (Las Vegas 2) or you can be a stand out because you are over the top despicable; see Ryan (New Orleans 2) and the Real World hall of famer, Puck (San Francisco). This season’s standout is the bad kind and his name is Frank.
I haven’t had this kind of guttural reaction to a character since Tuco in the first season of Breaking Bad, seriously, how did we all keep watching that show after that guy chewed up all the scenery? Frank’s true genius as a despicable character is truly his versatility. He is many terrible things at one time. He is starved for attention, wearing a yellow bandana and Hawaiian shirt for his first encounter with his roommates, a move that truly says “look at me, look at me, please god, everybody stop what you’re doing and acknowledge the unconventional manner in which I present myself!” He is sexually confused, which wouldn’t be an issue if he would simply deal with it internally like a normal person. When one is confused or undecided on an important issue it is probably in bad form to loudly proclaim and celebrate your confusion while at the same time have an extremely heightened sensitivity about the situation. He is also trying to get into a relationship with the one person in the house who is already in a relationship and he is doing so in a manner that in neither subtle nor logical. He suggested that the object of his affection, Alexandra, and her boyfriend didn’t seem to be right for each other and he ascertained this knowledge after a day of knowing her and no time knowing the boyfriend. He’s the worst and that’s why he is both the inspiration and the beginning of the following list: the 5 worst Real World cast members of all time. Frank is number 5.
Coming in at number 4, Ryan from New Orleans 2. Ryan was truly amazing. While most awful cast members are content to be attention grabbing over dramatic narcissists, Ryan brought a certain flair and creativity to his role as worst cast member. Ryan was a straight hair dresser who enjoyed cuddling with the house’s lone gay cast member, the Rajon Rondo look-alike Preston. He had a fetish for playing with ears and blow drying himself while contemplating the complexities of life. At a glance he would have been the gayest man in the house, but he paired his quirks and behavior with a penchant for homophobic behavior and gay slurs. He would intentionally terrorize the house mates, hiding the lone car that they all shared, and at the same time complain that nobody liked him. He even attempted to blame a roommate’s stolen xanax on the season’s most popular character, Knight. Knight had recently dealt with an addiction to prescription medication so that added a special wrinkle to the move. Ryan was eventually kicked out because the other roommates flat out didn’t like him. Usually, removal from the house comes with an inciting incident, but only the truly horrible are asked to leave simply because they suck.
Coming in at number 3, Adam from Las Vegas 2. Adam had the blind confidence of a successful NFL running back. Unfortunately for Adam, he was in his mid-twenties unemployed and living with his parents in Maine. His biggest source of pride was going to a juvenile detention center for selling drugs and being able to make multiple women his girlfriend. He also used to the term “make her my girlfriend.” He would intentionally get blackout drunk and be a general nuisance. It was that behavior that eventually led to his dismissal. He was as calculating as nearly any cast member in how he wanted to be portrayed on the show, but for some inexplicable reason he chose to portray himself as an asshole. He was also predictably kicked off his first challenge after only one night. Adam proves that it ain’t easy being a gangster…from Maine…on a reality TV show…who lives with his parents.
Coming in at number 2, Neil from London. Neil personifies why people don’t like Europeans. He was condescending, pretentious, and very, very British. He fronted a punk band called Unilever and had bleach blond hair. Basically, he was a mid 90’s homeless man’s Johnny Rotten. He talked down to all of the other cast members until during an unfortunate incident someone in the audience of a Unilever show bit off a portion of his tongue. Then he didn’t say much at all. The incident was an instant Real World classic as told by Neil, there was a man in the front row screaming incessantly at the band so Neil of course did the logical thing and went in for a kiss at which point the man “turned psychotic and bit my tongue off.” It’s a rare instant when someone’s irritating personal attributes actually result in them experiencing pain, but luckily for the Real World audience that was the case this time and we all were able to bare witness.
Finally, the king of the a-holes, coming in at number 1, Puck from San Francisco. Puck was the first made for TV douche. He was a real trail blazer he practically invented the concept of being a villain on reality television. Since its inception reality TV has always had irritating people, but before Puck no one had attempted to be irritating. He set himself apart. Puck didn’t have to try hard to be awful. He was already a bike messenger in San Francisco with a DUI whose main interest appeared to be soapbox racing. That’s right he was a grown man who spent his spare time participating in a past time made famous by the little rascals and this was something he took great pride in. In addition to those wonderful attributes, Puck was filthy, he would rarely shower, openly pick his nose, pick scabs, and he would mention how bad he smelled. Puck was in the house with openly gay and HIV positive Pedro Zamora, they did not get along. Pedro’s need to keep himself healthy due to his struggling immune system was put to the test by living with Puck. A situation that came to a head when it was discovered that Puck had eaten Pedro’s peanut butter by sticking his freshly nose picked finger into the actual peanut butter jar, a scene that was certainly the most entertaining scene ever that revolved around peanut butter. Puck basically made it his business to bother everyone in the house and like Ryan from New Orleans, he was asked to leave based more on an accumulation of being awful than one inciting incident. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when Pedro gave an ultimatum; either he or Puck would have to leave the house. Puck was voted out and sent to where all reality TV villains end up, obscurity.
So, that’s it. That’s my list. There was certainly a couple that I wish I could’ve added. I have to say that honorable mention goes to Chet from Brooklyn, Brooke from Denver, Kimberly from Hollywood, David (ski-dob-u-dee-dob-u-dee) from New Orleans, and Wes from Austin who is only lacking from this list because he was not really terrible when he was on the Real World, but has since morphed into reality TV’s equivalent of the Dark Phoenix. I hope everyone enjoyed the list and let me know what you think.