Friday, June 05, 2009

FAIL!

For the past few weeks and maybe more, my posts have been relatively tame; they have been posts of the happy variety. Gone is the angry, the world is stupid(but in a joking way) Manuel. Yeah, throw that out...

I don't even know where to start with this one. As many of you know, I hate American Idol with a passion. People say that hate is such a strong word, but I tend to disagree. I think it possible to hate and when someone says, "No, you just really, really, dislike them," I roll my eyes. With that in mind, I found some people I may hate more than the travesty that is American Idol:

This was taken from NBC Philadelphia

After spending hours voting for their favorite contestants on “American Idol”, the Rychalsky family is hoping they might be winners themselves by landing a world record for calls placed.

Konstantine and Helen Rychalsky and their daughters Michelle, 27, and Kristen, 25, cast so many votes for their favorite singers that they might have done just that.


It takes coordination and resilience to make that many calls, Konstantine told the Connecticut Post.

"Fatigue plays a major part, which is why we have to do it as a family. It's kind of like playing a video game, with one hand dialing and one hand hanging up, with lots of fun involved," Konstantine told the Post.

This season, they called to vote for contestants about 18,000 times. That was done in shifts for 30 hours over 14 weeks, or two hours each Tuesday and four for the final episode, the Waterbury Republican-American reports.

"It's absolutely a family effort," Konstantine’s wife Helen told the Post. "The last few seasons, especially, it's become a family get-together from the time it starts to the time it ends."


Their dedication sparked some friendly competition within the family to see how many votes they could cast on a given night.

"Our whole family got hooked when Carrie Underwood was a contestant,” Konstantine told the Post. "That was the year we picked up the phone and made some calls. ... After the first half-hour, we said, let's keep calling, and ended up doing that for the whole four hours (the lines were open that night)."

This year, the family voted for Kris Allen, but won’t know if they qualify for a world record until they hear back from an application company that will determine if the family has reached record status.

"The whole idea behind this was that we did it as a family and had a great deal of fun," Konstantine told the Post. "We would encourage other families to do it as a family."



That alone should be enough. There should be no additional commentary needed from me. But there will be. These people suck. I mean, they took shifts calling in? REALLY?!?! I don't know what is worse here: the wasted hours this family did voting on a stupid show or the fact that this horrible show has brainwashed people into actually spending hours on end calling. What is worse, the show or the people. Are all people who watch the show like this? No, of course not. Some people watch it just to be entertained, as questionable as that may be. But the extremes of this article just sicken me. And yes, there are some who would argue that at least they are doing something together they enjoy. I simply say, pick something more worthwhile. Something that isn't leading to the downfall of American society.

A happier, more pleasant picture post is below.

10 comments:

Miss Sassy Pants said...

Three words:

Get a fucking life!

dmarks said...

I hate Idol enough to have never ever watched it.

Except for a couple of weeks ago, when I was turning past it on the dial, and saw KISS performing. I watched that for a couple of minutes. Then that Chris Lambert guy (the contestant) joined in, and I turned the channel.

Anonymous said...

Boy, I am having mixed feelings here. I mean, which should I be more outraged about, the fact that this family spent so much time dialing a phone to vote for yet another record company tool? Or that some producer found that this story was newsworthy enough to report?

If you think option 1, text MORONS
If you think option 2, text USELESS

nani said...

THANK YOU!
I've never been a fan of American Idol. I can see though, if you are a fan and want to vote for your favorite picking up the phone and voting. But to do it as a family and vote so many times is giving an unfair advantage to the contestant who gets those votes. I think hate is a strong word but very appropriate at certain times. I hate injustice among other things.

Mom said...

Jess- that was 4 words.

Anyway, I watch American Idol. I happen to watch for the entertainment and I do vote for my favorite(s) contestants even though sometimes I do question the validity of my votes. But, to sit there as a "family" and do something so stupid as thinking they are spending quality time - well, that's just outrageous. I don't believe that this is considered an unfair advantage to any contestant because if the votes actually do count, then more power to the contestant that this stupid family believes in. But to do this, and the newspaper to give this stupid family credability, is just riculous. TV, like anything else is for entertainment and your life should not be consumed by it.

MrManuel said...

Mom - Jessica's quote is a play on a song where Leary says, "Two words: Nuclear Fucking weapons." The fucking never counts!

laura b. said...

Playing devil's advocate, I will say that taking the time to have and record any strong emotion about what this family chose to spend their time doing may be almost as much of a waste of time as what they did ;-)
But I do love an angry rant, MrManuel. You go!

Jose said...

Damn, I loved the show up until this season. The stupid shit they pulled, all the new rules, and the very obvious rigged outcome. Who in the hell is Kriss Allen? AI is still the granddaddy of reality shows but this season it lost another viewer.

Lucky for me So You Think You Can Dance my new most favorite show is very strong and I am loving it enough to maybe pick up the phone and vote for that salsa dancer chick. Grrrrr.

Sal said...

I hate people who respond to my vocalized hatred of something by insisting that I "just really, really dislike" it. For the record, I don't just really, really dislike these people.

I loathe American Idol. Years ago I would happen to watch the last couple minutes every Tuesday night when it was on before 24 and wonder what sort of person could possibly find it entertaining. And now, many years later it's disturbing to think that "those people" probably outnumber the rest of us.

Here's an amazing coincidence: Last night, while camping with some of my in-laws, someone brought up how the word "fucking" never counts, as in Jess' comment above. One of my brothers-in-law mentioned the Dennis Leary song in question, which I happened to have on my mp3 player. Good times.

Churlita said...

People are idiots.