Bam Margera Should Be Killed

He's asking for it, I really think he is.

When "browsing" the programmes on television, I sometimes end up on MTV, a channel I hate heartily. There are mainly three reasons why I hate it: the obscene amount of commercials, more bad music than good music, and the growing number of filthy and sick programmes. First, there was Jackass, that was dumb but that was fun, probably because nothing like that had been done before and all these silly pain-loving guys had some sort of charisma that you could almost call the charisma of first-timer performers.

Some things were not fun though, some were plain stupid and disgusting, and the more the show went on, the more they decided to go in that direction, probably because they were lacking new "fun" ideas. So they choose to explore more and more disturbing and filthy concepts. Basically there is a limit between harmless silly fun and something more gross which goes beyond the basic rules of human decency and morals. Jackass walked the line between them for a while and then decided to jump into the dirt, so did MTV.

After the success of Jackass and the team splitted, they needed something more extreme, because that's how MTV and our decadent world works (especially in USA it seems), it always has to be more, to go beyond the first experience to be sure people will not get tired and still buy it or watch it. The Simpsons for instance, which was a good show in its first seasons, has turned into something pathetic for a few years now, because the makers strive to make the jokes even bigger, even more fun and ended up with a cartoon which has become so insanely incoherent that it's not fun anymore, just pathetic.

Because of The Osbourne, MTV bought other "famous" people's reality shows (boring crap like Newlyweds, where we can just see how dumb the girl is) and because of Jackass, MTV created more trash. One of these programmes is Dirty Sanchez, I must have watched 2 minutes of it, I didn't need more to realize I did not want to watch it. All I remember is people sticking pipes in their ass, throwing up and drinking what they collected or something like that. Real scatology on TV, this is the point we have reached. When you see or hear about it, you know for sure there's no God as described in the Bible, unless he's dead as some philosophers suggest (Nietzche ?), because it took him less offense before he decides to put an end at Sodom and Gomorrah.

Despite that example, I'm not a religious person, but with or without religion, I believe there are limits that should not be crossed, rules that should never be broken, the basics of human dignity and intelligence. I know some people lack completely these values, yet they should not be allow to ruin them anyway. I don't like the concept of God like it is depicted in Bible and some other religions, but I wouldn't mind a god who would wipe out from the surface of the earth a bit of that filth and the persons who produce it along with it. Anyway, I am perhaps even more appalled at Bam Margera's programme than I was at those 2 minutes of scatology dementia.

If we were living in another time, I don't think he would be making fun and hurting his family, and making money with it like he does, I think he would be whether in jail or dead after a short criminal carreer. That's all what he is, a small-time criminal, who has the chance to live at a time when he can become rich, famous and also loved by hurting people around him and not showing any respect to them. He is nothing but a little piece of shit, and I'm worried for people who might deem him anything more.

We have reached that point when individuals are excused to do the most disgusting and disrespectful things on behalf of the freedom of expression and the power of television. What these people do, if they were doing it without the support of the television, they would be (rightfully) arrested for it. In his show, Bam Margera basically humiliates his family. He's been humiliating and harrassing his parents since Jackass, now he continues with them and the rest of his family. Yesterday I watched that episode where they have this family gathering and they make all sort of ridiculous things; his grandmother was there too and the poor woman is appalled at what's happening, calling her own family crazy.

There is something so revulsing in the way Bam Margera treats his family, perhaps it works as a therapy for him, perhaps otherwise he would kill them (when in fact, what he really needs, is to kill himself), but you cannot help wishing someone would beat the crap out of this little giggling jerk. The attitude of the family is actually revulsing too and that's perhaps the only reason why this show is still tolerable, because they are humiliated, treated like trash, but accept it. I don't know for which reason they accept this (for money I hope, not for the love of their son !), I just know it makes feel a bit less sorry for them. The way he treats his family is so offending, and yet it is shown on a channel watched by adolescents and young adults who for most of them still live with their parents. It's scary to think what he's showing them, the way he allows himself to hurt his parents, it's also scary to think what will be of the children of people like Bam Margera. If they receive his influence, if they get as bad as him, the worst is bound to happen. Hopefully, this might have the reverse effect on the next generation, which will reject the influence of such parents.

Another time in the show also, the first time actually I watched it I think, he was breaking glasses in his own house just to bother his girlfriend, who looked very tired and sick of him. He really brings hell to people. I don't seriously wish him to die (the title and first line of this entry was meant to be provocative and catchy), I don't wish him to be killed - although, in his behaviour, I think he does everything to encourage people to reach such heights of hatred in their mind - but I wish he pays for what he's been doing, I wish his popularity ends just as abruptly as it started. I wish him to know real misery and pain, and that all the one he inflicted to others, he receives it in return. Here's a new idea for his show, before he or MTV runs out of ideas and tries something even more gross: make one episode where anyone who knows him can do anything to him they want and can be shown on TV.

PSP: Luxury for dummies

So, here it is, Sony's Portable Playstation is available everywhere in the world. And I already hate it. Well, "hate" is a big, unsuitable word which involves passions that this piece of hardware doesn't stir. The PSP annoys me. It annoys me because it's under the spotlight, it's getting attention. As usual I'm more annoyed at people (because they are paying attention to this gimmick) than I am at the thing itself, which is just what I described in the title: a luxury, vanitous, useless product for people who don't care what it is as long as it's worth showing off. Wasting money on it is just a part of the process.

I got annoyed very early, basically when the buzz started ("hey, Sony is going to release a new luxury product") and succeeded in grabbing people's attention, from the passerby to the chief executive of game company. A friend and I were discussing about it, and we found ourselves equally annoyed. My friend though, who is a game industry insider, highlighted some issues I wasn't much aware of. For instance, the PSP's direct competitor is Nintendo's DS, another portable game console with a radically different approach. It's completely different from any game system released before: it features two screens, one is touch-sensitive and you can interact with it by using a touch pen. There is also a voice-recognition system and classic control buttons. In addition, the little beast comes at an affordable price and has some pretty exciting games available (Yoshi Touch'N Go, Pac Pix and some adventure game whose name I forgot).

For me, this is definitely a winner. I liked what I tried at least. But go figure, it doesn't seem people in the West agree. The system seems quite good, and yet people are all dazzled by Sony's marketing, some prefer the PSP over the DS and go as far as selling the latter one to buy a PSP, on the sole basis that it looks more luxurious than the DS. I'm not making this up, some people who had just bought a DS resold it to get a PSP only for that reason ! So if Nintendo was to sell a $500 portable console who can show them some satellite imagery a la Google Map, we can most certainly assume they would sell their PSP to buy this new toy. People are awfully stupid which reminds me why I write this blog.

In the East now, the situation is interestingly different: the Nintendo DS is selling much more than the Sony PSP; according to what I've been told, it sells twice more DS every week in Japan than PSP. But what my friend explained which surprised me greatly is the reaction from game makers. Without games, a console can't live, and without consoles, game makers can't live either. Because the DS is selling that well all over the world and in Japan in particular, you'd think that of course, they are making a lot of games for it, like they are, say, making lots of games for the Sony Playstation 2, which is very popular too. Well, that's where it becomes nasty, because we are wrong, logic shall not prevail: somehow, game makers largely favor the PSP and show their support by making more games.

I did not get it so I asked my friend why would game makers make more games for the console which seems far less profitable and interesting for them. I will try to quote him: "Because it's Sony. Sony are rich and powerful, it's a big company, they mean security to them. While Nintendo's ideas might be more interesting and better for the customers, this is less important than what Sony can provide them with, stability, security. If Sony wasn't Sony, if they weren't making so much money elsewhere then the situation would be different." You see, that's why in my first entry I told you how much I hated big corporations. Enron and World dot com were not just black sheeps, they were a model of unfairness and absurdity in what rules the business world.

Finally, maybe I truly hate the PSP and Sony along with it, because it stands for all this. A mass syndrom of idiocy, manipulating people and companies thanks to their billion assets rather than skill and ideas. Just like Microsoft versus Mozilla, Nike versus honest American shoe manufacturers, etc. The decisions we make, even the smaller ones in favor of companies like that, shape the world of tomorrow and determine our futures. By helping these companies to grow bigger day by day we just ensure we make our future worse and worse. You know the saying... you recolt what you sow, and after letting capitalism grow to such heights, the only thing left for us to do will be to follow its trail of destruction: unemployment, pollution, corruption, collapse of public services, politics obediance, misery, poverty and on the other hand astronomical wealths.