Read My Lips...

I am a big fan of Reality TV (in case one of my first posts concerned Chachi at 45 on VH-1 didn't hip you to that fact). It is like a sociology experiment that just happens to have a semi-cohesive threaded POV that's devised by network people who edit the hell out of millions of hours in the raw footage. However, the problem with Reality TV is that the talent pool here in America is running on empty.

There are so many different genres from the mate-quest show (The Bachelor, Joe Millionaire, and currently, the disturbed Rock of Love with the aging quite badly Bret Michaels) to the next great creator competition show (the Next Food Network Star and Design Star) and from the makeover show (Extreme Makeover and Made) to the generic "ultimate" endurance show (the originator of US Reality TV, Survivor, and Road Rules/Real World Challenge) that it's not too far off to think that I'm the only one who has not been on one reality show yet. It's getting to the point where the networks are turning to grade school kids for an influx of fresh blood (ABC's Kid Nation), which is eerily similar to the NBA drafting 18 year-olds but that's a comparison for another time.

Perfect examples of this drying out talent pool are Dick from Big Brother 8 and Rob from the aforementioned Design Star. Both men are over 35, self-important, and are loud and obnoxious which they mistakenly misdiagnose as them being "straight forward" and "telling it like it is". They value their opinions above all others and they espouse hate and discontent as their personal doctrine.



Now before you say they have something in common with a certain person that you may read occasionally (don't you dare!), this pair of wannabe alpha-males have something else in common. They both can butcher the exact same phrase but in different ways. Here's the phrase (from doubletongued.org):

Throw (someone) under the bus - to reject or betray (someone); to treat as a scapegoat; to put out of favor or at a disadvantage.

Ding-dong Dick used the phrase "sold you under the bus" a couple of weeks ago on BB8 while the irritating Rob used "throw me under the wheels" in tonight's Design Star episode. Huh? I thought that the whole purpose of that phrase was the visual of actually throwing someone under a bus. Obviously, Dick mashed up the phrase with another popular (albeit turn of the 20th century phrase) "sold you up the river". Kinda understandable but Rob's excuse? Don't got one here. I think that he's just somewhat slow and crazy to use the English language properly.

I hate being the grammar police because that would be like the inmates running the asylum. But please, people, read my lips. If you're gonna use a hip new phrase or colloquialism that people at work were throwing around to cover their asses ("wrap my brain around it" is the leader going into the clubhouse in mine), please practice it with family and close friends prior to using it. It does everyone involved a bit of good.

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