The Illusion of Television, by Q. Reyes – Artistic Warfare #36

August 23, 2009 Q. Reyes 1 Comment

Most people say they don’t believe anything on television, but the truth is that they do.  People have no choice.  Who are you going to believe? The Internet?

I produce television for a living, and sometimes I’m amazed at how much information is put out that has nothing to do with facts or reality, and people actually believe it.  Most people believe that game shows are for real and that they’re not manipulated.  Other people believe that reality shows are spontaneous and real.  Get a grip.

To get on television you need two things – to want to be on TV, and two have teeth.  Except on Jerry Springer, notice how everyone on television has teeth – not necessarily a perfect smile, but you need at least teeth.  Executives at the networks don’t want to give the wrong impression, so they make sure the people look a certain way.  This is an illusion – especially when dealing with “pretty” girls.  They’re not all pretty.

Another illusion on television is assuming something is a fact, because it’s on TV.  Since things are said with conviction and people automatically assume that there’s a research team behind all the information on television, it becomes believable.  This is wrong.

Television is a made-up world; with hardly any time to fact check anything.  Things actually become true once they’re on television, because people make them true.  “What? The economy is bad? I have to pull my money out of the bank!”  That’s what TV does for you, even though you don’t know this is true.  So what ends up happening is everyone pulls his or her money out of the bank, and then “the economy being bad” becomes true.  Life imitating art.

The most peculiar illusion is the operatives of sex and fear in almost everything on TV.  With very few exceptions, there’s always something sexy or scary on TV.  If it’s not the commercials, it’s the show. So notice how after watching an hour of TV you’re either really hungry or really horny, or if you’re like me, both.

Watch the local news carefully and notice how there’s hardly ever a positive story.  It’s all death, crime, disease and mayhem.  Sometimes you can actually see the smirks on the reporter’s faces as they tell you about the bad news.  The worse, the better.  They love it, not because of the bad news, but because they know you’re watching – scared.

Spanish-TV news are the worse – they don’t even sensor the crime images.  If you watch the Spanish network news, you better be ready to watch a decapitation as you eat dinner.  That’s all.

The illusion of television is created to maintain an order in consumers.  It’s an unfortunate necessity of the industrialized masses.  Without television our economy would collapse, because we wouldn’t know what to buy, or where to buy it.  Television is used to program the masses for action.  Why do you think it’s called a TV program?

I’m part of that programming, and I tell you right now, you can believe whatever you want to, including this article.  So now go tell your mama I said “hi”.  I’m out of here.

Q. is the type of man that will say “fuck ‘yo couch, bitch!” in no time at all.  Q.  also thinks that Midnight Taco Doritos don’t taste like midnight tacos.  Q. would also like to ask for donations for his charity.  He takes cash only, no sexual favors please.