to find the 'pleasure' people take in celebs discomfort disturbing?

[PanicMode]

I don't watch any 'reality TV' so perhaps I'm getting the wrong end of the stick; I do however read the news and have seen and heard a lot about Gillian McKeith's current run on IAC etc. I also follow people on Twitter who seem to be revelling in her behaviour.

I'm finding it all a bit disturbing - the woman obviously has issues and everyone laughing at her and treating her as a 'freak' is akin to cruelty.

If we put a dog into a pen and sent scorpions in or poked it or stressed it out in some way and then filmed it, there'd be a national outcry - so why is this ok?!

AIBU?!

I don't have sympathy for them - the point I think I am trying to make (badly obviously!), is that if people didn't watch these awful shows, justifying them to themselves as "entertainment", then TV companies wouldn't spend millions making shows which bully vulnerable people who believe that it will "raise their profile", when in fact, all it does is allow people to laugh, point and make fun. The Bedlam analogy is excellent.

(How many people moaning at the £30 million cost of policing the Royal Wedding happily watch things like Big Brother and I'm a Celeb, which I would imagine are on a par cost wise, without even blinking)

i pmsl @ dom last night 'screaming at aquatic creatures wont help' or something, was funny.

I don't understand the last part of your post?

As far as I know, BB and IACGMOOH aren't paid for by the tax payer?

Yes but we aren't forking out for Big Brother to be staged. Endemol do that.Guess who will be paying for Will and Kate's wedding party?

YANBU. In an ideal world we would not find anyone else's misfortune funny. We would not laugh when someone slips on a banana skin or walks into a lamp-post. But human nature being what it is 'the bigger they are the harder they fall' has been keeping us entertained for centuries. In the old days the public would show up in droves for a 'good hanging'... bringing their picnic baskets, granny & the kids for a nice day out watching some celebrity robber get his comeuppance.

At least these days we only make them eat bugs & live with rats and have the decency to pay them a small fortune for doing so!

I care less about the effect on GMK than I do about the fact that it is considered acceptable to bully anyone on tv - I agree, she signed up for it, she can walk etc etc.

It's the principle of the thing that gets me - surely whoever gets a trial one day should be immune the next. That way, the public gets its fun, the 'celebs' get their challenges, but no single one is able to be tormented by the public to this extent.

I never wanted to watch IAC but Dcs were asking if they could as "everyone does" so I went on ITVPlayer to watch it (last week) It was the one were Gillian had to go trough tanks of water with lobster type first and then baby crocodiles and spiders. I found it very distressing (am absolutely terrified of spiders myself). I decided to show it to the Dcs anyway and see what they thought of it (DD1 11yo, ds2 9yo and ds3 6yo)they all found it terrible and mean. They have not asked to see it again [proud emoticon].

OP Yanbu it is awful to rejoice at that but at the same time I cannot help thinking that these celebrities do know exactly what is in store and if they have water/spider phobias, they should not go of just take it on the chin.

cupecakes

charlie is paying for the royal wedding
we just stump up for security

Well, tomayto, tomato. Without us stumping up for security, they'd be having a small wedding with just Queenie and Phil and Kate'smater and pater present.

I don't begrudge them. I love a good Royal wedding I do.

"We would not laugh when someone slips on a banana skin or walks into a lamp-post"

I bloody would. One of life's pleasures - laughing at other people's accidents.

Re Gillian McK - I don't think this is bullying. She is a prefectly competent person who is able to stay or go as she pleases. She is getting paid a handsome sum to piss about in a tub of cockroaches. A victim she aint.

Remember those poor fat chavs she mocked and manipulated on her show? I would say that they were bullied, not her.

In the past we'd have paid for it all. Also there will be heads of state there including our own so we'd be securing the event no matter what

Well we're paying for it indirectly anyway. Where do you think that Queenie gets her pocket money from? Bless her silk stockings.

""We would not laugh when someone slips on a banana skin or walks into a lamp-post"

I bloody would. One of life's pleasures - laughing at other people's accidents."

Me too. I actually burst out laughing at a dad who slipped on ice this morning by the school. He laughed too so I didn't feel such a bastard but it was pure Frank Spencer. I daresay that karma will see me fall flat on my arse tomorrow morning.

Me too misdee

I hate celebrity or wannabe celebrity TV so don't watch, but can't see how it is bullying if she could leave at anytime but chooses not to and she signed herself up to go there in the first place. I wish I could have chosen not to be bullied at school or maybe got a big fat cheque for enduring it.

FWIW I feel more sorry for the poor creatures being used for the challenges they haven't chosen to be on the programme.

i'm not a royalist but the royal family bring in more revenue than we pay them
the queen esp cost effective if we must look at it that way
they didn't need to step forward to pay for the wedding but did
we are only paying for the security aspect that we'd be doing no matter what

I said 'in an ideal world' we wouldn't laugh at someone slipping on a banana skin...

I'm pretty sure the TV company will have made sure everyone had meetings with psychologists before letting them in the jungle anyway. It's pretty obvious through watching that she is faking and coming out with a load of shit, she probably thinks its a game plan to make people feel sorry for her. Someone else got it spot on in another thread- shes a narcissist. It all revolves around her.

I agree with you OP. The comments about her (and Katie Waissel and Cher Lloyd) on Twitter etc are just way over the top. No, she doesn't seem like a nice person, and yes, she did put herself on TV but still - why do we have to stoop to her level?

GoldenGreen - glad it's not just me - we seem to be in the minority.

(I didn't mean to confuse the issue with the Royal Wedding - I meant that perhaps the people who are carping about £30 million being spent on security because it's a "waste of money" and "what benefit do we get" are the same ones who don't seem to have a problem with millions being spent on fatuous reality TV, which produces the big fat sum of zero and certainly doesn't enhance our nation's reputation)

What is about fame-hungry people that makes them so willing to be degraded and humiliated in front of millions of viewers?

I mean, is there anyone posting on this thread who would be willing to eat a kangaroo's penis whilst Ant and Dec snigger in the background, and millions of people watch, just to raise their profile and get some cash?

Why are slebs and wannabe slebs so much more desperate than the rest of the human race? It's embarrassing.

McKeith is claiming that she is preggers now in the jungle.

She is really is going coco loco.

GMK knows exactly what she's doing in there.

She's admitted that she won't walk, because she will break the contract and not be paid.
So now, we have fake faints and several other made up ailments, as she's desperate to be sent out on medical grounds, so she'll still be paid.

All the clebs went in knowing what would be expected of them. No-one forced them. They are all choosing to do (or not as the case may be) the tasks set for them, but they can stop at any time they like.

If GMK feels victimized in there, or doesn't like it, she can go. No-one is holding her there at gunpoint.

I find her a bit repulsive I know that sounds horrid but something about her makes me wnt to be sick. She reminds me of a baby pigeon that's been shaved.

Yabu she was down rtight horribel tofat people on her show, sorry typos bfing