This week's theme: selling out
I'm one of those snooty, white collar intellectuals who considers "This American Life" pretty much the height of modern American storytelling. So I was more than a little disturbed when I read that Ira Glass was trying to create a TV version.Now I've found out something even more troubling . . . He lost 30 pounds for it.
Why? Here's what he told the LA Times: "I decided I needed to lose weight. Because I have seen the people on the TV, and they tend to be very thin."
Let's count the ways this is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Actually, no. Let's not. It's too upsetting.
posted by AnnaRay at 12:38 PM
11 Comments:
What I want to know is. How will his halting speech patterns. Translate to T.V.? Because, you know, as much as I love his program. There's only so much. That I can take.
Back to your point, it is indeed upsetting. You know what we have hear in Canada? Actual fat, unattractive people delivering the news on the T-V! And some of them are even women!! The mind boggles....
Have here in Canada. Damn my hubris for not using that preview button!
I just assumed that was the way they spell it in French.
Oh so wrong. And even sadder what with Ira being a Brown person. Sad sad sad.
p.s.
"And the record man says we're gonna make a lot of money and everything is gonna be alright."
Can I just chime in here and say good for Ira? Not only is the man going to take his fantastic show (best thing on NPR, if you ask me) to a much wider audience, but he's using it as a chance to motivate himself to make some personal changes.
Who among us wouldn't like to be in better shape? I know I'd like to lose the 10 pounds I put on since some hardcore training last fall, and if going on TV were my inspiration, I'd be thanking those television gods.
And as I recall, you yourself took your usually-page-bound words to the small screen relatively recently. And you know you were chosen for your charm and physique!
Jacob: I guess I should be pleased when a man feels the need to lose weight for TV.
LJ: I never lost weight for TV. I did, however, wear makeup, which might be just as bad.
I think Ira lost weight for TV because he realized that doing so would be a totally primo opportunity to yank a lot of people's chains. Like Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival, only without the munchies.
You don't think he's just crazy insecure about his looks, like most of us?
I tend to think that selling out implies that there is something material to be gained in exchange for said act. If this is the case, as in, Ira believes that the success of the show will be heightened by losing 30 lbs., wouldn't that be a smart thing? I mean you can't blame him for the inadequacies of the general populace.
If on the other hand, the quote provided is honest (on his part - I am not suggesting that you doctored the wording dear AnnaRay) and the only reason for the diet was to fit in with the rest of TV Land, then yeah, it's sad that that the tumults of middleschool/highschool/life never netted Ira the peace of being cool with one's own self.
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