THS TV series Gogglebox as a pastime if it was greatly altered

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Week 12

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Motion: THS TV series Gogglebox as a pastime if it was greatly altered
Role: Deputy Leader (gov.)

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There is a TV show which is a kind of meta show. It depicts people who watch TV and how they react to the programmes they are viewing. The format is English, but the formatting has been sold abroad, among others to my country, where it enjoys a moderate-popular-to-big-critical success. There is a demand for TV on people who are watching TV, strange as it seems. Quid est vita vicaria? Common people who relate to common people is likely one of the biggest reasons for this, but I am not content with remaining there. I would want to develop this programme to the next level, should I be given a carte blanche to break down, renew and upholster it completely for an umpteenth season.

Those Apts Are Too Clean
In the show, people sit in their neat sofas in their neat homes, collected from local chain-store furniture sellers. Because they are seen watching TV, they do not want to give an impression of being sloppy sloths, so they have probably spent some time cleaning their apartment, giving it a vacuuming, mopping, weathering and scrubbing. The end result is beige, below bourgeois, boring. Real middle-class members would have more dark colours in their homes, as dark is not worse than light. Contrasts are the flavour of living at home.

How would I change this? In my version, the apartments would be a mess. If the people had pets, they could walk around. If a home pet cat had the “Zoomies”, it would be a viewers’ delight. Unwashed dishes could be present, as their smell could not translate beyond the screen. Plastic bags filled with trash could be in the corridor, waiting to be borne out. The camera would need to be able to wander in the apartment, so that we would see how people live for real, not in a Barbie fantasy world. Real people’s homes are a mess; that’s why they do not invite these days ever anyone over, and that would need to be shown.

Those People Are Not Mean Enough
In the programme, people comment anything in a few words, not saying much. Laughter, repeating verbatim, riffing on words are the stock responses. Maybe they fear that talking over the programme would interfere with the “viewing pleasure” for the crowd who is watching. People shy away from nasty commenting, for fear of offending someone, maybe fearing a lawsuit based on slander, but that fear is ungrounded. In the privacy of their home, they would be allowed to say anything. I am relatively certain a solicitor would concur with me.

How would I change this? It would be paramount to give nasty comments as if off an assembly line. Black humour, disparages, insults, roasting the footage that was on display. Not all would, nevertheless, have to be negative. Kitchen-level philosophy could also come into play: associating something they hear or see with phenomena IRL. Creating rich allusions. The point would be to say something that the viewers liked to hear, something that was “surface-breaking” by nature. Bland comments about bland programming are not good enough. There needs to be a contrast. Bland programming needs to be outbalanced by sharper commenting.

Those Programmes Are Not Worth Viewing
The unfunny thing is that people in the show seem to like the kind of programming that has already been given the lion’s share in programming to begin with. They watch reality TV. And Gogglebox is a reality-TV show too. I understand that they do not want to rack their brains, and it’s ok!, but there is a wide variety of footage to watch that does not rack the brain. While Reality TV is the format that “anyone” is supposed to understand, in all honesty a lot of reality TV is semi-challenging viewing, which requires a full briefing and following up on what happens – all the time. It’s not the easiest genre available.

How would I change this? My grand idea would be to utilise all kinds of short programmes that are on offer out there. Animations, black-and-white goofball clips, comedy, commercials, news, short films, sports summaries, stunts, teasers and trailers would be good footage to show to almost anyone. To that you can add anything that YouTube contains, as it has by now become the world’s “favourite TV channel” in spite of itself. The bigger the contrast to reality TV the better it would be.

In my version, watching TV would be the shambolic pastime it is for most people in the world’s population. We are doing it because we cannot be arsed to do an useful thing, and we should own up to that. It would be important to acknowledge that a big percentage of the world’s population who watch TV are expats, freeloaders, inmates, unemployed, unwell and so on; NOT goody-2-shoes schoolgoing pupils or working fathers and mothers. (Many do not even have kids.) It’s only if and when we faced those facts that Gogglebox would come to terms with itself, redeem itself and ultimately perhaps even become “Programme of the Year“.

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Perustelu(t)/puolustelu(t): Tässä tapauksessa kannatamme likaisempaa versiota Tosi-TV-ohjelmasta, vaikka yleensä ihmiset valittavat “likaisuudesta” ja haluaisivat siistimmän ohjelman katsottavakseen. Annan parilleni näkökulmaksi Beavisin ja Buttheadin ja ohjeeksi sen, että nämä kaksi olisivat maailman tähän astisen kuluneen tv-historian kaksi parasta “sohvaperunaa” ja myös oman näkökulmani tietynlaisia esikuvia. Näin saisimme toisistamme yhtenäisen komplementaarisen tiimin.   

THP an empty, new apt. to a familiar, furnished one

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Week 18

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NB. P stands for Prefers

In one’s digs, there is less space than one’d imagine.

Date: 3^rd May 2022
Motion: THP an empty, new apt. to a familiar, furnished one
Role: Member (gov.)

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We have, so far, heard how a new apartment symbolises a new beginning and is a sign of mobility. What I want to contribute to this discussion is how easy it is, as a matter of fact, to fill up an apartment with new furniture. On the one hand, a new tenant is supposed to bring with him or her all necessary personal belongings, such as books, folders, photos and x-rays, but on the other hand the space in itself can be filled with new acquired furniture quite easily and fast. In the following I go through the process in terms of each social class. What unites the three classes in the middle is that they get their income from work, with a rising salary or wages, all the way up to the top of what can be earned in general. The lowest and highest class conversely do not get their money from work.

Underclass: Charity, Donations and Flea Markets
The poorest of the poor cannot afford to buy their furniture at a cost. They rely on the cheap or free stuff. The postmodern version of a flea market has been around ever since economic recessions have hit us, since circa 1987 (the time of the first Wall Street movie). Underclass, who may be defined as people whose only source of income is allowances, benefits and gambling wins, buy their furniture recycled or get it otherwise without a high cost.

Working Class: Plywood and Synthetic (Leather, Plastic, Rubber) Materials
These days the working class is a class that is endangered or at least vulnerable in terms of its conservation status. The poorest of the working class are close to the underclass measured in money, while the wealthiest of working class border on the upper middle class. Nevertheless, working-class people have a tendency to favour artificial furniture that is made industrially. They would find their cabinets, chairs and tables in national chain stores of furniture, varying from country to country.

Lower Middle Class: IKEA
Members of lower middle class are the biggest target group of advertising agencies for furniture makers. One big player is IKEA, which is a big advertiser and has spread globally to countries that would have been forbidden and unthinkable as late as the 1980′s. IKEA furniture could be bought by working classes; however, it is a bit more international in flair and its Scandinavian reductive style, complete with whole kitchen ranges and everything else that is needed in a postmodern home.

Upper Middle Class: All of the Above and Design
The big change that began since the 1990’s was that the upper middle class became eclectic in its interior design tastes. The result is that one such home today is a hodge-podge of new and old, cheap and dear. What separates the upper middle class from the lower classes is that upper middle class is capable and willing to invest in design specimens, even classics of design. Often the ceramics, cutlery, glassware, kitchenware and linen of the upper middle class is design, with complete sets of the items in cabinets and cupboards. That is the little extra that comes for being a member of upper middle class in terms of money and taste.

Upper Class: Antiques, Heirlooms and Design
The wealthiest do not care too much about the cost of furniture as they are so “loaded”. They tend to buy what others can’t and whose existence others do not even know about. Besides, they invest in sculptures and paintings. So, they naturally gear towards old furniture that has stood the test of time. Because the sq. metres and sq. feet of real estate are just as expensive to the upper class as to everyone else, they can fill up their apts. fast even with antiques. Upper class may be defined as people whose income is based on capital gains. This includes beneficiaries of dividends, futures, obligations, royalties, warrants and other speculative instruments of the financial markets.

Apartments in their own right are just as expensive to all classes and buyers tend to get very little livable area in a given apartment. The real marker of class is not how big apartments are but in what neighbourhoods they lie. For all that, what unites people from the underclass to the upper class is that no matter what the apartment looks like, its owners today tend to spend a lot of time outside of it and when inside, live in a digital bubble powered by broadband smart devices. In other words, they have become digital and nomads respectively, digital nomads, to whom home no longer has to be a special place the way it used to be in the analog world. Thus, our side would say that an empty apartment is a form of luxury to all the classes, as it may be filled up so fast with furniture, according to one’s class, either because furniture is so affordable or because the space is so small or because empty space in itself is a form of luxury.

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Perustelu(t)/puolustelu(t): Keskustelu liittyy minimalismiin ja vallalla olevaan, joka toisen yhteiskunnan jäsenen pyrkimykseen raivata rojut pois häiritsemästä. I tiimille kuuluu tuulettaa keskustelua omilla näkemyksillään asumisen arvoista, siinä missä minä vien keskustelua uusille urille puhumalla luokista, sillä usein niistä on hankala puhua, eikä siihen useinkaan uskaltauduta.