Over break, I spent much of my time vegging out in front of the television since I hardly ever watch more than fifteen minutes of anything while I’m at school. I saw many different commercials, but one of them stuck out in my mind. It was an advertisement for Jerry Springer’s “Too Hot For TV” video tape containing exclusive footage of all the fights and nudity which had to be censored out of his talk show.

The tape is only available through that special TV offer, or any of your friends who felt the need to dish out twenty bucks for this fine piece of American entertainment. I had the pleasure of seeing it for free because someone played a practical joke on one of my friends. He told my friend that he recorded a PBS special filled with a lot of religious and spiritual enlightenment, but it was Springer’s tape proving how worthless his talk show really is.

Did I watch it? Of course I did. I would never miss watching an hour of white trash rednecks and short-fused gorillas settle their disputes by physically and verbally assaulting each other. There was also plenty of gratuitous nudity because the producers felt the tape needed that in order for it to be marketable. Besides strippers taking their clothes off, the tape just contained fight after fight after fight.

It was quite disturbing to witness these fellow Americans using physical violence as an attempt to resolve their problems. Most of their problems could have been easily solved through basic communication skills such as talking and listening to each other. Two skills that seem very elementary, yet so many people can't convey their feelings or listen to what someone else is trying to say. This becomes blatantly obvious when you see people embarrassing themselves on national television for their psychotherapy.

The thing that gets me is why these types of shows continue to exist. Why would anyone want to waste part of their afternoon watching these trashy talk shows, and why did I want to see Springer’s tape of outtakes? The answer is curiosity and entertainment. People are curious to hear about outrageous and crazy lives that our fellow Americans choose to live. It is entertaining to see a good fight break out, to hear about a bizarre love affair scenario or about all of the different twisted idiosyncrasies that make people interesting.

I personally don’t find Jerry Springer to be quality entertainment, but his talk show and others continue to exist because they entertain enough people. The entertainment industry has an amazing knack of giving us what we want to see because society is their lifeblood.

Hollywood has to cater to their customers, and they are going to keep on feeding us shallow entertainment until shoot-em-up, action-packed blockbusters cease to gross hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office. I personally enjoy movies that have a good plot or make me think. I usually try to avoid the movies that are simply based on special effects and explosions.

I usually don't like to suspend my belief of reality when I'm watching a movie unless I'm in the mood of turning off my brain and being entertained. For example, I went into the latest James Bond movie expecting not to believe that any of it could every really happen. I sat back and was amused. Then I compare it to a movie like Good Will Hunting or Titanic, and I realize that movies with good stories are much more fulfilling than thoughtless action flicks.

Entertainment means different things for different people. Some people love huge blockbusters while I prefer independent films that only other film buffs have heard about. I’ll watch hours of ESPN’s SportsCenter and MTV programming while other people will patronize Jerry Springer or NASCAR races. From watching this Jerry Springer tape, I’ve realized that there is entertainment value in everything, but you just have to be in the right state of mind to fully appreciate it.

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