I opened the papers this morning and there was a headline –

Keeping Up with the Kardashians to end after 14 years on TV

This of course begs the question – why should I give a flying fuck?

I have never seen the programme. I have seen the name crop up on many occasions and have often wondered at their notoriety. The idea though that the ending of a programme is somehow news and even merits a front page spot is a bit baffling.

I have seen photographs of the various Kardashians and my impression is that they are just a living testament to silicone. I have seen inflatable sex dolls that are considerably more attractive. If I were marooned on a desert island with them I would either turn gay or decide to become celibate.

Were did they come from? Who the fuck are they? Are they seriously famous for just being famous? They do however stand as a testament to the dumbing down of television, and they seem to inhabit the very bottom of the barrel. Why anyone should want to watch the antics of some American narcissistic family is totally beyond me.

When I started taking an interest in television there were four channels – RTE, BBC [One and Two] and ITV. That was that and programmes weren’t that bad. But then along came cable and soon my selection was broadened to include RTE 2 and Channel 4. Now of course I have somewhere around a thousand channels which you would imagine would provide me with endless entertainment. This hasn’t happened. The quality of programming has decreased and continues to decrease as more channels are added. Every night I join Herself to watch television and every night I search the channels in the vain hope of finding something even remotely interesting, and most nights I fail to find anything.

A common thread with current programmes seems to just provide a platform for all those sad fuck who are so desperate to appear on television that they are prepared to go to any lengths to humiliate themselves. We have programmes where people have to live their lives under the glare of the camera. We have programmes where families compete to become fit or lose weight. We have awful “talent” shows where contestants are reduced to quivering wrecks by a panel of “judges”. The list is endless, but they all have one thing in common – they are cheap. Why employ professionals when you can get the gullible public to fill a half hour or more? They only programme that possibly beats the Kardashians to the bottom of the shit tank is the one where we are shown a family watching television. Watching people watching crap television? That doesn’t even make sense, but it’s out there. I would rather watch paint dry [and there is probably a channel out there devoted to just that – The Paint Drying Channel?].

All I can say is thank God for the Interwebs.

And Torrents, of course.