When Did MTV Get Cool Again?
Okay... So I remember going to college, and just about 3 days after I got there, I stopped watching Television. Of course, with that, I stopped watching that most influential station of our youth - MTV.
This wasn't that big a happening in and of itself. I mean, first off, I was a geek, so I had my computer to take up my couch potato time perfectly well, and I also had more pressing things to attend to than watching the boob-tube.
Besides - the station had stopped showing music. It wasn't even fun to watch anymore. Real world sucked, Rap was getting huge, I didn't know the new artists, and I certainly didn't tolerate crap like N-Boys or Christina Spears. I mean, didn't Hanson play that pop thing out in like 1996?
The station had lost touch - just like the music industry, and we all had better things to do.
So why the hell do I find myself watching the station religiously now that I'm 23 and out of college. Shouldn't it seem even more played out, even more juvenile? Why can I even use the word "relevant" in the same sentence as MTV?
One word. Sunday Stew.
Yes, I'm aware that that was two words.
A year or so ago, I was sitting around at my friends computer, watching an Mpeg of a bunch of guys basically just running around and doing stupid shit.
Mischeif? Certainly. Mayhem? Maybe a little. But no real harm. At least not to anyone but themselves.
That's the basic tenet of the best memories of my adolescence.
"Mischef, Mayhem, but no harm."
Running around doing stuff like our yearly holiday "Ornamenting" where we took a video camera out in the wee hours of the morning, chased the snowplow, and ran and hid from it when it came. Sure, maybe we took some Christmas lights from one house and put them on their neighbors tree. Maybe we rode bareback on some of those light up reindeer. Maybe we even got it all on tape. (warning - huge file)
These were some of the best times I've ever had, and we cut up the video and immortalized it - and here I was, watching some of the guys from that "stupid show" jackass do the exact same type of thing, and it was awesome. The videos were CKY 1-3, and I was suddenly inspired. I wanted to be out doing what they were doing, reliving the crazy antics of my High School years. This was cool - but it wasn't mainstream. I mean, who else was into this stuff? Maybe me and a few other kids at my college, but it wasn't ready for mass consumption.
Or so I thought.
Fast forward 2 years, and here I am, glued to my TV, watching the Sunday Stew, and reveling in 2 hours of Punk'd, Viva La Bam, which is pretty much just CKY with more money, and Wildboyz, which is perhaps the funniest of them all just because they're so amazingly crazy and stupid that you can't look away. These guys aren't sports stars or models or famous musicians. They just the same breed of dumbass that most of us are, with cameras and less inhibitions. I want to hang out with these guys. I want to have crazy, all night scavenger hunts with one of our moms on the phone keeping score, and our fat uncle along for the ride.
This isn't just good TV, this is connecting to two and a half decades of men who've realized that growing up doesn't mean looking like your dad, hating your job your life. Maybe, growing up just means not hurting anyone but yourself and enjoying the ride. Maybe we've already done all the growing up we're going to do, and that's just fine.
So lets stop pretending to be so old and start remembering how much fun just doing that stupid crap was. I mean really, I hope I never do. I hope when I'm 33, i'm still playing videogames, staying up too late, hell, maybe even learning how to skateboard just so I can keep up with my kids.
So I give credit to MTV. Maybe they finally got some people in there that know what they're doing.
Or maybe someone like me is in there, just reveling in the brilliant, everyman stupidity that Bam, Steve-o, and the rest of the crew serve up, and betting the farm on it.
