If it moves ... SCREAM !!!!

It is said that, once upon a time, a clever press agent hired a bunch of teenage girls to scream when a young ’crooner’ named Frank Sinatra appeared on stage. This form of mass hysteria soon caught on for real, and ever since the performances of popular singers and groups have often been drowned out by the screams of their fans.

OK, so I know that over the years we have become familiar with the orchestrated audience ’participation’ which we copied from American TV shows, but recently it seems to have taken on a new lease of life, for now it would seem that we are fast becoming a nation of uncontrolable screamers, and if you dare to turn on your television on any night of the week, you will inevitably find yourself, at some point, reaching for the mute button on your remote as an audience erupts into screams and yells over … what ?

Well almost anything, or so it would seem. The efforts of every gormless quiz contestant, has-been ‘reality’ show performer, brain dead game show competitor, third rate talent show ‘wannabe’ and so-called ‘celeb’ seem to rate the same ecstatic reaction from the morons who make up their studio audience.                                                                                                  
I must explain that I am not an expert on this phenomenon, as about five minutes is my limit when it comes to watching such crap, but it does piss me off when even semi-serious magazine programmes such as the BBC’s ‘The One Show’ has the few people who inhabit it’s studio overreacting everytime a guest is introduced by the show’s hosts.

The main TV channels on a Saturday night are awash with hours of truly unbelievable trash which I presume the majority of viewers want to see. I have a horrible vision of living rooms across the country where whole families are leaping about screaming in front of their 55″ TV screens.

The other evening my remote took me, by mistake, to a show where a huge audience was jumping up and down and screaming their heads off nonstop. Over what I have no idea, and I’m pretty certain … 

…  that neither did they !