Should Big Brother Have Shown a Contestant Masturbating on the Live Feed?
Sorry to interrupt your Wednesday workday -- and believe you me, this is as awkward as that episode of Weeds where Nancy Botwin has to confront her son about his habit of masturbating to a photo of her -- but as a viewer of Big Brother, I am concerned about how much the producers get off on footage of their contestants craftily masturbating in showers, boxes, beds and fake lawns.
Ever since the first iteration of Big Brother's "voyeuristic experiment" (a phrase that U.S. host Julie Chen still uses excitedly), the series has proved itself to be a fertile breeding ground for showmances, the sexual relationships that form when a contestant finds him or herself remotely attracted to another houseguest. Some showmances are sweet and innocent (Jeff and Jordan of Season 11) and some are nauseating (Brendon and Rachel of Season 12) but while both kinds inevitably lead to intimate under-the-cover moments, our edition of Big Brother tends to edit semi-tastefully around them.
Still, there is another kind of intimate moment that Big Brother producers have no such qualms about, and it's the only kind of showmance you can have with yourself: show-sturbation (me-mance?). While it's surely happened in the American BB house before (remember the infamous "Jack Shack"?), it's usually out of camera sight, so to many live feed viewers and Internet users yesterday, the footage of affable oil rig salesman Lane taking care of his business in the shower may have seemed like a startling trespass, even for a show that takes pride in stripping its contestants of all privacy.
Still, at least it could be worse: For all the indignity suffered by Lane yesterday, America still has a ways to go before it can compete with the way foreign Big Brother producers embarrass their self-pleasuring contestants. Sure, American producers may have zoomed in for an extreme-close up of Lane's "O-face," but if you want to see how a U.K. production team would have handled it, do a YouTube search for "Kinga and Wine Bottle." Or, if you're in the mood to be really disgusted by the invasion of a houseguest's privacy, click here (but only at your own risk).
Though we're all the victims of this incident, at least take a moment to remember George Orwell, who certainly could not have imagined while penning his dystopian classic Nineteen Eighty-Four that it would one day provide inspiration for a television series that showcases contestants jerking off in a cardboard box. No doubt Orwell is rolling in his grave right now -- mainly, because he is frightened that reality show participants might use it to masturbate in.
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Comments
As long as he didn't leave a slug in the shower for someone else to step in (worst feeling ever) it's all good.
Hell yes they should show this. What other reason would one have for paying for live feeds?
I was disturbed by a couple of things about this, though. One was Hayden and Lane arranging pre-jerk that Hayden would come in and tell him the coast was clear for him to jerk off. The other is the weird way he was pulling his ear throughout.
I sense the ear cleaning was his attempt at distracting anyone watching.
However, since they're all mic'd, it wonders how solid the intelligence level is in that brain trust.
This stuff never was an issue before they presented us with that band of filthy, disgusting perverts in the hastily-cast winter edition of BB during the writers' strike two years ago.
The BB9 crew was uniquely depraved, and quite generous in sharing scenes like a well endowed gay porn star entertaining his housemates by flopping and trapping his large member between his legs; a "good Christian" coffee barrista with a DD rack blowing a guy she knew for 2 weeks under the covers while he smiled for the camera; also more than one instance of over-the-covers sex. Throw in lots of spitting, nose-picking and screeching (by both genders) and it's a wonder the show survived. It's also no wonder that two people from that cast (including the winner) are in prison for drug-running now...
But really, the feeds are online-subscription only, and the usual disclaimers are displayed. We're supposed to be watching people act naturally before the cameras. If they decide to pop one off or bump ugly, that's their choice. We don't need to be shielded from it. Maybe the difference now is that mainstream online sites are deciding to make a story out of it. That part is relatively new...
Why not? It looks like he's enjoying himself. As long as he washed the baby batter down the drain afterwards.
This is almost as embarrassing as the time I, minding my own business, was innocently jacking off in a quiet corner of the Manhattan Mall, not realizing I was inadvertently being broadcast on The People's Court.
And I didn't even get Curt Chaplin's number out of it.
This sucks. Just my 2 cents.
Jon Stewart addressed Obama as "Dude" on national TV...that's fuckin golden
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