I can summarize the video by quoting my 1st year film studies prof shouting: The moment you point a camera at it, it stops being reality. His point was about the bias inherent in the person behind the lens, and also the fact that people act differently when they know there's a camera - essentially that people ham it up, either consciously or not.
You know what's more interesting? I have a parallel to that in my field of environmental engineering. I heard once that whatever you measure is altered by the very fact that you are measuring it. Take temperature, for example. When you stick a probe in the soil to measure its temperature, the probe itself is potentially at a different temperature and will exchange heat with the soil. Moreover, introducing the probe will cause the soil to mix with some amount of air, further changing its temperature. So, whatever you measure/assess/observe is not reality, since you are modifying it whether you want it or not. However, there is obviously a difference between little bias and too much bias.
But the eye is the lens to the soul. If you watch a theater play, is that any more real than tv? If not, than is all reality seen through a subjective lens?
Gotta make this comment rise. I was expecting it to be a sort of "4th generation of Realities", and would make extra sense in how we perceive and create our reality, surrounding us not only with new kinds of fame, labour and personalities.
You forgot about Disney killing innocent Lemmings by throwing them off a cliff. They had heard about a myth that lemmings will follow each other anywhere even off a cliff. So they recreated the myth by throwing them off a cliff, and they won 3 Oscars for it. White Wilderness 1958
It’s distantly funny in a spiteful way. I just expect Disney to act this way now so I laugh about being proven right, that they’ve always been corporate monsters.
also the laziness of the individual, you'd be surprised how any people who are supposedly "for the truth" and ask others to provide sources only to not look for them or read them themselves(when provided). It's almost like reality has become a large self esteem booster where people care more about the appearance of being knowledgeable and smart over actually being.
@@dragonx3085 It's always been like that, most people are followers even though they like to think that they're not. Independant thinking is legitimately a rare skill no matter what time you live in. The distinction between the two types of people is often made with the terms "rhetoric thinker" and "dialectic thinker". If you're a dialectic thinker, you're part of the minority of people who can truly change their mind on a subject on the basis of information alone. If you're a rhetoric thinker, then you will simply be convinced by either what the majority believes or what you've been emotionally brainwashed to feel like the world is like (every day experience, documentaries, hollywood movies, the MSM, etc). You can see it for yourself easily when people express an opinion and you start asking them why they hold this opinion. Most of the time they'll either regurgitate pre-made talking points you've heard a million times or straight up not be able to explain their reasoning. This is why whenever you express unconventional opinions and you try to explain your reasoning, most of the time it'll look like you're talking to a wall. The big players in society are very much aware of this reality and use it daily to get what they want out of people.
Do you mean documentaries are like the SM-experiment where people supposedly obeyed authority blindly perpetrating cruelty, or like the SM-experiment where people believed the results Stanley Milgram reported and his reported methods were actually true, because he was considered an authority within psychology at the time?
I think that's because the truth is simultaneously mundane and embarrassing and the only way to get that kind of authenticity is to either go undercover or act it out
I’ve never been a huge fan of documentaries or reality TV. But Narrative is a field in Linguistics, and linguists will tell you that humans have been using narratives to make sense of reality for all of recorded history. And there’s plenty of evidence in the archaeological record to suggest we’ve been doing it for much longer than that. Myths, folklore, urban legends: all of these are attempts to make reality fit into a story so that we can understand how the world works. Even lies are just narratives meant to convince other people of a false reality.
Honestly, you can't believe EVERYTHING you see in media. And, just remember it's there to entertain you. Engage your inner skeptic if you are looking for truth.
@@phantomasuras If you truly think that then how do you know you are even conversing with me at all? Kevin, maybe you are just a brain floating around in a jar???? How do you know you even have a brain?????? ;P
I think all this stuff just adds to our feeling that there are endless possibilities for our lives... which is to say, endless ways we could dupe ourselves into thinking that life has meaning and we shouldn't kill ourselves today. Whatever works.
Wisecrack is also giving us their own narrative structure about whatever content they provide. It's hard to provide true and universal facts on any media material you can find, it all depends on one's perspective on things and previous knowledge (or to be) acquired. But still, I'm a fan!
6:59 Thats indeed a little problematic because I remember that Spurlock was classified as 100% healthy by several doctors at the first part of that documentary.
Spurlock also refused to release the amounts he ate during his "experiment" the guy forcefed himself tons of food during the month far beyond the rules he presented in the doc
I feel like it's a little hard to categorise someone as 100% healthy anyway. I'm not a doctor though, maybe you really can say for definite that someone is healthy. He could have also had a hand in cherry picking doctors
Just want to point out that Steve Byrne is one of the other groups that made a documentary on The Amazing Johnathan and it's free on youtube and fantastic for a first time director, without that director waiting for the subject to die for added drama. Instead it's a fairly raw, if imperfect, celebration of a severely underrated comic genius. It's called ALWAYS AMAZING: The True Story of the Life, Death, and Return of Amazing Johnathan
Even when watching animal documentaries I root for the bird who struggles to get his girl or the prey that gets away. When there's no story, I as a spectator will make one up.
I truly think Reality TV is poison. I swear so many people I've known for years are acting like they on a show. "WTF are you talking about" conversations, drama for no reason, talking about people behind their backs and epic levels ostentatiousness.
I remember back in the day thinking the Jerry Springer Show was making people more trashy by normalizing the worst of society. Reality TV took it to the next level. Now social media has turned everything completely upside down lol
@Klaus Mateschitz no it's not. It depends on You. If you let their "recommendation" to lead you it's your fault. You should've subscribed to whoever you like by now.
The first step in solving a "problem" is admitting you have one :) So I think it's simply the evolution of cinematic metaperception, a reflection/projection of the shift in consciousness. but for me, i perceive it as the awkward/gawky phase
Society constantly (re)interprets stories of reality and history, and that's a good thing sometimes. Sometimes it's good to keep in mind that in real life everything is more nuanced than we would like to believe.
Gustav Hasford (the guy who wrote the book to 'Full Metal Jacket') once wrote something along the lines of: "America loves a good show. It loves it so much, they forgot what reality was like." I have nothing to add to that.
Oh I love you! When you mentioned Flaherty and the Inuit of the North, I instantly searched for my notes from university when I did Optical Anthropology, talking about how ethnographic cinematography helped ameliorate the research practices of the time. That made me happy.
Brilliant as usual! but I only missed your take on "scientific documentaries" which are being increasingly used by some people, as a shortcut of pre-fabricated and hyper simplified knowledge about things that deserve time to be understood (such as power assymetries or why vaccines are important).
I just found your channel recently (I'm not sure why only recently, I'm on youtube all the time) but i have been very impressed with your scripts! Good stuff. You could write and produce a documentary yourself man!
Always great to hear that there are exclusive things that I'll never see from sites that I'll never visit. Thanks for restricting things to other places. Appreciate it.
I find it helpful to imagine history as a story. However, there are plenty of sequels, prequels and spin-offs that could change our perception of the original story.
I always felt sad endings are way more satisfying than happy endings. No idea why and definetely not an exclusive thing but boi is the moment when all people did was for nothing feel good.
I kept thinking that sooner or later there would be a comment about how those participating in today's reality shows are simulating the behaviour that they've seen and grown accustomed to from the first wave or reality shows. Maybe even a comment of what Baudrillard would have though about it. Also that people who watch reality shows tend to start subconsciously behaving more like those they watch, thinking it's natural (especially when it comes to relationships), without questioning that the behaviours shown in reality shows are shaped due to certain deliberately designed parameters. It's a loop.
I feel like while a ton of people who watch reality TV arent stupid, know it's fake, know its unrealistic and will happily criticise it while they're watching, there is unfortunately a population of viewers who will start to imitate reality stars consciously or subconsciously. Anecdotally I even saw this happen with soap operas. I knew a guy who watched em all the time, and everything in his life was so dramatic. Even said to me and my partner once "if you dont properly fight in a relationship it means you have NO PASSION" - he thinks problematic things like angry sex after a fight is desirable and to be aimed for in a relationship. No matter what your experience is with "angry sex" is I think we can all agree it's wrong to intentionally provoke and stress out your partner to try and initiate this. He loves giving relationship advice which is strange given he has never been in one
What I take from this is that we should view all entertainment as just that: entertainment. If I want to be educated about something, I have a responsibility to myself to make sure that what I’m ingesting is accurate, whether it is a book, article, video, film, or whatever. Placing my trust in someone else’s video to give me accurate information could be misplaced trust. Everybody has an angle.
when you showed the lady getting hit in the face with the watermelon i just about died. That sound effect was so unnecessary and i laughed so hard it hurts
I had not watched TV for a decade until some time ago I had to go to a hospital for few days. During that time I saw hours of TV, several channels, and everything I saw was reality shows (and couple of times news), Anglophone and Finnish. I thought, 'Kali Yuga has begun.'
When "A Thousand Little ILs" popped up on the screen, I actually closed the screen to google it...but then you said it wasn't real lol. Someone please make it. I would totally watch a documentary about Kim Jong Il impersonators.
This is so buzzy Misha was my lecturer in a few years ago, no wonder why this video felt so familiar! I guess it also means you guys are pretty accurate. Good on ya.
Some ex-Chopped contestant (now off the show) went to the press and was talking about the show being real, and how it has gotten easier than it used to. Michael Vignola, now executive chef for Catch Hospitality Group's restaurants.
Thanks for reminding me of the rollercoaster that was taking History Of Film in school and watching Nanook and then learning it was all doctored to depict what the director wanted people to see.
Everytime I talk to someone about how I view the world or myself I use media tropes for them to relate to what I am saying. Every time I end up wondering if I got this information from real life or from media, I find myself questioning everything I share with people.
Best UA-cam channel, best podcast as well! Thanks once again Wisecrack. Jared is my hero, I want to be more like him. Love your intellectual content. I always feel like you express things I think about, though cannot always articulate myself.
@@Palmieres that is so true, I have people who claim to not like the show but love the musical episodes because they're so well composed and executed you can't help but to bop!
Terrace House is the perfect foreign version of reality tv phase ~1.75 or so. Maybe closer to the first couple of seasons of MTV's Real World than PBS' An American Family. Maybe not though as I've never seen the show from the 70's.
Please do a Philosophy of Survivor. I’ve been watching it since I was little, and I’m curious what you all think about its evolution over time, the meta aspects of it in recent seasons, and your take on what it is trying to say about humanity. I know a great deal is cut/edited/staged in order to achieve the principles that you laid out in this video, but my highly biased view is that there is something in this show that warrants a deeper retrospective on how it interacts with sociology. There is something interesting about the intersection of Lord of the Flies-esque situations and a reality TV show that has been going on for decades.
I've always been interested in the stories that people tell about themselves without some director filming to capture moments. I like hearing, or rather reading, the accounts firsthand. It's a more authentic representation of the person's experience. I enjoy a good documentary but I'm always aware of how the story is told in the editing room. A memoir, or hell, even a conversation with a person is more authentic in my opinion. As for reality TV, it's a pox on our society. But then again, perhaps it's a reflection of how we'd all like to be famous. Look at Instagram. Everyone on that site has a story they want to tell, but it's about as believable of a story as the reality TV crap. I don't care what people watch. However, I do think that viewing reality TV, while stupid, gives people an escape from reality not unlike me watching this video and we all need our escape and our guilty pleasures. Right?
I don't watch shows commonly referred to as reality tv but I found the bit about documentaries interesting. The idea that documentaries skrew the truth more than they reveal it is both scary and kind of obvious though i never really thought about it.
our brain craves constructed narratives because they give us the illusion that the world makes sense and is understandable to us, that was such an interesting point.
Fun fact: first Georgian film "Akakis mogzauroba Racha-lechxumshi" is thought to be the first actual documentary film. It depicts Georgian Poet Akaki Tsereteli visiting different parts of the country and their warm reception. Nothing staged, nothing faked
From a historical perspective, many of these questions go back to methods of biography and autobiography. This biggest opportunity you missed is to have a Sparky Sweete, Ph.D. stop by to.make that point!
I never trusted reality television, their premises always come off unreal to me, always expect to find some contestant in a few minor acting roles at least a few years down the line. Documentaries are for certain worth of critique and skepticism too though taking into account framing and editing practices. People can skew their own experiences on their own as well so maybe there is no reliable truth.
well you cant fix shitty owners in the time it takes them to film the show. I would argue that he did legitimately give people a second chance. nine out of ten restaurants fail. its almost always the owners fault.
A large % of independent restaurants fail after a few years anyway. So ones that were struggling enough to warrant a Gordan Ramsey visit don't have much hope.
Stin I wouldn’t even completely blame it on the owners not changing Thé resto was already gonna fail and go bankrupt, giving a tv coverage + redoing the menu & interior only can go so far when the ship has been sinking for a while
They intentionally pick restaurants that will cause the most drama as possible for the show, which generally means they are extremely dysfunctional. While you can help these people to some extent, those extreme cases exist because those people have personal traits that are incompatible with a successful restaurant. Basically it's like helping addicts and being surprised that most of them go back to addiction. You're already trying to help desperate cases in the first place.
There’s a reason why I do not watch reality tv - on traditional tv or new media like UA-cam... but when it comes to documentaries like this? Who can resist ?
Not that anyone really cares about the truth when it gets in the way of the narrative, but that elephant killed several people. The circus decided to put it down by hanging, but locals thought that was cruel so they decided to electrocute it to death instead. All Edison did was film it.
It's helpful that it gives us insight we wouldn't normally get. Its detrimental in that it can shape our reality from the top (mass media) instead of actual human experiences. Solution: Take yo ass outside sometimes have a conversation
Good question. Also is it good to end every video with a question to the audience? Or take a risk and take a strong stance on a perspective. What you think? Comment bellow and leavealikesubscibeandshalalaladingdongbrrrrrr......
I can understand an argument against documentaries, but I think it’s more important that people learn critical thinking. All other problems it would solve aside, humans are better at telling stories than anything, really, and the fact that we process our realities as narrative is not a fluke of the uninformed - it’s fundamental to human nature. Therefore, documentaries when watched critically can be a beneficial and powerful medium. I do have a problem with reality TV, though. The people who make Reality TV understand just as well as I do that narrative is the most powerful part of the human experience, and they exploit that. Its kinda like social media: social media companies have learned to understand how and when our brains produce and react to dopamine, and they have perverted that into a system which takes control of human lives via a process of rewards and punishments. That’s exactly what Reality TV is doing to our narratives.
"The Second Generation began in 1999..with shows like the 'The Real World' ". Do fellow gen-xers remember watching that in college in like '91/'92? Along with..Wayne's World, SNL parody Ross Perot & Bill Clinton, (Clinton winning) & films like "Dazed & Confused", & "Scent of a Woman" while Nirvana and the Bodyguard theme dominated the radio? VASTLY different from '99: BtVS, the rise of Fox News, "Fight Club"/"American Psycho"/"Blair Witch" & radio's constant play of Britney, Destiny's Child, & the resurgence of Cher & Santana. I'm "Sorry, not sorry", as the kids say.😂
While documentaries create narratives out of the continuum which is life and its unrelated events, responsible documentarians take great pains to represent through story telling what they believe to be the essential truth of a situation or event. So even though there are distortions and omissions that result from the introduction of a narrative structure, it does not necessarily negate or misrepresent the overriding cause and effect of the facts of a situation or event. It may not BE reality, but it can represent it well.
The one thing I was surprised you did not touch on was the aspect of Faux Documantaria (Mockumetaries, Fake Reality TV, False Reality TV, Fictional Narative done through a Documentarian/Reality TV lens) and how it both does similar commentary and characterizations as docs do but simultaneously commenting on the process and how it compares to the perception of reality portrayed in that genre as compared to the actuality/veracity of the real situation. Sort of a recursive metaphor of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, the observation changing the outcome of the observation changing the outcome.
As someone who has done live videography and documentary style filming I consider myself one of those doc. enthusiast who tries to strike the balance between authenticity and dramatically engaging narrative. Basically, creating a dramatic narrative by incorporating authentic documentary material into the structure.
The most reality tv I've watched has been HGTV while waiting in the dentist's office. I've definitely noticed that competition shows often try to create narratives of the struggles and dreams of the contestants in order to make the audience emotionally engage with one or more contestants. I find this to be highly vapid and boring and think that showcasing each person's techniques and skill would be far more interesting. But then again, these shows aren't aimed at people like me who actually enjoy watching "how it's made" shows. It seems like the typical reality tv viewer craves drama even from things that are supposed to be devoid of it.
Narratives turns our lives from a mix of random events to to a meaningful and complete story, and a life that means something what everyone desperately needs. This is all part of the compulsive drive TMT describes.
I've been binging RuPaul's Drag Race, and they often lampshade and joke about the fact it's a reality TV show, giving it a meta and tongue-in-cheek vibe which I actually respect. Reality shows and perhaps documentaries too may go this route, especially since meta-ness is still a trend in fiction. The one issue I can think of this meta-ness is that while some viewers may be charmed by the honesty and 'peek-behind-the-curtain' vibe, others may start seeing everything on the show/movie as constructed and fake.
I can summarize the video by quoting my 1st year film studies prof shouting: The moment you point a camera at it, it stops being reality. His point was about the bias inherent in the person behind the lens, and also the fact that people act differently when they know there's a camera - essentially that people ham it up, either consciously or not.
Or they hide.
I couldn’t help but insert ‘violence inherent in the system’. Seriously prof was right.
You know what's more interesting? I have a parallel to that in my field of environmental engineering. I heard once that whatever you measure is altered by the very fact that you are measuring it. Take temperature, for example. When you stick a probe in the soil to measure its temperature, the probe itself is potentially at a different temperature and will exchange heat with the soil. Moreover, introducing the probe will cause the soil to mix with some amount of air, further changing its temperature.
So, whatever you measure/assess/observe is not reality, since you are modifying it whether you want it or not. However, there is obviously a difference between little bias and too much bias.
Fernando Simão observer bias, yes
But the eye is the lens to the soul. If you watch a theater play, is that any more real than tv? If not, than is all reality seen through a subjective lens?
I feel like there was a missed opportunity to include UA-cam Vlogs.
I feel like they could definitely have their own video as a follow-up.
Gotta make this comment rise. I was expecting it to be a sort of "4th generation of Realities", and would make extra sense in how we perceive and create our reality, surrounding us not only with new kinds of fame, labour and personalities.
Probably more relevant that “reality shows”.
Reaction to another reaction, the drama of vloggers should be called a chained reaction.
Perhaps social media based reality should have its own separate video. Big topic.
_"In case I don't see you. Good afternoon, good evening, and good night."_
*~ Truman Burbank (The Truman Show)*
I'm surprised they didn't reference the Truman effect
Omg we living in a Truman universe
"We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented."
~ Cristof (The Truman Show)
*grins ear to ear, softly laughs, exits the constructs of falsehood to bravely face falsehoods of reality*
Do the Truman Show!
Do the Truman Show!
Do the Truman Show!
Do the Truman Show!
You forgot about Disney killing innocent Lemmings by throwing them off a cliff. They had heard about a myth that lemmings will follow each other anywhere even off a cliff. So they recreated the myth by throwing them off a cliff, and they won 3 Oscars for it. White Wilderness 1958
This is so mean and funny.
I'm sorry 🥺 😞 I don't know why I think like this sometimes. 🚶
@@availanila Yeah, isn't animal murder the funniest shit ever? What's the matter with you...?
It’s distantly funny in a spiteful way. I just expect Disney to act this way now so I laugh about being proven right, that they’ve always been corporate monsters.
Categorising reality TV as non-fiction is the real joke here.
More like non-fiction simulator.
@@darwinxavier3516 Exactly.
If it's a joke, then it's a dad joke. It is so bad that it is funny.
The truth is easily manipulated.
Unfortunately
*The truth is incompatible with a functioning society
@@kidkangaroo5213 it is when its founded on lies
@@captainheat2314 and what makes you say that?
How did you miss the opportunity to quote the X-Files?
"Everything is possible, but nothing is real"~
~ Living Color - Type
Documentaries are like the Stanley Milgram Eexperiment where people trust them because of a perceived authority.
also the laziness of the individual, you'd be surprised how any people who are supposedly "for the truth" and ask others to provide sources only to not look for them or read them themselves(when provided). It's almost like reality has become a large self esteem booster where people care more about the appearance of being knowledgeable and smart over actually being.
@@dragonx3085 It's always been like that, most people are followers even though they like to think that they're not. Independant thinking is legitimately a rare skill no matter what time you live in. The distinction between the two types of people is often made with the terms "rhetoric thinker" and "dialectic thinker". If you're a dialectic thinker, you're part of the minority of people who can truly change their mind on a subject on the basis of information alone. If you're a rhetoric thinker, then you will simply be convinced by either what the majority believes or what you've been emotionally brainwashed to feel like the world is like (every day experience, documentaries, hollywood movies, the MSM, etc).
You can see it for yourself easily when people express an opinion and you start asking them why they hold this opinion. Most of the time they'll either regurgitate pre-made talking points you've heard a million times or straight up not be able to explain their reasoning. This is why whenever you express unconventional opinions and you try to explain your reasoning, most of the time it'll look like you're talking to a wall. The big players in society are very much aware of this reality and use it daily to get what they want out of people.
Do you mean documentaries are like the SM-experiment where people supposedly obeyed authority blindly perpetrating cruelty, or like the SM-experiment where people believed the results Stanley Milgram reported and his reported methods were actually true, because he was considered an authority within psychology at the time?
@@Fakedeath84 Well said
I had to explain to my mate why a bunch of bro science he learned about health was wrong and he just said "but I saw it in a documentary!!"
The irony is how mockumentaries like The Office are closer to the truth than any actual documentary.
Keep telling yourself that.
Gonna need some additional evidence for this argument
@@royaltyblessed2454 working in offices big and small for 5 years.
Edgar Nova personal experience isn’t the equivalence of truth.
I think that's because the truth is simultaneously mundane and embarrassing and the only way to get that kind of authenticity is to either go undercover or act it out
I almost think there could be a spinoff video on the “mockumentary”
"The sights, sounds and smells of a hardworking rock band."
That's just a form of satire.
I’ve never been a huge fan of documentaries or reality TV. But Narrative is a field in Linguistics, and linguists will tell you that humans have been using narratives to make sense of reality for all of recorded history. And there’s plenty of evidence in the archaeological record to suggest we’ve been doing it for much longer than that. Myths, folklore, urban legends: all of these are attempts to make reality fit into a story so that we can understand how the world works. Even lies are just narratives meant to convince other people of a false reality.
Day 49 of asking and telling Wisecrack's team to make a "WISECRACK EDITION" (not to be confused with Alien's guide) of The Truman Show.
Day 49, Morale holding but begining to wain
Dammit wisecrack!!! Make this happen!
Do the Truman Show!
Do the Truman Show!
Do the Truman Show!
Do the Truman Show!
@@joaoalourencoaffonso4986 Heyyyyyy
Mah man
good luck. i'll upvote your comment if i see it on the next video lol
I feel that this is one of the many lessons of The Matrix. Warning us that the hero's journey, while appealing, is really not realistic.
Two words: Dr. Oz.
I know you didn’t talk about talk shows as Reality TV. But it fits. And he abused the power of influence that TV gave him.
What did he do?
@@nichelleharris7496 He uses terms like "magical" to describe ineffective weight loss supplements. (and that was only the beginning).
@@nichelleharris7496 He routinely pushes unethical, pseudoscientific BS on his unsuspecting audience.
Well s*it
Cyber Searcher PayForGodTV but without a religion
Honestly, you can't believe EVERYTHING you see in media. And, just remember it's there to entertain you. Engage your inner skeptic if you are looking for truth.
And then realize that doesn't actually exists and that everything is subjective and that you can't even trust your own mind.
@@phantomasuras If you truly think that then how do you know you are even conversing with me at all? Kevin, maybe you are just a brain floating around in a jar???? How do you know you even have a brain?????? ;P
I think all this stuff just adds to our feeling that there are endless possibilities for our lives... which is to say, endless ways we could dupe ourselves into thinking that life has meaning and we shouldn't kill ourselves today. Whatever works.
The fact we even talk about "shaping truth" shows how far we've been dragged down the rabbit hole.
Did anyone notice the sharp beard growth between the intro ad and the video proper? Damn, Jared what oil do you use😂?
"And their beards have all grown longer overnight..."
Jojoba oil 👏👏👏
saw that and had to rewind to make sure I saw it right.
Maybe it was long during filming and he trimmed it just before filming the intro and outro?
@@yootxoh yeah. The editing makes it look like it grew in a second. I found that funny.
I took a 10 week history of documentary class last term. You covered everything I learned in a 20 minute video. Don't go to film school kids.
Y’all should do an episode on the early 2010s survival tv shows
I would like to see the philosophy of wisecrack
WISECRACK: Is it Deep or Dumb?
@@therealsmalk yessss WISECRACK: what went wrong? Lol
Wisecrack is also giving us their own narrative structure about whatever content they provide. It's hard to provide true and universal facts on any media material you can find, it all depends on one's perspective on things and previous knowledge (or to be) acquired. But still, I'm a fan!
6:59 Thats indeed a little problematic because I remember that Spurlock was classified as 100% healthy by several doctors at the first part of that documentary.
Spurlock also refused to release the amounts he ate during his "experiment" the guy forcefed himself tons of food during the month far beyond the rules he presented in the doc
I feel like it's a little hard to categorise someone as 100% healthy anyway. I'm not a doctor though, maybe you really can say for definite that someone is healthy. He could have also had a hand in cherry picking doctors
Just want to point out that Steve Byrne is one of the other groups that made a documentary on The Amazing Johnathan and it's free on youtube and fantastic for a first time director, without that director waiting for the subject to die for added drama. Instead it's a fairly raw, if imperfect, celebration of a severely underrated comic genius. It's called ALWAYS AMAZING: The True Story of the Life, Death, and Return of Amazing Johnathan
Even when watching animal documentaries I root for the bird who struggles to get his girl or the prey that gets away. When there's no story, I as a spectator will make one up.
Nature documentaries are still just as moralised though. The gaze is always biased.
"It made everyone afraid of clowns"
Incorrect, clowns were always scary.
So I guess you don't look at mirrors huh?
by that logic sharks were also always scary
@@stevewondering6311 I mean kind of..but anything can be scary & I think robert was just joking.
I think that this is very meta, this video itself is lying to us in some ways :D
@@Cradily8000 is that the best you got? Yawnarama
I truly think Reality TV is poison. I swear so many people I've known for years are acting like they on a show. "WTF are you talking about" conversations, drama for no reason, talking about people behind their backs and epic levels ostentatiousness.
I remember back in the day thinking the Jerry Springer Show was making people more trashy by normalizing the worst of society. Reality TV took it to the next level. Now social media has turned everything completely upside down lol
Globalization WEW and cellphone cams didn’t make weird/bad things happen more.
IT MADE IT EASIER TO FIND PUT AND SPREAD THE WORD
You truly think that didn't happen before reality TV?
Reality TV is showing us our society in all it's toxic and problematic glory.
I love I don't like reality TV and now I understand why. Thx wisecrack and showing a question about myself I didn't understand. Props
I feel like it's a crime not to mention how UA-cam was the next generation, now twitch...
That would, and should, require at least a 3 part series.
@Klaus Mateschitz no it's not. It depends on You. If you let their "recommendation" to lead you it's your fault. You should've subscribed to whoever you like by now.
@Klaus Mateschitz they meant the next generation of reality tv.. your reading comprehension needs work.
Klaus Mateschitz I don’t think UA-cam has made money.
@@grantbarnes3678 Wow one of the dumbest things I've read so far today.
The first step in solving a "problem" is admitting you have one :) So I think it's simply the evolution of cinematic metaperception, a reflection/projection of the shift in consciousness. but for me, i perceive it as the awkward/gawky phase
I enjoy documentaries for their informative entertainment whereas I can't stand watching reality tv because it's blatantly fake and ridiculous.
Society constantly (re)interprets stories of reality and history, and that's a good thing sometimes. Sometimes it's good to keep in mind that in real life everything is more nuanced than we would like to believe.
Hidden meaning/Philosophy of The fresh prince of Belair?
Gustav Hasford (the guy who wrote the book to 'Full Metal Jacket') once wrote something along the lines of: "America loves a good show. It loves it so much, they forgot what reality was like." I have nothing to add to that.
Can you talk about how Brand documentries are taking over
And making brands more humanizes
Pretty cool! I enjoyed the historical take on these mediums. Brings up big epistemological questions.
Thanks for thinking for me Wisecrack!
Oh I love you! When you mentioned Flaherty and the Inuit of the North, I instantly searched for my notes from university when I did Optical Anthropology, talking about how ethnographic cinematography helped ameliorate the research practices of the time. That made me happy.
Brilliant as usual! but I only missed your take on "scientific documentaries" which are being increasingly used by some people, as a shortcut of pre-fabricated and hyper simplified knowledge about things that deserve time to be understood (such as power assymetries or why vaccines are important).
I just found your channel recently (I'm not sure why only recently, I'm on youtube all the time) but i have been very impressed with your scripts! Good stuff. You could write and produce a documentary yourself man!
Jared, you guys should do a "Philosophy Of" episode on Alan Moore's run on Miracleman, would be right up your alley. Anyway, keep up the awesome work!
Always great to hear that there are exclusive things that I'll never see from sites that I'll never visit. Thanks for restricting things to other places. Appreciate it.
I find it helpful to imagine history as a story. However, there are plenty of sequels, prequels and spin-offs that could change our perception of the original story.
I always love your guys' content. You do your best to shed light on reality.
I refuse to believe that people actually watch reality TV
Crappy ghetto entertainment is my guilty pleasure.
what do you think its like a money laundering organization for the mob ? i mean how else can you explain the money :P
@Klaus Mateschitz there's no way you are the top 10%. You'll harm yourself with that comment because people will identify "Dunnin Kruger effect".
I love the competitive ones, like Project Runway, where you get to see amazing things made by creative people in crazy circumstances.
hahaha are you kidding me, my mother recently retired and I am sure her only purpose for waking up each day is to watch "reality TV."
This video is why I watch this channel. Very insightful and definitely sheds light on how the entertainment I ingest can affect my worldview.
Your thumbnails are always so great
I always felt sad endings are way more satisfying than happy endings. No idea why and definetely not an exclusive thing but boi is the moment when all people did was for nothing feel good.
Do an episode on the philosophy of ' the leftovers ' please...!!!
I don't watch realities, but it's good to know how they influence people
I kept thinking that sooner or later there would be a comment about how those participating in today's reality shows are simulating the behaviour that they've seen and grown accustomed to from the first wave or reality shows. Maybe even a comment of what Baudrillard would have though about it.
Also that people who watch reality shows tend to start subconsciously behaving more like those they watch, thinking it's natural (especially when it comes to relationships), without questioning that the behaviours shown in reality shows are shaped due to certain deliberately designed parameters.
It's a loop.
I feel like while a ton of people who watch reality TV arent stupid, know it's fake, know its unrealistic and will happily criticise it while they're watching, there is unfortunately a population of viewers who will start to imitate reality stars consciously or subconsciously.
Anecdotally I even saw this happen with soap operas. I knew a guy who watched em all the time, and everything in his life was so dramatic. Even said to me and my partner once "if you dont properly fight in a relationship it means you have NO PASSION" - he thinks problematic things like angry sex after a fight is desirable and to be aimed for in a relationship. No matter what your experience is with "angry sex" is I think we can all agree it's wrong to intentionally provoke and stress out your partner to try and initiate this. He loves giving relationship advice which is strange given he has never been in one
What I take from this is that we should view all entertainment as just that: entertainment. If I want to be educated about something, I have a responsibility to myself to make sure that what I’m ingesting is accurate, whether it is a book, article, video, film, or whatever. Placing my trust in someone else’s video to give me accurate information could be misplaced trust. Everybody has an angle.
when you showed the lady getting hit in the face with the watermelon i just about died.
That sound effect was so unnecessary and i laughed so hard it hurts
I had not watched TV for a decade until some time ago I had to go to a hospital for few days. During that time I saw hours of TV, several channels, and everything I saw was reality shows (and couple of times news), Anglophone and Finnish. I thought, 'Kali Yuga has begun.'
When "A Thousand Little ILs" popped up on the screen, I actually closed the screen to google it...but then you said it wasn't real lol.
Someone please make it. I would totally watch a documentary about Kim Jong Il impersonators.
Maybe now that he died...
This is so buzzy Misha was my lecturer in a few years ago, no wonder why this video felt so familiar! I guess it also means you guys are pretty accurate. Good on ya.
My favorite documentary is the office
Some ex-Chopped contestant (now off the show) went to the press and was talking about the show being real, and how it has gotten easier than it used to. Michael Vignola, now executive chef for Catch Hospitality Group's restaurants.
Bring back Thug Notes, you cowards!!!
it has its own channel, for thug notes only
Probably mah nigga doesn't want to do Thug Notes anymore.
@@ttm77777 the channel must not be on UA-cam?
Greg Edwards, aka Sparky Sweets of Thug Notes is on Twitter.
@@ttm77777 Nope. You're talking out of your ass.
Thanks for reminding me of the rollercoaster that was taking History Of Film in school and watching Nanook and then learning it was all doctored to depict what the director wanted people to see.
Everytime I talk to someone about how I view the world or myself I use media tropes for them to relate to what I am saying. Every time I end up wondering if I got this information from real life or from media, I find myself questioning everything I share with people.
Best UA-cam channel, best podcast as well! Thanks once again Wisecrack. Jared is my hero, I want to be more like him. Love your intellectual content. I always feel like you express things I think about, though cannot always articulate myself.
@2:27 "They'll say 'awww Topsy' at my autopsy!"
I thought the same thing when I saw it too.
Godamit, that's an amazing song... They have several good songs in the show, but Electric Love sounds like it belongs in an actual musical.
@@Palmieres that is so true, I have people who claim to not like the show but love the musical episodes because they're so well composed and executed you can't help but to bop!
@@MojoSojoJojo How can they not love the show? It's amazing! :D
Terrace House is the perfect foreign version of reality tv phase ~1.75 or so. Maybe closer to the first couple of seasons of MTV's Real World than PBS' An American Family. Maybe not though as I've never seen the show from the 70's.
You know what you gotta do, Wisecrack:
One more Joker video
This is super fascinating! You guys interested me in taking a look into philosophy, and i love it thank you guys!
Jaws didnt make people afraid of sharks, it made people afraid to even step foot in the ocean
They shouldn’t be
They should be CAUTIOUS!
Please do a Philosophy of Survivor. I’ve been watching it since I was little, and I’m curious what you all think about its evolution over time, the meta aspects of it in recent seasons, and your take on what it is trying to say about humanity. I know a great deal is cut/edited/staged in order to achieve the principles that you laid out in this video, but my highly biased view is that there is something in this show that warrants a deeper retrospective on how it interacts with sociology. There is something interesting about the intersection of Lord of the Flies-esque situations and a reality TV show that has been going on for decades.
I've always been interested in the stories that people tell about themselves without some director filming to capture moments. I like hearing, or rather reading, the accounts firsthand. It's a more authentic representation of the person's experience. I enjoy a good documentary but I'm always aware of how the story is told in the editing room. A memoir, or hell, even a conversation with a person is more authentic in my opinion. As for reality TV, it's a pox on our society. But then again, perhaps it's a reflection of how we'd all like to be famous. Look at Instagram. Everyone on that site has a story they want to tell, but it's about as believable of a story as the reality TV crap. I don't care what people watch. However, I do think that viewing reality TV, while stupid, gives people an escape from reality not unlike me watching this video and we all need our escape and our guilty pleasures. Right?
I don't watch shows commonly referred to as reality tv but I found the bit about documentaries interesting. The idea that documentaries skrew the truth more than they reveal it is both scary and kind of obvious though i never really thought about it.
Everybody Lies.. - Dr. House
our brain craves constructed narratives because they give us the illusion that the world makes sense and is understandable to us, that was such an interesting point.
Is it just me...or does Jared look like "The Dude"..
They pissed on his rug.
Fun fact: first Georgian film "Akakis mogzauroba Racha-lechxumshi" is thought to be the first actual documentary film.
It depicts Georgian Poet Akaki Tsereteli visiting different parts of the country and their warm reception.
Nothing staged, nothing faked
1914. Forgot to add the year
1:45 my "brainy parts" felt confused
From a historical perspective, many of these questions go back to methods of biography and autobiography. This biggest opportunity you missed is to have a Sparky Sweete, Ph.D. stop by to.make that point!
I never trusted reality television, their premises always come off unreal to me, always expect to find some contestant in a few minor acting roles at least a few years down the line. Documentaries are for certain worth of critique and skepticism too though taking into account framing and editing practices. People can skew their own experiences on their own as well so maybe there is no reliable truth.
We're talking about these films in my Documentary Film Ethics class rn. Nice to get the references.
I stopped watching Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares when I found out that almost EVERY restaurant featured has gone out of business.
well you cant fix shitty owners in the time it takes them to film the show. I would argue that he did legitimately give people a second chance. nine out of ten restaurants fail. its almost always the owners fault.
A large % of independent restaurants fail after a few years anyway. So ones that were struggling enough to warrant a Gordan Ramsey visit don't have much hope.
Tbf, most of the restaurants featured in Kitchen Nightmares don't deserve to exist in the first place.
Stin
I wouldn’t even completely blame it on the owners not changing
Thé resto was already gonna fail and go bankrupt, giving a tv coverage + redoing the menu & interior only can go so far when the ship has been sinking for a while
They intentionally pick restaurants that will cause the most drama as possible for the show, which generally means they are extremely dysfunctional. While you can help these people to some extent, those extreme cases exist because those people have personal traits that are incompatible with a successful restaurant.
Basically it's like helping addicts and being surprised that most of them go back to addiction. You're already trying to help desperate cases in the first place.
There’s a reason why I do not watch reality tv - on traditional tv or new media like UA-cam... but when it comes to documentaries like this? Who can resist ?
Was that the elephant Edison electrocuted to besmirch Tesla's alternating current?
Yup the same one
Poor Topsy
Not that anyone really cares about the truth when it gets in the way of the narrative, but that elephant killed several people. The circus decided to put it down by hanging, but locals thought that was cruel so they decided to electrocute it to death instead. All Edison did was film it.
@@xandror source?
@@thehorriblebright The internet?
It's helpful that it gives us insight we wouldn't normally get. Its detrimental in that it can shape our reality from the top (mass media) instead of actual human experiences. Solution: Take yo ass outside sometimes have a conversation
Good question. Also is it good to end every video with a question to the audience? Or take a risk and take a strong stance on a perspective. What you think? Comment bellow and leavealikesubscibeandshalalaladingdongbrrrrrr......
I can understand an argument against documentaries, but I think it’s more important that people learn critical thinking. All other problems it would solve aside, humans are better at telling stories than anything, really, and the fact that we process our realities as narrative is not a fluke of the uninformed - it’s fundamental to human nature. Therefore, documentaries when watched critically can be a beneficial and powerful medium. I do have a problem with reality TV, though. The people who make Reality TV understand just as well as I do that narrative is the most powerful part of the human experience, and they exploit that. Its kinda like social media: social media companies have learned to understand how and when our brains produce and react to dopamine, and they have perverted that into a system which takes control of human lives via a process of rewards and punishments. That’s exactly what Reality TV is doing to our narratives.
"The Second Generation began in 1999..with shows like the 'The Real World' ".
Do fellow gen-xers remember watching that in college in like '91/'92?
Along with..Wayne's World, SNL parody Ross Perot & Bill Clinton, (Clinton winning) & films like "Dazed & Confused", & "Scent of a Woman" while Nirvana and the Bodyguard theme dominated the radio?
VASTLY different from '99:
BtVS, the rise of Fox News, "Fight Club"/"American Psycho"/"Blair Witch" & radio's constant play of Britney, Destiny's Child, & the resurgence of Cher & Santana.
I'm "Sorry, not sorry", as the kids say.😂
IMO the internet & modern media seem to have totally forgotten about Gen X. They only seem to know of boomers and millennials.
While documentaries create narratives out of the continuum which is life and its unrelated events, responsible documentarians take great pains to represent through story telling what they believe to be the essential truth of a situation or event. So even though there are distortions and omissions that result from the introduction of a narrative structure, it does not necessarily negate or misrepresent the overriding cause and effect of the facts of a situation or event. It may not BE reality, but it can represent it well.
Here's a followup to you: "Is live-streaming a form of reality TV?" Twitch, Mixer, UA-cam, so on. Are streamers the new reality stars?
An underrated analysis of reality and our perception of it.
Here’s a documentary about documentaries for you all 😂
Maybe this was a warped distortion of truth based on our need to interpret our world through a narrative.
The one thing I was surprised you did not touch on was the aspect of Faux Documantaria (Mockumetaries, Fake Reality TV, False Reality TV, Fictional Narative done through a Documentarian/Reality TV lens) and how it both does similar commentary and characterizations as docs do but simultaneously commenting on the process and how it compares to the perception of reality portrayed in that genre as compared to the actuality/veracity of the real situation. Sort of a recursive metaphor of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, the observation changing the outcome of the observation changing the outcome.
I really don't like reality TV, because it is nothing like reality and not nearly as fun as pure fiction.
great video. Very thoughtful and well made. Keep up the good work!
I miss Thug Notes.
As someone who has done live videography and documentary style filming I consider myself one of those doc. enthusiast who tries to strike the balance between authenticity and dramatically engaging narrative. Basically, creating a dramatic narrative by incorporating authentic documentary material into the structure.
I've never been this early to a video. What do I do with my hands?
The most reality tv I've watched has been HGTV while waiting in the dentist's office. I've definitely noticed that competition shows often try to create narratives of the struggles and dreams of the contestants in order to make the audience emotionally engage with one or more contestants. I find this to be highly vapid and boring and think that showcasing each person's techniques and skill would be far more interesting. But then again, these shows aren't aimed at people like me who actually enjoy watching "how it's made" shows. It seems like the typical reality tv viewer craves drama even from things that are supposed to be devoid of it.
In my viewing experiance, many UA-camrs are better at history than documentaries such as The Great War channel, History Time, and Tod's Workshop.
Narratives turns our lives from a mix of random events to to a meaningful and complete story, and a life that means something what everyone desperately needs. This is all part of the compulsive drive TMT describes.
Jared please clean up that straw mop it’s anxiety inducing
I've been binging RuPaul's Drag Race, and they often lampshade and joke about the fact it's a reality TV show, giving it a meta and tongue-in-cheek vibe which I actually respect. Reality shows and perhaps documentaries too may go this route, especially since meta-ness is still a trend in fiction. The one issue I can think of this meta-ness is that while some viewers may be charmed by the honesty and 'peek-behind-the-curtain' vibe, others may start seeing everything on the show/movie as constructed and fake.