Personal lives and more on display for entire world to see

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On a typical lazy weekend, when the weather outside suggests I stay put, I often find myself watching a variety of reality television shows whenever I want to give my brain a rest.

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I don’t watch these show by choice. My wife will put them on, and I’ll give in and watch them, too, because I’m too comfortable to get up and do something else.

Such shows include Four Weddings, My 600-Pound Life and Dr. Pimple Popper. I’ve often wondered why the people featured in some of these shows would put their personal lives on display for the world to see, especially those appearing in the latter two programs.

I’m guessing there’s a trade-off involved. People with a variety of skin imperfections, including huge cysts, boils and other nasty-looking things, go on Dr. Pimple Popper’s show in hopes the dermatologist can “cure” them. The only thing I can think of is that these people subject themselves before the cameras in exchange for free medical treatment. Perhaps they don’t have the proper health insurance – if they have any at all – to have the necessary treatment done privately.

 Perhaps these patients are thinking, “I look hideous with these bulging, pus-filled things protruding from my face, but I can’t afford the cost of having them removed. Maybe if I agree to appear on the Dr. Pimple Popper show, I can get this done at no cost.”

Surely there can’t be any other reason why these people would want to appear on nation-wide television if there wasn’t something in it for them.

 I’m often eating my breakfast when this show is on and must look away when large amounts of discoloured gunk is squeezed out of peoples’ faces, heads, backs and other parts of the body. Dr. Pimple Popper isn’t exactly what I’d call “breakfast television.”

My 600-Pound Life isn’t much better, especially during the operating room scenes. On this show, morbidly obese people’s lives are chronicled in their attempt to lose enough weight to allow Dr. Nowzaradan – usually referred simply as Dr. Now – to safely perform gastric bypass surgery on them. The patients are instructed to lose a specified amount of weight and report back to Dr. Now for follow-up progress reports. They’ll often cheat on their prescribed diets – with the camera catching them ordering large amounts of fast food at drive-through windows – and then seem aghast that they’ve gained instead of lost weight.

This results in Dr. Now lecturing them about not taking their weight-loss goals seriously. For the patients who go the extra mile to meet their goals and are approved for surgery, their literal blood and guts are spilled out for the television audience to “enjoy.”

Piles of their fatty tissue are extracted and put onto a table to be weighed. It’s quite disgusting to watch. But what I find particularly disconcerting is the fact that Dr. Now, who is pushing 80, looks like he’s ready to fall over at any moment. Even if the surgery is free in exchange for appearing on the show, I’m not sure I’d want to put my life in the hands of someone who looks like his next breath might be his last.

Four Weddings is a little more palatable than the medical shows, but I find it unbelievable that some of these couples are willing to spend a year’s salary or more on their nuptials. I don’t know if there is any compensation for the show’s participating brides or if the all-expenses-paid honeymoon is their sole incentive for being on the show. Some of these brides get downright catty when expressing their opinions of their competition’s weddings, which at least gives the show some teeth and a reason to watch.

If I’m going to be eating while watching these shows, it’s best that breakfast coincides with Four Weddings. The food spreads are much easier on the eyes and stomach than the pus and guts shown in the medical shows.

Mike Jiggens is a Delhi resident.