Reality Television

In 1776, the United States of America declared its independence from Great Britain. In 1783, Britain recognized us as a sovereign nation, and presumably wished us good luck with our independence.

I’m guessing they thought, “Let’s just see how long they last on their own.”

The U.S. was left to fend for itself for over 200 years. We did some cool things, including becoming the largest exporter of television programming. In the era of sitcoms, this was great, providing the American entertainment industry with cash, and the rest of the world with common pop culture references. But then came the reality shows. The rest of the world, including the British, finally saw what Americans were really doing after 200 years of no supervision.

What did they see and hear? Our singing was terrible, we were being ruled by our children, and our restaurants were potential gold mines turned into money pits. Perhaps feeling a sense of responsibility for sending us off into the world a bit too soon, the UK sent a series of ambassadors to discipline us on our own TV shows.

At least that’s how I understand the story.