I’m fascinated by the shopping channels. I think those hosts really have a talent – you can plop just about anything in front of them, and they can talk for a half hour, at least mostly coherently, about its many virtues.
But what really creeps me out about the shopping channels are the doll shows. I know they’ve been lampooned on SNL before, but until you actually watch Marie Osmond talk about the lifelike eyes and real petticoats of her latest creation, you can’t understand how soul-shakingly disturbing they really are. And then I think about the people who obsessively collect these faux-humans, and I get even more creeped out. Who buys these things? And they’re not inexpensive, either.
I guess one thing that disturbs me is you can imagine people buying and at least theoretically using turquoise jewelry, or palazzo pants, or Wolfgang Puck cookware. But these dolls seem to be the absolute height of consumerism gone awry. They exist solely, solely, to be purchased and owned. Do we really have that much disposable income? Apparently, we do.
Not to mention, the thought of someone out there with a house full of these dolls, with their life-like eyes, staring at them all the time.