Thursday, July 28, 2005

“Average Joke”: One “win” does not solve the problem

For those of you who haven’t checked out this week’s column entitled “Still More Cruel Intentions”, please do so now before reading any further….

So the third “Average Joe” show finished with a “win” of sorts. A “Joe” actually came out the winner.

But before you pull out that snide comment about me being "off base", let’s go over a few things….

First, two pretty boys and two “Joes” went with the beauty to Tahiti for the last phase of the competition. That in and of itself was a change from the other two con games. Then on the way to the airport, the beauty was re-introduced to four of the rejected “Joes” who had makeovers. One of them was selected to go on with the finalists to Tahiti. Again, another change in the con.

After all five of them went out on dates, the two “Joes” who made it this far got cut, and one pretty-boy had to go as well. That left it with one pretty-boy and the remade “Joe”.

In other words, NONE of the "Joes" won the beauty's heart! They ALL got rejected! The only "Joe" who made it through to the final was the one who had to get made-over first!

Second, the beauty had help making her final selection this time around! That’s right, both finalists got to meet Mom! And after Mom met with both finalists, you know that Mom told her daughter whom to pick! Again, this wasn’t the case with the other two con jobs.

Third… guess what wasn’t present this time around? The private jet and the tour bus! Those little subtle reminders of each candidate weren’t there when the beauty made her decision.

And fourth, they gave an extremely hokey ending, jokingly showing what some of the candidates did afterwards. This wasn’t something that they showed in the other two shows, so I’m hoping this is NBC’s way to ending the whole series once and for all!

In short, guys, NBC did A LOT of coaxing to get a different result… and it doesn’t excuse the fact that this was still a con job on the contestants. Hey, even con artists have to let someone win once just to sucker the rest into the game!

So what did we learn?

We learned that the only way an “average guy” can hook up with a beauty is…

… to get a makeover.
… to be removed from all of the subtle trappings of being “average”
… to compete against a pretty boy who was a real dumbass when not around the beauty
… and to get help from the beauty’s mother… and from network producers.

In other words, we’re STILL SCREWED! And the whole series is still just a cruel joke!

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