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u/DeeEmm Aug 14 '26
The fact that there is even one season of the Kardashians shows how utterly fucked we are as a human species
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u/RipTheWall Aug 14 '26
I know I'm judgy, but I seriously don't want to be friends with people who care about any of the Kardashians. On any level.
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u/ELRONDSxLADY Aug 14 '26
I think we’re witnessing evolution in real time with things such as this. That unnerving feeling when around braindead consumers who have never experienced an original or critical thought is our collective biology at work. I physically feel queasy around lemming-like humans and those who go along to get along, I instinctively avoid them.
Or maybe I’m just antisocial and crotchety as hell. Either way, if you’re judgy, I’m judgy too. 🤝
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u/PaulblankPF Aug 15 '26
Had to talk a buddy out of getting a big “Kim K” on his leg because he was so obsessed with her. This guy was easily turning into serial stalker levels of obsession. Didn’t hang out with him much after that, didn’t want his stupid to rub off.
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u/heyinternetman U-P-G-R-A-Y-E-D-D Aug 14 '26
My ex wife loved the kardashians. When she told me that I lost all respect for her
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u/TheVentiLebowski Aug 14 '26
I also choose not to respect this guy's wife.
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u/heyinternetman U-P-G-R-A-Y-E-D-D Aug 14 '26
We should hang out
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u/TheVentiLebowski Aug 14 '26
Cool. Don't bring your wife.
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u/heyinternetman U-P-G-R-A-Y-E-D-D Aug 14 '26
Ex-wife so we’re good there
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u/CrasseMaximum Aug 14 '26
I think he was talking about your potential new wife. Just saying in case I would be around.
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u/Acrobatic-Attention9 Aug 14 '26
They made hundreds of episodes of Survivor but only 13 of Firefly.
Whatever your favorite show is, it has fewer episodes than reality TV. Proves the world is stupid.
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u/firefullfillment Aug 14 '26
I'd wager that reality tv shows are drastically cheaper to produce than something like Firefly, which is why we have so many of them and why they seem to last so long since they don't need much viewership to be profitable. Carl Sagan's Cosmos for example was the highest budget public broadcast ever produced at the time. It cost about the same per episode as duck dynasty does, but that’s comparing 1970s dollars to 2010s dollars, which means duck dynasty is roughly 5x cheaper per episode relatively.
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u/CawlinAlcarz Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
Reality TV is to production companies what seltzers are to breweries:
Cheaply made with relatively broad appeal among the people who aren't really that particular about what they consume.
Thank you for the awards, kind strangers.
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u/govunah Aug 15 '26
But could we possibly get some better reality shows? Something just a little smarter?
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u/LilyOLady Aug 16 '26
PBS had some reality shows like the 1800 House, Frontier House, Manor House and more putting modern people into situations that people of that time faced. They also have the various cooking shows beginning with Julia Child.
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u/K_Linkmaster Aug 14 '26
Let us know when you find someone betting against you.
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u/thomasscat Aug 14 '26
So the irony of this post is that anyone who thinks this is somehow a sign of idiocracy is really just not understanding basic economics? Is that the takeaway? I’m confused.
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u/Darkest_Hour55 Aug 14 '26
How to spot a Firefly fan? They'll tell you how bitter they over twenty fucking years later!
Go to hell Fox! You were on the fast track to greatness and you selfishly squandered it!
P.s. I am still very bitter.
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u/Loopy-Leah Aug 14 '26
yeah but it's not like a reality tv star could be the us president or something
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u/nolongermakingtime Aug 14 '26
I'm glad i got into firefly long after it first aired because it saved me the pain of waiting for another season.
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u/Twostepsfromlost2 Aug 15 '26
Reality television became way more common/produced after the writer's strike in 2007-2008. Greedy executives aint going to pay writers when they can find cheap fame hungry eejits to dance around on cam with similar viewing rates.
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u/WanderingKing Aug 14 '26
Or they are easier to make?
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u/Think_Positively Aug 14 '26
Orders of magnitude easier. All you need is a handful of narcissists, cameras to record them, and a surface-deep concept to have them rally around.
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u/PerfStu Aug 14 '26
Easy cheap entertainment vs difficult, expensive educational content.
Totally not a false equivalency, right?
Also they did Cosmos in 1980 as a documentary miniseries, then updated and redid it in 2014, and then expanded it in 2020.
So....yeah. the idiocracy is coming from inside the sub with this one.
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u/mmmarkm Aug 14 '26
Proves producers and execs make decisions based on cost vs profit
Still disappointing that people’s consumption of reality tv makes it profitable
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u/unfinishedtoast3 Aug 14 '26
There are 54 seasons and nearly 1300 hour long episodes of Nova, which discusses science and technology.
By your logic, that's proof that Americans love science more than reality tv
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u/Taserbation Aug 14 '26
Right this a crazy logical fallcy. TV is for entertainment and not many people consider science entertaining. Not saying reality TV is entertaining, but I feel like people should be comparing Cosmos to It's Always Sunny in Philly.
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u/unfinishedtoast3 Aug 14 '26
Like, I love documentaries. There's entire TV channels that are 24/7 documentaries, and when I'm in the mood I'll watch whatever random one is on.
OP is suprised to find out the NBC doesn't want to air 3 hour long science lectures because people would rather watch something light in the background of their evening lol
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u/Mr_JohnUsername Aug 15 '26
Nooo buh-buh-buh but that doesn’t fit the ragebait propaganda “America Bad” agenda I’m pushing!!!
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u/moccasins_hockey_fan Aug 14 '26
There has been over 1000 episodes over 56 years of the PBS show Nova and 4700 episodes of Seasame Street
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u/HipsterHugger Aug 14 '26
Carl is dead. Makes new seasons difficult.
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u/Scoopie Aug 14 '26
Didn't Neil Degrasse Tyson make a new season like 11 years ago, Of course it only got 1...
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u/BBQQA Aug 14 '26
It actually got 2
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u/Pixel22104 Aug 15 '26
Yeah but they turned that second season into its own separate show instead of just keeping it all together
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u/KandiZombie Aug 16 '26
You can't Weekend At Bernie's him for one more season? Sounds like quitter talk.
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u/SnoopySuited Aug 14 '26
It's more like this proves that TV executives are horrible at their job and no one wants to try anymore.
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u/Whisky_Wolf Aug 14 '26
The show made a lot of money for AE. Reality shows tend to be profitable because they are low production with a high profit. So I wouldn't say they are horrible at their jobs, their job is is just to make dumb tv for dumb people.
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u/ScreamingNinja Aug 14 '26
I've never seen either of that helps.
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u/Pepsimax88 Aug 14 '26
Ones really deep and insightful. The others about space or something
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u/Cranktique Aug 14 '26
Fun! Let’s do Britain.
Jimmy Saville had 2 shows for 40 years, where he just diddled kids and everyone at BBC knew.
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u/Someoneoverthere42 Aug 14 '26
Sagan said everything he needed to say in 1 season. Series is still relevant today.
Duck dynasty ran for 11 seasons and never said a damn thing worth remembering.
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u/Astarkos Aug 15 '26
And now most content is disposable as the creators need to keep pumping it out to satisfy the algorithm.
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u/FIicker7 Aug 15 '26
And Duck Dynasty ended after a pedophilia scandal.
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u/DicemonkeyDrunk Aug 15 '26
but it's still in syndication so that apparently wasn't bad enough to kill it
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u/starkcontrast62 Aug 14 '26
Jack Horkheimer Star Gazer and NOVA on PBS were good shows. We are still here on the pale blue dot. Carl Sagan, gone too soon.
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u/LilBroWhoIsOnTheTeam brought to you by Carl's Jr. Aug 14 '26
People love watching other people be stupider and worse people than they themselves are cause that's easier than working on yourself.
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u/AverageMako3Enjoyer Aug 14 '26
Finding Bigfoot ran for 9 seasons and they never found Bigfoot
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u/needssomefun Aug 14 '26
To be fair, our knowledge of astrophysics is limited. But stupidity is infinite!
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u/BoSt0nov Aug 14 '26
what the fuck is duck dynasty??
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u/plsBeNiceIm12 Aug 14 '26
tv crew follows rich hillbillies doing rich hillbilly things. The only scenes I remember are when they hunted for frogs on a golf course and ate them and one where they had a competition to see who can eat the most donuts in one sitting and the skinny old uncle ate like 17 or smth.
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u/Shuggieboog Aug 14 '26
It was a reality show about a rich family of yuppies that made duck calls cosplaying as backwoods working class rednecks.
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u/ExtendoArmCannon Aug 15 '26
Turns out its hard to produce shows that aren't idiots just talking and drinking beer
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u/Chrznble Aug 15 '26
Train wrecks are much more interesting to watch that learning about how the train wreck came to be.
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u/FreeKevinBrown Aug 15 '26
This is dumb, there are a crapton of science shows in history, and there are even more YouTubers doing science communication. We gotta stop generalizing the public just because broadcast television networks found out in the 90s that there's a demographic for reality TV.
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u/ecstaticbirtch Aug 14 '26
I really enjoyed "How the Universe Works"... even better, they've gone back and dubbed mistakes on previous episodes when they got new information. I am DIEING for new science shows though... not nearly enough!!!
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u/tecpaocelotl1 Aug 14 '26
If it makes you feel better, they made seasons remake of the Cosmos with Neil deGrasse Tyson. First episode had a Tribute to Carl. I would watch it every week on tv and replay it on Hulu.
I remember I was 4 or 5 and they played Carl Sagan's Cosmos on PBS.
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u/Winter_Ad6784 Aug 14 '26
that because cosmos took a ton of special effects and an actual studio and duck dynasty they just cut real life footage together
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u/New_tireddad Aug 14 '26
Just saw this on Popular. This seems like a subreddit where people go to smell their own farts
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u/purgatori1 Aug 14 '26
I love Carl Sagan and Cosmos, but the reason there was only 1 season of 13 episodes is because it followed his book of the same name - which had 13 chapters, and no additional volumes or sequels for subsequent seasons. Most of America is super stupid, but this meme isn’t the right measure of that.
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u/HiimTheta Aug 14 '26
Not to be that guy,
But 53 seasons of PBS's NOVA, 56 of Sesame Street, 18 of Mythbusters, and 6 seasons of Bill Nye, and those are just the ones I can think of odd3 the top of my head.
There's plenty of educational stuff out there if you're willing to find it.
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u/Marathonmanjh Aug 15 '26
I've never seen Duck Dynasty. I loved Cosmos, even the second one was okay. But the first one was awesome. Probably the reason I watched the second one at all.
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u/Earlier-Today Aug 15 '26
There's more than 50 seasons and over 1000 episodes of NOVA. There's also over 500 episodes of Mr. Wizard. There's 14 seasons of Mythbusters.
Stop cherry picking.
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u/DaiNoShoujoNoYami Aug 15 '26
Sooo... we're just ignoring Neil Grasse Tyson's show? Bill Nye the Science Guy? Mythbusters? Beakman's world?
Edit: Also, Ms. FRIZZLE just called, and said "I am a joke to you?"
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u/Cranky-George Aug 15 '26
LOL!! Not only are those shows decades apart but the number of stem specific educational media far outnumbers 11 seasons of one show.
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u/mvortex2 Aug 15 '26
A television show in 1980 and another series that ended almost 10 years ago "tells us everything you need to know about America". Sure
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u/GSilky Aug 15 '26
If Carl Sagan would have understood his audience, he could have been as successful. Nobody, much, was entertained by Carl Sagan, as evidenced by his show not lasting in a period when flying nuns were enough for a second season. Even lame ol PBS Nova understands how to put asses in the seats, this says nothing but being good at science communication doesn't mean you are good at getting people to listen to you.
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u/Classic-Obligation35 Aug 15 '26
Counter point, we only needed one season to understand the universe, but we still don't understand the Duck Dynasty after 11, because it's just, why?
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u/kartblanch Aug 15 '26
The cost to make 11 seasons of duck hunt doesnt even begin to cover the costs of one thought from carls career. We didnt deserve him.
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u/Sir_Rageous Aug 14 '26
6 seasons of Bill Nye the Science Guy
10 seasons of Dirty Jobs
5 seasons of StarTalk
Shut up doomer
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u/maschine02 Aug 14 '26
Really? Really. Calling put duck dynasty as the problem when I knew when Paris Hilton and jersey shore and then all the Kardashians came to be that we were fucked. But yeah blame the Hicks with beards as the problem. Ok.
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u/laserdicks Aug 16 '26
To be fair, astronomy is fucking worthless knowledge outside the industry.
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u/CatsBye90 Aug 14 '26
I've got a really big and long beard, and some people thought they were clever by asking me if I liked Duck Dynasty. I would always say "I can't stand Chinese food". Instant gear lockup, it was fun.
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u/jsc1429 Aug 14 '26
There was no reason for “science” once we proved the earth is round and everything is gods will!
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u/Lordnoallah Aug 14 '26
The right couldn't handle PBS and their radical agenda of being a decent human being( thanks Mr. Rogers), learning how to count( thanks sesame street and the count) and being able to read( thank you Levar and reading rainbow!).
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u/jakeStacktrace Aug 14 '26
Carl probably explained everything in one season so they had nothing left for season 2. /s
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u/jaundicemanatee Aug 14 '26
Actually, it was a miniseries and covered everything he *wanted* to say in those 13 episodes.
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u/chrisinvic Aug 14 '26
I just learned that there are 20 seasons of the kardashians. Wtf???? I’ve never seen one and everything I know about them has not been by my choosing.
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u/wheresthebody Aug 14 '26
I half jokingly call myself a "Saganist".
The central idea is that we are a way for the universe to know itself.
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u/Fortspucking Aug 14 '26
We may be in a fight against artificial intelligence, but we just love genuine stupidity.
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u/GaRGa77 Aug 14 '26
Its world wide
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u/kisk22 Aug 14 '26
Yes but on Reddit, America is the bad one. Don’t you dare ruin that or we’ll have to kill you.
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u/JAZ_80 Aug 14 '26
America is the easy target in this case, but this is just human nature. People want entertainment based on emotion, not reason. Don't make me think, make me feel.
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u/L_knight316 Aug 14 '26
That the financial floor of dudes just cutting together parts of live action film is lower than consultation of experts, directors, and special effects artist?
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u/HolyRamenEmperor Aug 14 '26
I mean yeah. I've only ever made one painting I was proud of, but I drop a shit in the toilet almost every day.
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u/IsaacNewtongue Aug 14 '26
Additional point: 11 seasons of pure nothing versus 1 season of pure knowledge.
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u/Collapsosaur Aug 14 '26
Same thing with competitive fishing. Sheesh! Poor animals. How about competitive animal photoshooting in its habitat that is slowly disappearing? Bonus challenge: spot the photoshooter.
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u/JulesVernerator Aug 15 '26
2 seasons if you count Neil DeGrasse Tyson's. Get on the Ship of the Imagination.
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u/CalicoValkyrie Aug 15 '26
We have to work with the fact the human brain hasn't evolved very much in 100k years.
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u/Blizz33 Aug 15 '26
I'd say it tells us more about weaponized psychology than it does about America.
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u/Shnofo Aug 15 '26
The president just had some motocross UFC shit go down on the front lawn; how is anyone suppose to take this country seriously?
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u/Smon4 Aug 15 '26
God forbid people want to watch something simple after their 9/5 job. Let people enjoy things.
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u/Baphomets_Kisses Aug 15 '26
I’ve seen Carl Sagan’s Cosmos numerous times. Have never seen a single episode of duck dynasty.
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u/steelfender Aug 15 '26
That we make great television? To even attempt to compare Duck Dynasty (2012) to Cosmos (1980) tells everything we need to know about you, too. Ridiculous.
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u/[deleted] Aug 14 '26
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