… Total Drama on Cartoon Network:  it gives me hope for humanity.

Total Drama has various incarnations.  The first is Total Drama Island, wherein a pack of people chosen to compete on the island try to survive until the end, in order to claim a money prize.  They are typically in teams that endure challenges, and from the pool of the losers each week is selected someone to be eliminated.  Sound familiar?

But as a cartoon, Total Drama has something “real” reality TV doesn’t have – self-awareness.  It pokes fun quite skillfully at every stupid thing reality TV stars have ever done/said/experienced, highlighting so many of the things that a person might think is wrong with this world.  And that’s where the hope comes in.

If a cartoon can point it out, then that means people are in fact aware of how ridiculous it all really is.  And if people are aware of it, then more people can become aware of it (especially the impressionable youngsters who usually watch Total Drama), and then more and more people, until finally everyone realizes that reality TV – while occasionally a lot of fun – isn’t real.