A while ago we blogged about this picture of Vishwanath Anand and model Carmen Kass playing chess.
While calling for caption nominations for this photo, Ennis suggested “Beauty and the Geek.” That desi men are portrayed as geeks/dorks/nerds isn’t a surprise. Afterall, there are many of us that possess a high degree of intellect, but lack an equal level of social grace. This often makes mingling with members of the opposite sex, or anyone for that matter, quite difficult and awkward. It seems that Ashton Kutcher and his Punk’d buddy and co-creator Adam Goldberg are playing on this stereotype in the second season of their apparently successful, and aptly titled reality show, “Beauty and the Geek,” which airs on the WB. The new season, which will begin airing at 9 pm, on Thursday January 12, apparently features a sepia geek, Ankur, an MIT graduate and his sex-kitten-partner Jennipher, who while learning the various ways one can spell Jennifer, spends her time as a camp counselor.
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To shave or not to shave, that is the question. |
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p>The show features a group of eight women who are “academically impaired” and eight men who are “brilliant, but socially challenged.”
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Couples are paired up for a chance to win a $250,000 grand prize. This time, however, each mismatched pair competes in brand new activities designed to test intellect, fashion savvy and social skills. The guys are assigned to make over a room, while the girls do their best to assemble a computer. There’s a karaoke session for the men, and a political debate for the ladies. The girls also do a makeover on the guys, then let them test out their new looks during a session of speed-dating. Finally, the whole group travels to Las Vegas for a highly unusual game of strip poker. During these competitions, the geek tries to pass his brains on to the beauty, while the beauty tries to turn the geek into a hottie. At the end, each contestant comes out a changed person, and everyone has their eyes on the prize of $250.000.
I haven’t seen the show so I can’t really speak to the quality of it, but Manish did mention Geek when talking about bad reality tv in this post. So set your tivo at your own risk.
alright i’m tired and cranky…
so my comment is… did anyone notice that he basically has a circle of facial hair…
unibrow–eyebrows–beard? it is a circle!!!
hehe.. he does have a circle.. sounds like a lame show (sorry)…
i think reality shows have become pretty much an annoyance now (well besides the staple survivor, amazing race, and trumps apprentice..) all others are basically a load of moldy icky bread… blah…
thank god for the new shows which are pretty good this year.. how i met your mother, to my name is earl… not a big fan of greys anatomy (although it has a large following–guess being in the med profession and knowing what a farce this show is biases my opinion…scrubs my dears is truly the most real medic show out there)..
i don’t think this show will last until the last episode… it might play out sooner than it hopes too.. just my 2 cents.. cheers!
flipped to the show by accident once, couldn’t bear to watch it for more than 30 seconds…ankur actually looks quite charming though (provided he loses the circle of hair)
i watched a couple episodes last time .. pretty unbearable. Though the trivia round is hilarious when the girls are answering the questions.
Whether they feature desis or not, reality shows like above mentioned are truly torturous to watch. Dude need to get some razors and trimmers and a serious haircut. On second thoughts if those feature can get you a partner like Jennipher, where should I sign up?
It is a pretty lame show. I saw some of the first season and it was by God’s mercy I didn’t shoot myself. Who knew nerds could create so much drama?
People will do anything for money and people will be made to do anything for money.
I mean honestly, reality shows just make you feel good. Who in their right mind would eat worms ? Or do stuff like make over a room when you know you suck balls at it???
The reason the show sucks is that Ashton Kutcher dreamed it up.
i’ll take Vishwanath Anand. camren is just scray.
so on this show, the women are the “unintellectual” ones while the men are all “brainy”? or are there also geeky women and beautiful men playing?
sparky, it will never be the other way around…don’t you know anything about tv? ugly male characters are sympathetic and deserve a chance, ugly women are…well, just unwatchable.
case in point, i read an la times article a while back that said nbc was optioning a show called “plain jane” (basically the opp. of average joe) but decided to drop it b/c they realized no one wants to watch a show about ugly girls unless there’s an extreme makeover involved, and that’s already been done ad nauseum.
i think men and women agree with me on this: ugly women don’t sell and have no place on tv, but ugly overweight guys like drew carey and that king of queens dude should be given their own tv shows. that’s just the market. no screaming feminist can change that. 😉
Aww, man. I loved the show. I am embarrassed to say, I don’t think I missed one show last season. Mind you, I was in post election mind-numbness mode, but the joys of letting your brain melt away while watching this show, priceless. Plus, I got some sort of sadistic pleasure in seeing pretty girls not be able to spell.
There was a desi guy on the last season’s show, right?
Excuses excuses
hmm maybe…though screaming feminists (and screaming people of color, etc)have changed aspects of society that at the time seemed unshakable (slavery, the right to vote)
someone emailed me askign why greys anatomy wasn’t real..
um.. nobody watches surgeries and fights for them… residents don’t go sleeping around with their attendings.. (well they might, but it’s not wiht all this drama).. seriously.. all surgical residents care about… is finding enough time to sleep and drink after their work day 🙂
scrubs on the other hand, are seriously the situations we face daily.. the random fights wtih the staff, nurses, and cleaning people… to thinking of random scenarios while checking patients.. that is the true reality….
okay, off to the airport… happy holidays!
In Vancouver, B.C., where I live, and the vast majority of “East Indians” are Sikhs, nobody, but nobody, stereotypes them as geeks and nerds. The stereotypes (which are decaying, as the children of immigrants become upwardly mobile) are dump truck drivers, lumber mill workers, and gangstas.
As for ugly women on TV, seems to me Roseanne did pretty well for herself. It’s not that the market isn’t there for average-woman content. The problem, I think, is the inculcating of desire. Advertisers want shows that make women think they’re not measuring up, so they’ll buy the many high-markup products that are designed to make them “feel better about themselves.” Advertisers do not want shows that tell women it’s OK to be average, or fat, or plain.
I think it’s also worth pointing out that the smart guy/ditzy girl dynamic is probably a lot more entertaining than the smart girl/meathead guy dynamic. Try to picture it, if you will: plain but really smart girls are paired with thick-necked Miller-Lite-swilling “dumb jock” types. Ditzy girls often take the “pity” stance towards nerdy guys (“awww, he’s so cute and hopeless, and I’m a nice person if I’m nice to him! ::giggle::”), and the nerdy guys think…well, think the ditzy girls are hot (didn’t the nerdy guys in your high school have the weird habit of putting the class hot girl or head cheerleader on this big ridiculous pedestal, wanting to “save her” and all that bs?). On the other hand, the jock guys would probably just mercilessly make fun of the plain girls and the smart girls would basically have no patience for the stupid guys and decide that such idiocy is not worth their time. Neither team member would be remotely interested in pleasing the other, just on the $250,000, and they’d be stuck with the guy thinking she’s a dog and the girl thinking he’s a waste of oxygen for weeks on end.
…actually, I’d watch that.
I love the show… I think it’s funny! I can’t wait to see season 2 because I went to middle school with Ankur. We had math class together and I was always in constant competition with him. He was a year younger, so I’ll have to admit that he was smarter! hahaha….