Baske
05-10-2010, 11:07
[in het Engels geschreven omdat ik dit artikel allicht ook nog eens ergens anders wil publiceren mits het geluk me toelaat - gekopieerd van m'n blog en vandaar dat het format allicht kuren vertoont]
The fighting community consists mostly of men. You would expect from a community where it's testosterone levels combined would be enough to match the awesomeness of Leonidas in 300 we wouldn't be seeing any of those estrogen-filled reality soaps where anything that happens just seems way too off-charts to be reality. I'm sorry guys: we've been tricked. We do like reality soaps. It all started January 17th 2005, and it has kept us all loyal dogs from then on, 'The Ultimate Fighter' was born ...
Now don't get me misunderstood here, I love the show. I follow it like I used to follow Pokémon when I was at a younger age (that was just me trying to cover up the fact I still actively watch it, and collect the cards). TUF has brought some amazing fighters to the fight cards like Rashad Evans or Forest Griffin, just to name two. Other than that, it might very well be the UFC's best promotion tool it has, and I don't see an end coming to it any time soon. I still remember the TUF10 Team Rashad golden shorts, and how bad I want to get my hands on one of those...
It's pretty clear that TUF has been going strong ever since the amazing start it had in season 1, where Forest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar fought the argueably most spectacular UFC match to this date. It has captivated its audience by getting 2 UFC fighters to perform as coaches of two opposing teams to fight each other and score points, which by the time everyone has fought once mean about as much as the amount of people actually reading the credits at the end of a movie. After all, only 1 fighter makes it out in the end, with the whole concept being a tournament and all...
So to explain the concept a little further: 16 fighters join the show and they get put into two teams. After they fight each other 8 remain, and they keep on fighting each other until only 1 remains. The two teams both have their own coach, and to add to the awesomeness of the show, this is always a UFC fighter. Who usually also has a fight upcoming, against the other coach. The 16 fighters also live together.
Throughout the season the fighters are closely monitored by the cameras and constantly interviewed about whatever the interviewer wants to talk about. You see how they train, how they fight, how they have fun together, how they disagree with each other, get angry with each other, throw amazing tantrums, make up with each other, get angry again with each other, teaming up on one guy, you basically see everything. Do I really need to make a connection to 'As The World Turns' to make my point?
This one is different, you could say. This is reality, and it involves fighting. Yes, I would agree about the latter. The latter actually makes it worthy to watch. The former makes as much sense as the 'Fresh!' stamp they put on nearly every frozen food product: none.
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTC30oNa14daV99_LHMjfrCw9v8iBEyx IhIjjHwKVpCH9yykuA&t=1&usg=__kHf_4-NV7vP_uutzyNcKCxua1WA=
About as fresh as it gets without it being straight from nature and all...
Allow me to break down why the management of TUF has tricked our self-imposed manlihood for so long, and how we really are nothing different from our girlfriends who watch their awful soaps every damned evening:
The Nemesis
Every episode has one. This one dude that seems to lack any kind of social capabilities and seems to only be there to annoy people. Above all, he's perfectly fine with it because he believes he is the best.
As the show progresses he usually either gets a sidekick to help him in his evil plans to annoy people or gets knocked out hard so all the viewers will be relieved and will tell their fellow man how 'he had it coming'.
The Nemesis seems to totally forget he doesn't have any contract yet whatsoever, and if he really wanted this contract acting like a total asshole would probably not be the most clever way to impress your future employer. Then again, if you can annoy the shit out of people, who cares about a six-figure contract and fame like you've never witnessed before?
http://www.squabbles.com/images/JAMIE%20YAGER.png
Didn't you just want to see him get beat into submission? Oh wait...
http://www.cdn.sherdog.com/_images/fighter/20091008044902_krismccray.JPG
And this poser... Yes sir, it doesn't get more Savage than your neatly shaved goatee and your nicely cut mohawk!
The Good Guy
The dude that seems to have really lived through a struggle, and is now getting his life back together. The perfect teammate and the best friend. He does seem really fond of throwing out the story of how he overcame his drug addiction into the media, taking every opportunity he can get. This way we only get to emphasize more and respect him more, if his fists can't do enough talking. After all, that's why we're watching in the end, is it? All those who just knodded 'yes': go to Hell, you liar.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/images/sidebar/115465.jpg
How can you not like this guy?!
The Good and the Bad Coach
There will always be one sympathetic coach, and one who only seems to care about winning this useless competition. Don't get me wrong, both coaches seem to be driven on winning this thing, but the bad coach forgets about all the rest. Sportivity goes out the window as he does his best to ruin the other team's day constantly, rather than just focussing on his things, like any real person would do in this situation.
And since doing mean things is what bad coaches do, why not just take it up a knotch and actually start hurting someone's feelings for the sake of... What, actually?
http://www.blitzcorner.com/uploads/medium/medium_Darrill_Schoonover_Is_pissed_at_Rampage_Jac kson_and_wants_to_kick_his_ass.jpg
Although, admittedly, it was kinda funny.
The Whiner
The dude that just doesn't seem to cut it mentally. He keeps on telling the audience all these kind of excuses, why he can't fight, but he wants to. Then, because the audience consists of stupid goats that can't understand the fact he might be lying, the show interviews all other fighters in the house and they all make clear how much of a whiner he actually is. This is then backed up by video footage of the guy whining and thus obviously being a douchebag who really shouldn't be on the show.
We all now secretly hope he gets punched out for being such a douchebag for lying to us, or Dana White just removes him from the show to add to the spectacle.
http://www.cdn.sherdog.com/_images/fighter/20091207012806_mattmitrione.JPG
At least he hits hard...
Fortunate coincidences
I mean, just imagine: what if Tito Ortiz dropped out of TUF and his team would actually be named Team Ortiz? Boy, would that be silly. Thankfully, unlike it has álways been before, Tito conveniently 'chose' to make the team's name Team Punishment at the beginning of the season. Because you 'punish yourself to punish others'. Can I get an 'Aoeh!' in 300-style here, please? At least there were no problems when he got sacked by Dana White and got replaced by a different coach; Rich Franklin.
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:7QdJxqtPy-_FYM:http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/7461/2ns1gt0jpg.gif&t=1
Douchebag...
Conclusion
If I were asked to conclude this article into one sentence, I would simply point out the already obvious: TUF is far from reality. Now, just to avoid official remarks on this article, I will mention it is 'according to my opinion'.
Now with this new knowledge in your head, go ahead and watch TUF12. Without having seen it, I can already guarantee that said factors will be included.
It's been made fairly clear that I'm not much of a fan of the perception we call 'reality tv' nowadays. It leads to a warped image of reality from potential viewers, and it's straight-out lying. I do however love to see the guys train and eventually fight, and for this reason I have continued watching TUF all these seasons, and likely will continue for many to come.
Also, mr. White: I wouldn't mind doing some stupid acting to potentially get a six-figure contract presented to me... So... Where do I sign up?
The fighting community consists mostly of men. You would expect from a community where it's testosterone levels combined would be enough to match the awesomeness of Leonidas in 300 we wouldn't be seeing any of those estrogen-filled reality soaps where anything that happens just seems way too off-charts to be reality. I'm sorry guys: we've been tricked. We do like reality soaps. It all started January 17th 2005, and it has kept us all loyal dogs from then on, 'The Ultimate Fighter' was born ...
Now don't get me misunderstood here, I love the show. I follow it like I used to follow Pokémon when I was at a younger age (that was just me trying to cover up the fact I still actively watch it, and collect the cards). TUF has brought some amazing fighters to the fight cards like Rashad Evans or Forest Griffin, just to name two. Other than that, it might very well be the UFC's best promotion tool it has, and I don't see an end coming to it any time soon. I still remember the TUF10 Team Rashad golden shorts, and how bad I want to get my hands on one of those...
It's pretty clear that TUF has been going strong ever since the amazing start it had in season 1, where Forest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar fought the argueably most spectacular UFC match to this date. It has captivated its audience by getting 2 UFC fighters to perform as coaches of two opposing teams to fight each other and score points, which by the time everyone has fought once mean about as much as the amount of people actually reading the credits at the end of a movie. After all, only 1 fighter makes it out in the end, with the whole concept being a tournament and all...
So to explain the concept a little further: 16 fighters join the show and they get put into two teams. After they fight each other 8 remain, and they keep on fighting each other until only 1 remains. The two teams both have their own coach, and to add to the awesomeness of the show, this is always a UFC fighter. Who usually also has a fight upcoming, against the other coach. The 16 fighters also live together.
Throughout the season the fighters are closely monitored by the cameras and constantly interviewed about whatever the interviewer wants to talk about. You see how they train, how they fight, how they have fun together, how they disagree with each other, get angry with each other, throw amazing tantrums, make up with each other, get angry again with each other, teaming up on one guy, you basically see everything. Do I really need to make a connection to 'As The World Turns' to make my point?
This one is different, you could say. This is reality, and it involves fighting. Yes, I would agree about the latter. The latter actually makes it worthy to watch. The former makes as much sense as the 'Fresh!' stamp they put on nearly every frozen food product: none.
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTC30oNa14daV99_LHMjfrCw9v8iBEyx IhIjjHwKVpCH9yykuA&t=1&usg=__kHf_4-NV7vP_uutzyNcKCxua1WA=
About as fresh as it gets without it being straight from nature and all...
Allow me to break down why the management of TUF has tricked our self-imposed manlihood for so long, and how we really are nothing different from our girlfriends who watch their awful soaps every damned evening:
The Nemesis
Every episode has one. This one dude that seems to lack any kind of social capabilities and seems to only be there to annoy people. Above all, he's perfectly fine with it because he believes he is the best.
As the show progresses he usually either gets a sidekick to help him in his evil plans to annoy people or gets knocked out hard so all the viewers will be relieved and will tell their fellow man how 'he had it coming'.
The Nemesis seems to totally forget he doesn't have any contract yet whatsoever, and if he really wanted this contract acting like a total asshole would probably not be the most clever way to impress your future employer. Then again, if you can annoy the shit out of people, who cares about a six-figure contract and fame like you've never witnessed before?
http://www.squabbles.com/images/JAMIE%20YAGER.png
Didn't you just want to see him get beat into submission? Oh wait...
http://www.cdn.sherdog.com/_images/fighter/20091008044902_krismccray.JPG
And this poser... Yes sir, it doesn't get more Savage than your neatly shaved goatee and your nicely cut mohawk!
The Good Guy
The dude that seems to have really lived through a struggle, and is now getting his life back together. The perfect teammate and the best friend. He does seem really fond of throwing out the story of how he overcame his drug addiction into the media, taking every opportunity he can get. This way we only get to emphasize more and respect him more, if his fists can't do enough talking. After all, that's why we're watching in the end, is it? All those who just knodded 'yes': go to Hell, you liar.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/images/sidebar/115465.jpg
How can you not like this guy?!
The Good and the Bad Coach
There will always be one sympathetic coach, and one who only seems to care about winning this useless competition. Don't get me wrong, both coaches seem to be driven on winning this thing, but the bad coach forgets about all the rest. Sportivity goes out the window as he does his best to ruin the other team's day constantly, rather than just focussing on his things, like any real person would do in this situation.
And since doing mean things is what bad coaches do, why not just take it up a knotch and actually start hurting someone's feelings for the sake of... What, actually?
http://www.blitzcorner.com/uploads/medium/medium_Darrill_Schoonover_Is_pissed_at_Rampage_Jac kson_and_wants_to_kick_his_ass.jpg
Although, admittedly, it was kinda funny.
The Whiner
The dude that just doesn't seem to cut it mentally. He keeps on telling the audience all these kind of excuses, why he can't fight, but he wants to. Then, because the audience consists of stupid goats that can't understand the fact he might be lying, the show interviews all other fighters in the house and they all make clear how much of a whiner he actually is. This is then backed up by video footage of the guy whining and thus obviously being a douchebag who really shouldn't be on the show.
We all now secretly hope he gets punched out for being such a douchebag for lying to us, or Dana White just removes him from the show to add to the spectacle.
http://www.cdn.sherdog.com/_images/fighter/20091207012806_mattmitrione.JPG
At least he hits hard...
Fortunate coincidences
I mean, just imagine: what if Tito Ortiz dropped out of TUF and his team would actually be named Team Ortiz? Boy, would that be silly. Thankfully, unlike it has álways been before, Tito conveniently 'chose' to make the team's name Team Punishment at the beginning of the season. Because you 'punish yourself to punish others'. Can I get an 'Aoeh!' in 300-style here, please? At least there were no problems when he got sacked by Dana White and got replaced by a different coach; Rich Franklin.
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:7QdJxqtPy-_FYM:http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/7461/2ns1gt0jpg.gif&t=1
Douchebag...
Conclusion
If I were asked to conclude this article into one sentence, I would simply point out the already obvious: TUF is far from reality. Now, just to avoid official remarks on this article, I will mention it is 'according to my opinion'.
Now with this new knowledge in your head, go ahead and watch TUF12. Without having seen it, I can already guarantee that said factors will be included.
It's been made fairly clear that I'm not much of a fan of the perception we call 'reality tv' nowadays. It leads to a warped image of reality from potential viewers, and it's straight-out lying. I do however love to see the guys train and eventually fight, and for this reason I have continued watching TUF all these seasons, and likely will continue for many to come.
Also, mr. White: I wouldn't mind doing some stupid acting to potentially get a six-figure contract presented to me... So... Where do I sign up?