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Average Joe: degrading, yet entertaining

Average Joe is the latest reality TV show to hit the airwaves. The premise is that Melana, a very attractive former NFL cheerleader, will get to pick from sixteen eligible single guys. She says that personality is more important than looks, so for lying in order to sound politically correct, she gets exactly what she asked for. Sixteen guys with, we assume, good (or at least interesting) personalities, but who are lacking in the looks department. Despite the name of the show, Average Joe, these guys range from a little below average to downright ugly.

I expected to hate the show like I've hated all other reality shows I've seen. But I was surprised to discover that I actually enjoyed the show and I'm looking forward to the second episode on Monday night. What's going on here? Have my tastes in entertainment sunk to the lowest common denominator? Will I take up bowling and hunting next week?

I guess the reason I like the show is that the Average Joes have a genuine realness to them that past reality show participants lacked. In Joe Millionaire, I really didn't care the least bit which of sixteen good looking women the good looking Joe Millionaire would pick. Those people already had everything going for them, so who cared who won and who lost?

The premise of Average Joe isn't original. The concept of reality shows certainly isn't original. The concept of a bunch of loser guys winning the beautiful girls reminded me of the 1980s movie Revenge of the Nerds. Average Joe reminded me of that movie before I watched the first episode where one of the Average Joes mentions that particular movie. And that, in turn, reminds me of the scene from the 2000 movie Boiler Room where the characters reverentially watch the much better 1980s movie Wall Street.

I imagine that feminists will say the same thing about Average Joe that they said about Revenge of the Nerds. That the show tells us that it's okay for a man to be less than good looking, but that the only acceptable women must look like NFL cheerleaders. Does Average Joe create unreasonable expectations in nerdy, ugly men, that if they wait around long enough they will eventually be picked to participate in a reality TV show where they will have a chance to get the same kind of gorgeous woman that the quarterbacks usually get?

Are the guys on the show being glorified, or are they the butt of a really mean-spirited joke? I think the answer is the latter. And the basis for this conclusion is the scene where they are made to stand before the cameras with their shirts off, and we have to watch the cameras move in close, with a wide angle lens, so we can see how awful these men look. The producers of Average Joe couldn't even let them participate in the show yet still retain at least a small scrap of dignity.

Unlike Joe Millionaire, where he would chose which women he wanted to stay, Melana has to pick which men she wants to get rid of. The purpose of this is to add to the sting of rejection they have to suffer.

At least I give the show credit for exposing what women today really value in men. Hint: it's not intelligence or having a good job that they value, because the men on the show have that and they are losers with women. Melana said, when she thought the camera wasn't recording her, that "95%" of them weren't her "type". And that she'd normally pretend she had a boyfriend if someone like the Average Joes asked her out.

At the end of the first episode, I was somewhat surprised to discover that of the four guys that Melana rejected, three of them were among the better looking of the group. My thoughts here are that she didn't want to hurt the feelings of the horribly ugly and undateable by rejecting them first. And she didn't reject any of what I consider to be the nerdy group, so maybe a nerd will win again just like in the series of 1980s nerd movies. I am shamefully looking forward to the next episode.

posted Saturday, November 08, 2003