So the premise of Big Brother is provide an avenue to attain overnight fame and celebrity. There’s nothing wrong with that. But so far, t...
So the premise of Big Brother is provide an avenue to attain overnight fame and celebrity. There’s nothing wrong with that.
But so far, this year’s Big Brother Naija has been nothing other than – as journalist Olumide Iyanda aptly put it on Twitter, soft porn featuring hardcore simpletons.
The allure of N25m and a brand new automobile is obviously enough for the housemates to subject themselves to 78 days of being locked in a virtual cage, providing entertainment for millions of viewers.
At its core, Big Brother itself is an unintelligent form of entertainment that requires no form of intellectual exertion.
Unlike, say The Amazing Race or our own Ultimate Search, other reality television shows of its kind, all it wants from its contestants is to be docile and say ‘Yes Big Brother’ each time the disembodied voice floats from within the walls; and as a bonus, nudity – and sex – is very welcome.
Now, one is not a prude. But the needless nudity of Big Brother is crass, unwholesome and distracting.
If one wants to partake in the benefits and satisfaction that can be gotten from porn, there are a few websites that can help fulfill one’s desires. Plus such pornographic material would be well shot and directed with a capable cast.
Not be assailed by the cheap and amateur imitation that is the current iteration of Big Brother Nigeria. Even without its infamous Shower Hour, the show reeks of a seedy stripper joint with unwilling strippers and horny patrons.
Unlike in many of its other contemporaries, the housemates of Big Brother Naija spend the whole of the day lazying around and not engaging in any productive tasks. Oh, there are tasks. Just not productive or meaningful tasks.
So you camp a bunch of previously sexually active 20-somethings in a house with no contact with the outside world and of course you can expect shenanigans to occur.
But when such shenanigans become the entire thrust of the programme, it begs the question of what really the show is all about.
From what obviously started as a social experiment, Big Brother Naija has become an experiment to see how long Nigerian youth can wait until they lose clothing and home training for the lucre of money. //
