Big Brother 06 - Frequently Annoying Questions

It's that time of year again - and as the excitement mounts, so does the incomprehension. For the benefit of fans of Big Brother who are weary of defending it, here are the answers to some of the Frequent Annoying Questions about it. I welcome further questions and answers and embellishments of all kinds.

1. Big Brother is crap

EG - the Australian Family Association says Big Brother is "banal sewage pumped into our living room", and that “While chennel 10 is making money, Big Brother can do no wrong. Now is the time to strile on censorship, Big Brother is the right battle, and the sponsors are the right targets.”

Sure it's crap. Of course it's generally banal. But try to pick your friends wisely - if you think AFA is taking time out of its busy abortion-opposing schedule for a one-off Big Brother campaign, think again. They like LOTS of censorship, and think “There is an urgent need to have mandatory filtering out of pornography by Internet Service Providers.”

Also, I find it difficult to accept being told what I should watch by someone who can’t spell or write proper. That might just be me.

2. "I have to say that I am really surprised (shocked?) that intelligent people of the type who post and comment at LP actually watch Big Brother."

Well, you should get out more.

3. You’re … you’re all hooked on BB trash!!

Probably. We do tend to get a little overexcited at the beginning of a new series, but familiarity eventually breeds contempt. Many of us get bored in the middle of the season, but get back into it by the end.

4. The housemates are stupid exhibitionists and you do them no favours by watching.

The housemates usually are stupid exhibitionists. Indeed, that is rather the point. A voyeuristic show based on cringing introverts doesn't have much in the way of va-va-voom, does it?

And you read blogs because of your deep aversion to voyeurism, right?

5. BB relies purely and simply on purient titillation and the standard conventions of soapie character identification.

Yeah, pretty much. We know this stuff. And We Still Like It.

6. It's not as good as (reality genre show of choice).

Survivor is better than BB. Temptation Island was also thoroughly excellent viewing. All other reality shows are more crap than BB.

Update: comicstriphero justifies her love, and here's my attempt at explaining the BB appeal from last year (comments are still there, haloscan just pretends you don't have any after a few months, even if you cough up for a premium membership)