Last night I decided to sit down and watch some TV, no reason except I was bored and there wasn’t much else to do. I turn it on, and lo and behold, the Teen Choice Awards are on, intrigued by this title, I decided to try a bit of it. I mean, I’m a teen right? So why wouldn’t I enjoy them if they’re geared exactly towards me? Well, its not actually an awards show for the average teen boy…
I have a whole list of what was wrong with it, so I’ll break this up into categories…
Presentation
Basically, the whole show was performed in this stadium with enough lights to give an eppileptic a seizure. This was just a hint at the terrible performances and awards to come though. First off, they chose the Jonas Brothers to lead the show. Yes, thats right, the terrible band from the disney channel that only has a following of girls under the age of 15. Now, this would be all good and well for the “Kids Choice Awards”, but why on earth would 13-19 year old boys want anything to do with the Jonas Brothers? I consider a teen as anyone from the ages of 13-19, and these hosts only appeal to girls from the ages of 5-17, not exactly the audience as indicated in the title. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the way that Miley Cyrus acted and dressed. While she was performing whatever god awful song that won “Best Music Single”, there were quite a few moments where I was just thinking “How did her dad let her do all this, and be able to watch it?”. Let me name off what bothered me, the revealing clothes, to say the least, were reminiscent of Britney Spears when she was younger, and we all know how that turned out. Plus, there was the oddly placed pole on top of a certain ice cream truck that would normally be used by strippers, though luckily, she had the decency not to actually try to dance.
The Awards
Ok, so the presentation wasn’t fitting to our average teen boy, but shouldn’t the awards accurately represent what we enjoy? Lets check the movies first… lets see, Twilight wins best drama, romance, and every acting award its nominated for. I wouldn’t exactly consider this the consensus of any of the teen guys I know. So obviously, girls voted a lot more… Marley and Me wins the best “Bromantic Comedy”, which isn’t exactly a fair vote since pretty much, all the other movies in the category are rated “R”, and we all know how America is trying to sheild us from the real world. I think that anyone who has actually seen Tropic Thunder, or The Hangover, agree that they are hilarious, not exactly what I’ve heard about Marley and Me. One other problem I saw with the movie category was that Liam Neeson was lacking in the “Best Action Star” nominations. Taken was easily the best action film of the year so far, and Neeson was just so awesome in that role, but he doesn’t even get a chance? This goes into what my biggest complaint about this Awards show is, that its not even about the TALENT, its basically a popularity contest for who the tween girls like the best. If Ben Stiller and Will Ferrel, two of the most popular comedians in movies today, lose to Zac Efron for Best Comedy Actor, then you know somethings up. The other thing that erked me, was that when Slumdog Millionaire, one of the best films of the decade, was nominated for “Best Fresh Face”, it lost to Twilight SECONDARY CHARACTERS! Thats right, two leads in one of the best movies of the decade lost to secondary characters in a category pretty much built for them. Again, it goes back to the coddling of us. My last little rant abut the movie awards, is that the actors were the ones who recieved the surfboards when the movie won one of the Best __Â Categories. Shouldn’t the person/people who actually made the movie recieve the award, like the producers or directors? No, just the people who were in front of the camera are rewarded.
T.V. awards were basically the same, except an odd number of Disney shows kept appearing… and winning. I hardly know anyone older than 15 who actually watches Hannah Montana regularly, not to mention that all of said people are also girls, not reflecting the teenage male’s opinion in the matters.
I didn’t realize what a lack of good music we have in this generation until that category started coming up. The only names in there I’ve heard and can stand are Jason Mraz and Green Day, thank god Mraz at least won a few, but other than that, Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers just kept popping up.
The other random awards were pretty much pointless, ranging from the “gay” award to the “hottie” awards.
Look, while I hate the results and the lack of good nominees for the most part, I was mostly just dissappointed in the title “Teen Choice Awards”. If you want a real awards show for us, please actually weed out the 11 year old girls who did pretty much all the voting, or just change the name of the show so I don’t have to feel the least bit involved in the winners.
Ah-ha. I think I know why you didn’t like the show; you have a brain.
But seriously, you have to realize that there’s a trend in the media regarding the age of actors and viewers. Most shows aimed at teens (even some claiming to star teens) usually involve actors who, frankly, are no longer teens. It’s the same with kids shows like “that’s so raven” and the aforementioned “Hannah Montana”; the stars are usually at least 3-5 years older than the targeted audience.
So basically when anything is advertised as a “teen” show or movie or awards show, it really means pre-teen, with a minority of viewers actually between the age of 13-17.
You also have to realize that the producers actually picked all of the winners, the voting really had nothing to do with it. (: