PUBLIC REALITY SHOW

I remember May 2001, when the first reality show bomb exploded in Hungary.

 

 

 

Few had heard of it, but those who did, loved the genre, as the first big hit of a then low-budget, just-launched commercial channel.

It was a huge success, laying the foundation for Viasat 3 that it still builds upon today. It didn't take long for the sequel, because what makes a big splash on a small scale becomes a deafening thunder on a large scale. TV2 knew this too, and immediately ordered three seasons from Endemol. Then, following unprecedented promotion, Big Brother launched on September 1, 2002, on a national commercial channel. Preparations for Való Világ were already well underway, but the show was originally planned to launch only on December 1st. Big Brother exploded, generating unprecedented viewership numbers; literally the whole country was watching it. The situation at the time is well characterized by the fact that more people searched for the word "bigbrother" than for "sex". This hadn't happened in living memory, and not just in Hungary.

The detonation was so massive that it covered everything and everyone, whether they wanted it or not. Newspapers were full of it, and it was all that played on TV. Even the fledgling internet sites of the time featured the antics of Renato or Zsanett among their top news. Sociologists and ethologists analyzed the show, and the 24/7 stream was still inaccessible two weeks after its launch. There simply wasn't a server big enough to handle the load, even though the number of internet subscribers at the time was a tenth of what it is now.

The shrapnel from the explosion reached everywhere, flying so far that it lodged in the mind of Attila Árpa, then the all-powerful director of RTL, who moved up the planned December launch of Való Világ by three months, starting it on September 11th with Majka and his crew. RTL had no other choice, as Big Brother crushed every show launched against it, no matter what the biggest commercial garbage collector put up. But with this, an unprecedented flood of filth began. Exactly one year after the collapse of the WTC, certain walls and barriers collapsed here too, only in our case it wasn't a building, but the already crumbling pillars of ethics and morality that toppled. I believe that Való Világ and the two major commercial channels have greatly contributed to the current chaotic cesspool of society, of course, alongside the catastrophic decline of Hungarian education. RTL is responsible for the moral decay of an entire generation, a generation to which I also belong, because it served as a model for a behavior and ideology that is commonly referred to as the everyday stream of shit. Moreover, it did this so successfully that there are no words left for the generation growing up after me, but let's just call them the night noize generation.

Thousands of articles have already been written on this topic, about the appearance of reality shows in Hungary, and I am convinced that all negative epithets have already been listed before me, so repetition is unnecessary. However, it would be hypocritical and foolish to say that the 10-14 people per season are responsible for all the Sodom-like conditions here, no matter how extreme the personality types selected for such shows. Because, let's face it, similar situations and life circumstances occur in 70 percent of households. For anyone who says that's not the case in their home, just look into another room. Not to mention family lunches, especially when the word "family" can hardly be applied to some formations. The only difference is that the camera isn't rolling. These shows are mirrors of society; one could say we work with existing material, because if we didn't watch them, they would disappear into the 1 AM time slot in moments, if they weren't thanked for their participation beforehand (though 2.0).

It's very trendy not to watch reality TV, from "I don't own a TV" people (whose favorite channel is National Geographic, by the way), to my Facebook friends who genuinely don't watch it, BUT oh my god, what a comeback that was from Szandika, all the way to marketing manager assholes who "don't have time for such crap," even though 3 minutes earlier they joined the "Walk Like Alekosz World Day" group. Everyone watches it, because as long as the show consistently pulls over 40% in the 18-49 age demographic, resulting in an average viewership of 880,000, there's nothing to talk about. And this is just a survey conducted in the 18-49 age group!!!!!!!

I was thinking that I hear fewer and fewer of my acquaintances say, "Oh my God, dude, did you hear this?" — with the exception of Zsófi and Ildi's evergreen quotes.

I only eat the egg whites because the yolk is a child. I would never eat a child, but the whites are amniotic fluid, so I eat that.

I can eat chicken breast because it's not an animal, it's chicken breast.

When was World War II? 19th century. Oh, no. 1918.

But let's not forget Ágica's classic, since then we know Villon was a football player.

Besides these, there are plenty of other events that should periodically blow a fuse. I'm thinking of today's episode, where Olivér and a tampon were the main characters. But there have been at least thirty such instances in the past two months, yet I see no condescending facepalm articles, no protest groups on Facebook (even though what's not there isn't a problem, or doesn't exist), not even a miserable 140-character rant on Twitter. What happened to us? Because back in 2003, at least sociologists, parents, and outraged viewers protested and demanded the show be canceled. Can you recall even a single 2-minute penalty imposed on Való Világ? Yet, if Ice-T was too much for Anna Szalai and her yapping followers, then VV4 should be plowed under. Has society become so indifferent to everything, or does Való Világ simply operate within more consolidated frameworks? I hardly believe the latter is the correct answer.

However, in today's episode, the editorial team of VV4 did something that I believe has not happened in the series' 8-year history, when they came up with "study week." A flawless idea, which I can only support. During prime time, in a show watched by millions, something happens that, even if minimally, at least shows some positive movement and tries to educate. Because there is a segment of the audience that not only accepts everything that happens to the villa residents without question, but actually adores it. This country desperately needs to see a model, even if in a light version, where a teacher demands respect and discipline, and that learning is indeed important. It was good to see the joy on the face of a completely degenerate 20-year-old pole dancer who managed to solve a math problem, even though I believe that a pole dancer's consumer girl's values and the concept of joy start somewhere completely different. I'm not saying hats off, RTL, because after releasing a sea of crap, the problem cannot be fixed with a drop of Domestos.

The boundaries have shifted because media moguls have realized two very important things. Negative publicity generates more buzz and attracts more viewers than anything else (we can thank Attila Árpa for this, his beneficial work was needed for this view to spread), and that there is no scandal or social pressure that can dislodge those in power from their positions; their untouchability is outright unquestionable. Let's examine the past a little more deeply and find the root of how it is possible that Stohl "cocaine" András appears on screen during prime time day after day, in a way that hardly bothers anyone anymore.

Let's proceed chronologically. We could go back to the sham transition to democracy, force majeure, the billions at Bős-Nagymaros, the complete lack of accountability for communist leaders, the scandalous MDF government, all the way to the Békesi-Bokros nightmare era. It's unnecessary, because there are plenty of events of such significance, followed daily by society, that slowly but surely chipped away at people's nervous systems and plunged them into the darkest pit of apathy. The fact that blatant crimes and screaming embezzlements simply went unpunished paved the way for our "we can do anything" attitude.

Let's start the illustrious list with Gábor Princz, former head of Postabank. He casually embezzled 35 billion forints back in 1997, when the forint was worth somewhat more than it is now. Just for your information, this would be roughly 180-200 billion in today's money. It's not important; anyone who doesn't believe it can do the math.

The verdict: a 3.6 million forint fine. No, don't do the math. It's damn little. Even less than that. Especially if we consider that Princz's salary was 8.8 million forints at the time, and there has been some inflation since then. The three secondary defendants received a 1.5 million forint fine each. Moreover, all four of them together have to pay the 3 million forint cost of the trial. A huge loss. They could find triple these amounts at home in a forgotten briefcase while cleaning. The amount is ridiculous, it would be hard to sink lower morally, and indeed this is perhaps the most brazen public stunt in Hungarian public life of all time, but let's stay in '97. I don't know if you notice, but elections were approaching then, and by the end of the term, as per good socialist custom, stockpiling began in case of a potentially leaner period.

The Tocsik case. The madame of the great privatization business after the change of regime in '98. Her success fee alone was 804 million forints. Her role was pivotal in privatizing large state-owned companies, to which she lent her name as a lawyer and authenticated the contracts. Naturally, this was done for a fraction of the market price, thus defrauding the Hungarian state of hundreds of billions of forints. She didn't orchestrate the grand rip-off; she merely legalized the industrial-scale theft of state assets on paper. Not surprisingly, the threads reached the highest political circles. Another fantastic move from the MSZP–SZDSZ colleagues. The verdict was delivered in 2002, under the Orbán government. For mismanagement, she was sentenced to 4 years in prison and forfeiture of 640 million forints by the Supreme Court. Then, after the change of government, her cronies came, and under a renewed MSZP–SZDSZ government, she was acquitted of most charges. The new verdict stated she could KEEP 80 million and had to repay 562 million. Let's have no doubt that plenty of people helped her out.

The Császár Előd case. 1998, the first real tabloid tragedy, when a then-popular singer, under the influence of drugs, crashed into a police car and killed a 25-year-old police officer. I don't know if the situation sounds familiar from recent times. The verdict was bullshit. A suspended prison sentence. And what's happening now? Under the name Shane 54, he's laughing his way through Europe with his show called Laptop DJ, and as a celebrity, he's participating in dinner party competitions. AREN'T YOU GOING TO GET LOST?

Kulcsár story, 2003. The biggest brokerage fraud with the active cooperation of K&H Bank management, taking 23 billion from the pockets of the state and private individuals. It involved everything: embezzlement, forgery of public and private documents, violation of every existing banking rule, fraud, and mismanagement. Then, when the PSZÁF (Hungarian Financial Supervisory Authority) started investigating what the hell was going on with the acquisition of Pannonplast shares, the system collapsed. They desperately tried to cover up the case, the beating of Károly Szász was the icing on the cake, but the avalanche could no longer be stopped. The pumping out of money, as in all cases where money is siphoned off at an industrial level, always had, and still has, politics and the ruling parties in the background, to whom or whose companies the money indirectly flowed. The first-instance verdict was 8 years in prison, overturned on appeal, and the trial is still ongoing. Tibor E. Rejtő was acquitted. After all, he was only the CEO of K&H Bank at the time.

[youtube-embed id="OWRHGGSya-4"]

2006 shattered all moral barriers, all our faith in public and legal order, following the legendary Öszöd speech. Everyone knows the story and the process it triggered. The civil war atmosphere was cooled down by an overwhelming Fidesz victory in local elections, but all our faith related to public life, all state institutions, was broken here. The verdict was April 25, 2010.

I could list even bigger acts of filth here: BKV scandals (only Miklós Hagyó is arrested for parizer so far), tunnels built on plains, viaducts over the Great Hungarian Plain, highways built at 8-12 times the price, tenders awarded to crony companies, and I haven't even mentioned the 600 billion of the M4 metro, which isn't even half finished!!!!!!

Now, after all this, are we surprised if an András Stohl, who caused an accident while completely high on cocaine and drunk, then fled the scene, and after all this, sings "I'm bad, but useful" from Manhattan with a grinning face? On prime time, damn it, as the host of the most-watched show, he greets the villa residents, placing himself on a moral high ground. Disaster.

This is where we are in 2011, kids, but let's not be surprised, because we are part of everything that surrounds us. Everything that surrounds us is merely a reflection of our souls.