2003, DVD
Cast: Paris Hilton, Nicole Ritchie, the Leding family

Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie are two obnoxious brats who seem to have no awareness of the outside world whatsoever. They are thrown into the middle of a small town in Arkansas, U.S. There, they are forced to get a job, and must coexist gracefully with their host family of eight, the Ladings.

I didn’t understand this whole Reality TV thing. I still don’t. Watching people humiliate themselves shamelessly didn’t appeal much to me. But when I saw a TV spot for The Simple Life, these two girl’s immaturity, ignorance, cluelessness and stupidity gave me immediate affection for it. And they didn’t disappoint me at all. The greatest thing about them is that they seem to believe the world revolves around them. Of course they knew before hand that the show was going to be televised. So most of their actions aren’t really there to shock or provoke. But when you see them attempting to get down with any cute country boy they see, getting fired from jobs because of their stupidity or ignorance or going ballistic in public practically for no reason, it is hard not to laugh at them. It doesn’t illuminate anything about two cultural differences. It isn’t social commentary (if you want that, watch Dogville).

But seriously, what could be more fun than watching Paris’ pants slide down slowly to show her butt crack almost every episode? You would think they would learn some sort of lesson along the way. The truth is that they don’t. In the end, they still think of nothing but themselves.

It is simply a fun show that is absolutely enjoyable because Paris and Nicole are so completely clueless it is impossible to imagine that anyone could possibly be that stupid (I was told Jessica Simpson could top them).

Shogo is an award-award winning filmmaker currently hard at work on a new project. Asian Fever is his weekly column devoted to Asian cinema and related topics.

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