In the last Australian Big Brother, two guys got kicked out of the house for 'turkey slapping'* some chick on the face. In the end it got stupid amounts of publicity, prime mister claimed to want the show axed, and the two guys basically took all the heat and were outcasted by the media and general society. All whilst BB gathered great amounts of attention for next season. It's all about publicity, therefore the show(s) will never be axed until the people stop watching them.

*Whacking someone with your dick.

You're very right. And that's the problem: someone does something controversial, the media goes mad, people watch the programme to see what the fuss is all about, the ratings go up, the advertisers advertise, the programme is considered worthy of another series (becuase of the advertising revenues), new misfits go into the house, someone does something controversial, the cycle starts again...

It's called tv.It is mainly trashy entertainment.If you don't like it ,don't watch it.I hate it when people moan about advertisement as if you would sell cars in a desert,for christ's sake!I don't find that this sort of Big Brother rubbish is anymore shocking than some of the conversations that you might hear in a pub or office envoirement etc etc.

Well yes, that's another good point. But conversations in the pub don't make it to the front page of the national press.

My main interest in the whole thing is more about the media coverage than the programme itself.

I don't think you can just dismiss a programme like BB as just trashy entertainement that doesn't matter.

Jade Goody has become a mult-millionaire on the back of her appearance a few years ago, and she is incredibly popular. I would hope that after her performance on this series, that popularity would wane considerably. I don't know what it would say about the nation if this weren't to happen.

A lot of Jade's pupularity was down to her underdog status, she was a poor (thick) girl who made it big with no talent. And in the age of countless 'reality' and talent shows she was the perfect example of "if she can do it, anybody can".

Unfortunately, this is the world we live in, and I watch Clebrity BB with my heart sinking and anger rising at people's stupidity.

Incidentally, sonicl, I thought of starting a thread like this, but I didn't think anybody would be interested.

or jade just had a good pr agent and max clifford pulled a few strings. think of all the other equally as thick contestants who could have gone onto superstardom.

I'm in no way defending Big Bruvver here!!

I have no comment to make about Jon Boy's post, I just think it is so true that it deserves to be seen again.

Absolutely. Her popularity (and she's by no means the only one) is down to her "people", and I'm not sure if they're now cringing or rubbing their hands with glee over her latest performance. I get the impression she was well coached before going in.

And yes, the whole point is that any other thicky could have been chosen. That, to my mind, is what appeals to people about her: it could happen to anybody.

And that's the way of (a significant section of) society.

Someone told me yesterday that Jade had been dumped as patron of an anti-bullying charity because of this. I hope that's true.

Someone on the news yesterday said that the behaviour exhibited by these three people made them ashamed to be English. I disagree; we all know there are some bigots and bullies around, as there are in all countries; what makes me feel ashamed to be English is the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of people who will still vote in their favour, who will still buy Jade's perfume etc.

The behaviour of these three people is not the fault of Big Brother; they are just a representative sample of the kind of immoral, sinful, hateful people who litter this country. What is the fault of Big Brother is that they claim thay are unable to act without a formal complaint from Shilpa; they have stepped in several times in the past to warn people, and they should be punished for not doing do this time. They are basically denying tat they have a duty of responsibility towards people in their employment and care.

As a matter of course, in case they had acted, I just sought out the official BB site to see what was being said. Not a mention of the whole affair on the homepage, which is rather pathetic.

In the face of all this bullying, Shilpa has been a model of restraint and civility, for which she must be applauded. What a shame that her 'friends' in the house have shown so little support.

"You must wait for a Big Brother thread before being able to rep Hip Priest."

Cheers. I'm concerned that BB will be somehow held responsible for people being fowl little bullies, because that would ignore the society-wide bullying that hundreds of thousands of people have to endure every day.

It's fun to talk about the Big Brother racism scandal, right, Max?

Yeah, it sure is, Conan.

I'm shocked that Jade was involved with an anti-bullying campaign and then displayed that kind of behaviour.

And it would be hoped that BB has the opposite affect, and people deplore her behaviour. Unfortunately, as I've already said, she is enormously popular, "writes" columns in several magazines, and has "written" a best selling autobiography.

I was pretty shocked at the behaviour of Jade's mother too. You'd somehow expect a one-armed lesbian to have a greater understanding of the suffering of minorities, but I've not seen such narrow-minded bigotry on TV since they stopped showing Alf Garnett.

Regarding Jade's involvement with an anti-bullying campaign, the ultimate fuck-you would be if Shilpa was appointed to head up the campaign in her place. Oh please, please, God, let that happen.

giver a tenner and she will say anything.

I wouldn't know if that has anything to do with her plain ignorance but isn't she from Bermondsey which has a reputation for being a BNP sort of playground and where i got caught in a nazi skin march by accident ,once,that frightened the shit out of me?

I think her plain ignorance is a gift from her mother.

she is just typical of the undeucated masses of england. only thing is she has been given pride of place because she spent a few weeks in a house full of cameras. hooray for modern society. not that olden day society was any better.

Probably.I mean,didn't she profess not to know where Manchester was once?Christ's sake!