The Bleakest Brink (The Weakest Link)

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Product:	The Weakest Link
Date:	08/01/01 (2 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Highlights the way members of our society really feel about each other.

Disadvantages: Who's listening?

Remember the advertising campaign aimed at recruiting new school teachers a couple of years ago? The tagline went something along the lines of 'You never forget a good teacher.'

Very true.

But what the advert failed to mention was that you also never forget a particularly aggressive, nasty, cruel or malicious teacher either. In fact it's these bad teachers that will stick in your mind more than any amount of good teachers ever will.

I'm sure most of us can cast our minds back to our school days and picture ourselves cowering behind the pupil sitting in front of us, praying that the particularly spiteful teacher at the head of the classroom does not decide that it's our turn to be picked upon and humiliated to the delight of the rest of the class.

Of course, as soon as the teacher's gaze has passed us by and picked out another unfortunate soul to pour scorn and derision on it is our turn to take pleasure in our classmates misery and laugh cruelly as the teacher in question mocks and humiliates them. So despite us hating this teacher why do we then get so much enjoyment from watching them mock our classmates? Relief perhaps, that we are not the ones being mocked? Possibly.

Whatever the reason, it appears to be this premise that the overrated and nasty game show, 'The Weakest Link' is based. I won't go into the rules of the game in any great depth, there are plenty of opinions in this category that have already done that for me. Suffice to say a number of contestants are asked various general knowledge questions. After each successive round a contestant is removed from the game until eventually just one contestant remains. The contestants are your average game show contestants and the questions are the usual tired mix of Royal history, countries' capital cities, television characters etc etc.

Where this particular game show differs is in the way the contestants must, afte
r each round, nominate a fellow contestant who they feel has performed the worst. The votes are then counted and the contestant receiving the most votes is removed from the game. They are, you guessed it, 'The Weakest Link.'

They do not leave, however, until Anne Robinson, the show's host, has given them a thorough and nasty putdown in the style of the teacher described above. "You're rather thick, I don't know why you bothered coming" she will sneer dismissively before turning to one of the nominators and scoffing something along the lines of "And you're no better, you didn't exactly do brilliantly yourself."

All a bit of fun you say, all a bit of a laugh. Well yes, if you're a snotty snivelling school child with no means of standing up to those who suppress you. Or indeed, if you used to be that child who got picked on at school and can now laugh at the television safe in the knowledge that you won't be picked on, not today anyway.

This show gives those nasty teachers a bit of credibility, a bit of integrity. I can just imagine them in schools today, deriding the pupils who have failed to keep up with the rest of the class, "You're the weakest link. Goodbye." The other kids in the class howl with laughter as another child's already fragile confidence gets dented that little bit more.

This programme appears to revel in and celebrate the derisive, sneering nastiness at the core of modern Western society. This would be a good thing if viewers then questioned there own and other people's attitudes and values but, having read some of the other opinions in this category, they don't appear to do so. They just watch, mindlessly, shouting out answers, and smirking along at home to Robinson's sneering jibes.

It's these people who are the weakest link. Goodbye.

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