Columnist says Fab Five are "useless."

[Yuna_Firerose 0]

From: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/01/...0127356242.html

 

John Attridge slices up the Queer Eye angle on 'lifestyle TV'.

 

Has anyone noticed that grooming expert Kyan on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy has no actual expertise? His accumulated wisdom seems to represent about 15 minutes' research on skin-care products' instructions - and, unless it's an advantage to bring a neutral observer with you to the hairdressers, I don't find his standing around skills very useful either.

 

Not that any of the Fab Five is exactly indispensable. Queer Eye is the reality TV version of Seinfeld. In both cases, the drama depends on characters whose greatest challenge is living in New York. Jerry Seinfeld was basically the queer eye: well-groomed, fastidiously clean, expert in the etiquette of day-to-day life. George was every plaid-wearing slob that ever lied about being a marine biologist.

 

The difference is that now it's supposed to be real. But I'm a bit worried when my TV starts flashing tips. Dried parsley, the Fab Five gourmand told me once, is useless. But does anyone watching this show really use dried parsley? Does it even exist? What's next? Insider warnings against Kraft singles in the nine-cheese risotto? And he's potentially the least useless member of the team.

 

For example, things I have learnt from culture guy: tickets to a cool show are useful for dating. Oh, and body language: when entering a room, avoid crouching and skulking like Quasimodo. Yet many important questions are left unanswered. What is the word less naff than girl- or boy-friend, less clinical than partner and less tantric than lover for the one you're with? How do I keep that scabby crust off my lip when I drink red wine? These and other pressing problems need the resources of a major network thrown at them as soon as possible.

 

What they are good at on Queer Eye is obsessively classifying people as either gay or straight. Seldom does the word man appear in their dialogue unprefaced by a sexual orientation. The frisson mined from hilarious gay-straight culture barriers is seemingly inexhaustible.

 

There is a word for this stuff that you don't even know you know (because not knowing it would make no difference). It's called trivia. Television is now hell-bent on teaching us about it, for real. If it's not Queer Eye rescuing helpless yuppies from their unfashionable beards, it's the other lifestyle shows, or dating primers like The Bachelor, or reality TV shows like Big Brother that reward people for being eminently normal. The premise there is, essentially, we dare you to live in a sharehouse: cook, clean, chat, shower, fight and have clandestine sex with your flatmates. Only, instead of having to clean out five years of junk alone, the last person in residence gets a pile of cash.

 

I'm not saying I don't need help; it's just that no TV show seems to be meeting my precise needs. I'm still waiting for Queer Eye to give someone a Just Jeans style-infusion or a crash course in taco kits. And what I really need help with is my income style. Can you help me, Fab Five?

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I am actually amused. I'd love to see what this person is like in real life; he must be a trip. Seriously, though, he just sounds like he's whining because nothing is aimed towards him, specifically.

[Mik 0]

That isn't that negative. If you didn't have a fan girl crush on them you would have totally ignored that article.

[Yuna_Firerose 0]

That isn't that negative. If you didn't have a fan girl crush on them you would have totally ignored that article.

Just because I like something, doesn't mean I'll not read negative reviews of it. In fact, when looking up a movie I like on RottenTomatoes, I usually read the negative reviews first. Why? Because I like to read other people's opinions, whether they agree or disagree with my own.

 

I didn't say it was totally negative....I just don't think he has a lot of facts to back up his opinions. True, Jai, the Culture Vulture, hasn't given as much advice in comparison to the rest of the Fab 5, so I can sorta see his point in that paragraph.

 

What they are good at on Queer Eye is obsessively classifying people as either gay or straight. Seldom does the word man appear in their dialogue unprefaced by a sexual orientation.

This just seems dumb to point out. The Fab 5 are gay, the straight guy is, well duh, straight. Where's the 'obsessive classifying' this guy points out? I just don't see it.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Queer Eye is just demeaning to men of all sexual orientations.

 

It perpetuates all the same stereotypes the average High School Senior does.

[Guest Ghettoman]

Yeah he was pointing out I think how there not only useless but do more to progress stereotyping then to counter it.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Queer Eye is amusing but horrible in many ways. The vast majority of my gay friends are outraged that it's become such a hit and that the American public now views gays as cute, feminized toys moreso than ever.

 

Of course, there's also the fact that, out of all the reality shows, it's one of the very few with an actual good spirit and sense of doing good for people rather than exploiting them. Take the good with the bad, I guess.

[starvenger 0]

Wait... aren't Jalen Rose, Chris Webber and Juwan Howard part of the Fab Five?

[Ravenbomb 0]

Columnist says Fab Five are "useless.", In other words, he's a big whiner

 

I fail to see what saying someone on TV is useless has to do with being a big whiner.

[rising up out of the back seat-nuh 0]

Having just got the program over here in the UK, may I just say Queer Eye rocks.

 

That is all...

[Guest JMA]

Queer Eye is just demeaning to men of all sexual orientations.

 

It perpetuates all the same stereotypes the average High School Senior does.

Amen.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Kids I know actually joke about how much the show does to stereotype gays more than gays themselves...which is probably because I live in MA...

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

Wait... aren't Jalen Rose, Chris Webber and Juwan Howard part of the Fab Five?

That's the 1st thing that popped in my head when I saw "Fab 5"

[Brush with Greatness 0]

For me there was only really one offensive line in there and it was painfully offensive.

 

Queer Eye is the reality TV version of Seinfeld.

 

Not that there is anything wrong with them...

 

but there is something wrong with that comparison.

[starvenger 0]

Wait... aren't Jalen Rose, Chris Webber and Juwan Howard part of the Fab Five?

That's the 1st thing that popped in my head when I saw "Fab 5"

It was actually the second thing that came to me, but most of you probably wouldn't know that Duran Duran were known as the "Fab Five", so I went with something more contemporary...

[Brush with Greatness 0]

New Kids on the Block also had the "Fab Five" moniker at one time.