Chillin' With The Weasel....Again

Wow, Pauly Shore must be thanking the great comedy gods that reality TV came along.

After all, after his career nose-dived following it's quick rise in the misinterpreted melange of the late 80s/early 90s along with such kings-of-the-time as Vanilla Ice, Corey Haim, Corey Feldman and Richard Greico, Shore's finally found a platform for his past-tense kitsch value.

He's got a show coming called "Minding the Store", about his efforts to help run his mother's famous LA comedy club, presumably with dreaded results. Why else would it be on the air unless he looked like a complete idiot?

Pauly's not alone. With special thanks to shows like his, Surreal Life, Celebrity Boxing, shows about washed-up actors dancing, cooking and whatever else you can think of, America has found an absolutely new strata of fame: The Has Been Celebrity.

Yes, no longer are you and your finished fame doomed to perform "Run For Your Wife" at remote Arizona dinner theater productions as 80-year olds-with-oxygen tanks choking on mashed potatoes fill the audience. If you are lucky, you can humiliate yourself on TV instead. You even get bonus points for being misguided that you are still The Shit.

But do we really need to see these former stars each week? Does this fascination of fleeting fame really carry any more weight than a mere 15 second referencial joke about the 80s? Probably not. Because really, isn't that the joke? The fact that we are gobbling up this shovel-full of mindless material on TV. The fact that this kind of programming takes not much more than a good idea, a shameless has-been and a good marketing strategy is a testament to how gullible we are.

There is no content in The Surreal Life. It's watching a bunch desperate wash-ups try to score a second-grab at the brass ring all the wrong way. For us, it's like watching the chimps hang out in the monkey cage. Sure, it may be fun for a few minutes, but at the end of the day, unless that simian's pink crayon comes out and he starts going at it like he's shaking a martini, you've got nothing to brag about with your friends. And who's kidding who - no one reads the information plaques at the zoo.

So what the hell am I getting at? Not sure. Except I wish Pauly Shore luck. I mean, it's not like I ever liked the dude, but its kinda sad to see someone shamelessly try to save their job regardless. And I don't expect he'll ever see a resurgence like he did in the 90s (if you're holding out for Son-In-Law 2, you may wanna think again), but if he counts his blessings, maybe he will get invited back to the Playboy mansion.

Chances are, that's all he ever wanted anyhow.