Honey Boo Boo is my anti-drug

Today's lecture about Honey Boo Boo was mind-shattering for me. I entered the classroom a man with a hero, and her name was Alana. However, after today's lecture, I left a man feeling more grimy than Mama June's forklift foot. 

There is something about the Boo Boo family that I just can't get enough of. Coming from a working class family of people with senses of humor that are not always the... classiest, I feel like I actually connect to Alana's family. There is something endearing about them -- though they might be a little low-brow, they are loving and kind. I appreciate this.

However, they are also hilarious. In lecture I began to wonder if it is WHAT THEY DO that I find so funny, or if it is the PEOPLE themselves. This ties into the article because I ask if I am laughing with them, or laughing at them. Sadly, I believe that the second option is commonly the case.

The Thompson family is the definition of many negative stereotypes. I believe that this is their downfall, as they are made out to be a sort of conglomeration of bad traits -- so much so that almost every viewer can find something at which they can turn up their nose. The Thompsons are Southern (June and Sugar Bear were married in camo...), they're overweight (sketti?), they're poor (or so they're made out to be), and they're uneducated ("beautimous" is a stable of their vocabulary). All of these traits combine and make the family a textbook case for bad American stereotypes. Even if you are the average fat, uneducated, poor viewer, you still have a chance to look at the family and say "well, at least I'm not from the South." This is what makes the show so tragic. The family is made out to be all of these excessively negative things, when in actuality they are a family just trying to survive and have some fun in the world. TLC has capitalized on their flaws, and while I look up to Honey Boo Boo in some aspects, there are also aspects that I pity her for: this is the tragedy of the TLC television show.