In the update to our Issues with American Idol, there is a mention of my problems with judges laughing at the bad contestants. It has been observed that my feelings on this may just be a sign that I'm going soft in my old age. After all, these people have seen the show, they know what happens, and they're delusional enough (sometimes aggressively so) to think that they're going to win. I can see this point, and I don't take issue with it 99.9% of the time.
So, to clarify, I don't really have a problem with mocking or insulting the aggressively delusional. Generally, these things don't start out confrontational--they only become so after the contestant gets belligerent. And I don't have a problem with telling terrible singers that they don't really have a future in pop music. (If only someone had shared that thought with Pink.) It certainly can be a kindness to give someone a little truth now and then. (And there's nothing funnier than seeing that same terrible singer do a post-audition interview about how no one can see her talent but she's going to prove them all wrong. Honey, you sound like a cat getting run over by a garbage truck. You're not an overlooked gem.)
Nah, what I'm thinking of here are the ordinarily bad--who have obviously been passed through to the judges room in the hopes that they would do something extraordinarily awful and entertaining. But instead they just suck, then stand there with a wavering smile while Simon breaks it to them that they suck at singing. And these are the people that I don't think should be laughed at--the ones that haven't done anything (attitude-wise) to earn any mockery. I can't put my finger on why, but somehow it feels so much more insulting to laugh in someone's face than to tell that they're a bad singer.
And on a separate note, good Lord, will the audition rounds never be over? I wonder how many more seasons this show has in it anyway? I would say that it jumped the shark years ago (when Taylor Hicks won, to be precise), but it's not the Fox way to let shows die a dignified death. I'm guessing the over/under for remaining seasons of American Idol is about 5. Though I'm inclined to take the over.
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