TVSquad

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"the parent in me isn't quite comfortable with Idol's passion for mocking people who are clueless, desperate, weird, or just different."
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yes, lets just coddle the weird and untalented kids out there cause there no chance in heck that they are going to get such rude treatment in REAL life when they are older, right?

HA!

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Don't let your children watch the show. How is that a difficult concept to grasp?

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christ. Ok, so its 8pm and there was a woman who just admitted that she's not a singer, shes tone deaf AND she wants to be "trained" to be the next American Idol.

Obviously, everyone said no, so she starts wigging out and screaming. Now, tell me, WHY shouldnt they make fun of unstable psychopaths like this woman? Is it American Idols fault for crushing this IDIOTS retarded dreams?

I watched this and thought that somewhere, some crybaby, is feverishly typing a angry letter about how "cruel and rude" AI is for telling this crazy attention whorish dingbat to go home and "being sooooo cruel".

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Whatever Simon Cowell's faults, kids do not bully kids because of him. Kids bully kids because kids are cruel. When the time comes to establish social standing (typically in middle school), Lord of the Flies reigns supreme. Simon Cowell could turn into Mister Rogers and it still wouldn't make one kid stop bullying another.

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It really isn't a kids show to begin with. Never mind Simon and his comments. I'm talking about the whiny contestants who get sent home and start bleeping away the camera and have a hissy fit. Those are truly the bad examples for kids.

Whether people like it or not, there are nice people and brutally honest people. I may not have appreciated it at the moment, but through sports and other experiences in life, I learned more when someone told me flat out what I was doing wrong and what he or she thought I was capable of. In some cases I believed them wrong and worked even harder, in others, I reflected on what they said and realized there was no way I was cut out for that.


I can not sing worth a lick. I would rather have someone like Simon tell me, in his smarmy tone, you better not quit your day job, then have someone like Paula candy coat it and say you aren't ready now but put your heart and effort into it and you will one day be a star. That kind of advice leaves someone thin skinned and not able to handle out any harshness the real world dishes out.

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"American Idol" is too mean, but I don't think it's because of Simon Cowell. Aspiring professional singers and actors go up against like Simon judging their performances all the time -- but it's the life they've chosen, and they've put a lot of emotional effort into preparing for it.

But "AI" puts people in front of the judges who have no business being there. In every city, tens of thousands of young people in every city audition because it seems like a fun thing to do. Inevitably, that includes some who are funny-looking, terrible singers or just plain deluded about their talent. And after some pre-auditions, the producers make sure that the only ones who audition in front of Simon, Randy and Paula are the ones with genuine talent and the ones they think we'll laugh at. Inevitably, these people are treated terribly.

No, they didn't have to show up to the auditions. But it's not as if they showed up at Clive Davis' house demanding to sing for him. These are events open to everybody. Yet when someone untalented shows up Simon will say something like, "You don't really believe you can be an American Idol, do you?" And the answer, in most cases, is no, of course they don't, even if they have the bravado to claim that they do. They're going in front of Simon because the producers put them there -- a dozen or so out of thousands -- because they know full well that the judges will trash them.

In the past, I wasn't bothered by this; I laughed along with everyone else. But this season seems to have hit a critical mass of cruelty, leading to much of the audience feeling ashamed at having fun at these poor kids' expense. To their credit, I think the producers have read all the press reports about this, and they'll probably make some changes so that it doesn't appear as if the show is setting out to belittle people whose only crime was showing up to the auditions. I don't think they'll do away with the bad performances entirely, but they'll probably only show the ones by singers who are so egotistical that they can take it in stride. And maybe they'll show us a few more of the good singers, too, since that's supposedly what "American Idol" is all about.

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No, they didn't have to show up to the auditions. But it's not as if they showed up at Clive Davis' house demanding to sing for him. These are events open to everybody.
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uh, hello...its a SINGING competition. If you cant sing then expect to get made fun of. DUH!

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I don't watch American Idol much (it bores me) and yes, sometimes Simon's and the judges comments make me cringe a bit. But the truth of the matter is, some people can't sing. And for some reason, they seem to think they can and that they're the next star.

Seriously, if you don't want to hear the truth about your singing ability (or lack thereof), you shouldn't audition. Also, considering AI has been on tv for so long, people know what to expect in terms of the judges' comments. It's not a total surprise...

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HA!

DUH!

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Uh, this is a COMMENTARY section. If you don't have anything intelligent to say, or can't figure out how to use apostrophes or proper capitalization, expect to get made fun of. DUH!

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Someone get Larry some tampons. I think hes out

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Ian is so pathetic. He reminds me of Pee Wee Herman. He can not sing for the heck of it.He knows he cant sing!

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I dont feel so sorry for these people who cant sing, I feel like they know and are wishing upon a star that noone will notice that they cant sing and give them a chance. That would work if we were all deaf and blind!Families should stop encouraging tone deaf family member\s

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There are far worse qualities to have than being overly harsh and honest.

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If this show's total purpose was only about finding the best singer, these people would be weeded out in pre-screening. But that isn't the point. Fox, S P & R all want to have them come in so they can insult them, when they really don't have to. For that I find it shameful they insist on insulting people for ratings. I also find it shameful you people help them out by watching. What does that say about you.

It's not about these people needing to have s P & R spare them any further disappointment as they head towards a singing career. These people KNOW they can't sing. They go there trying to get on tv being bad, since they know they aren't good. Fox plays into it by putting them on. Why because so many of you are willing to sit down and watch it. Thankfully I can find something else to do. I won't help them with it. I just wish you guys wouldn't either. But I am not disillusioned.

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Ever think that AI is just "sharing the pain" of their auditions? They are a singing contest show yet thousands of people that know they can't sing show up and want to try out and subjecting various people to hours on end of horrible vocals.

Can you imagine how the people behind the scenes that have to listen to all the auditions that we don't see must have horrendous headaches by the end of the day? I think that Tylenol would be a great sponsor for AI.

For all the weirdos and tone deaf auditions we do see you know there must have been hundreds if not thousands of the same that there wasn't time for. Perhaps the unnamed peons that we never see just past the stinkers along to the "celebrity judges" to allow them to feel a little of their pain.

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i don't blame simon or the other judge's myself i think it's funny when someone start's to sing and all the judge's are laughing at them and they just keep on singing don't you think if it was you and they was laughing at you wouldn't you be smart enough to stop i sure would and i sure wouldn't ask them to let me try another song that's just plain stupid and i'd rather have someone tell me the truth like simon does and not sugar coat it and say keep on working on your singing and you'll get better i feel if there stupid enough to show up and try out and suck and act like some of them do they need to be made fun of that's my opinion

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Your television is not a babysitter; nor is capable of making parenting decisions. I'm sorry if your salesperson didn't indicate as much. One could easily argue that too much coddling is a key component in watching an Idol wannabe crash upon the shores of emotional instability when faced with objectivity (that by your interpretation is too harsh). All creatures in the animal kingdom are born with defense mechanisms. They pick up others through experience and trial-and-error. When an animal makes a poor decision or doesn't have the ability to cope in the wild, we call what happens natural selection. When a human goes through the same experience we judge the obstacle as too hard or unfair. The bottom line is that nothing says that life has to be fair or easy or just. The sooner a person learns that lesson the closer he/she is towards mitigating life's unfairness.

P.S. Your writing skills are about as good as the average Idol contestant. Is that how you landed this gig?

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Simon is truthful and honest. This is not karaoke although 3/4ths of the contestants think it is. It is a waste of the judges time when these mediocre (if that even) destroy a good song and then get mad when they are told how they really sound. Good for Simon, keep up the good work. Honesty is and always will be the best policy. No use letting someone think they are something they have proven they are not.

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