You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy™
The Bruce Jenner story.
Is he a boy? Is he a girl?
I’m not sure what’s going on here.
I’m watching an onslaught of morning promos and I wonder “Who cares?”
“It’s the can’t miss interview everyone will be talking about!” the announcer booms.
So What, I think.
I watch imagery of an effeminate Bruce Jenner, legs crossed like a woman, sitting like a woman, looking like a woman, telling me that he is going to be OK.
Do I feel uncomfortable? Do I even care? Will I watch? Will anyone? Will everyone?
Bruce Jenner is a man, who is experiencing a life change of spectacular proportions.
Is he announcing he is gay? Is he a transsexual? Is he becoming a woman?
What does it all mean?
Will a billion Chinese care?
Is this a transgender announcement of the third kind?
What is transgender? I know it’s an alternative lifestyle, one of ambiguity that puts people in pronoun hell.
Is he a he or is he a she or is she a she or is she a she.
Wow.
Someone pass me a cup of who cares.
All I know is that Bruce Jenner and whatever he or she is doing is all the buzz.
Is it real buzz or is it made up for TV, one network has it and nobody else has it buzz?
I don’t have a clue what the special is about. Nobody has said. As far as I can tell, it’s not yet clear.
Ambiguity in promotions is often compelling.
ABC is playing its cards close to its broadcasting vest.
I’ve been hearing about Bruce Jenner’s announcement for weeks.
Honestly, I don’t give a damn. I don’t care about Bruce Jenner. I don’t care what he is doing in his life.
I lost interest in 1977 shortly after he was dubbed the world’s greatest athlete.
If he or she is happy with whatever he is doing, then go for it.
At the end of the day, Bruce Jenner’s sexual proclivities will not pay my rent.
But the announcement is being forced down my throat in an onslaught of promos that are airing on abc and espn.
Is the American male basketball fan really the target demo here?
To their credit, the promos are well executed. They create mystery and intrigue. They tell me something without revealing anything.
The images are fleeting, showing Diane Sawyer talking to an unrecognizable figure who we must assume is Bruce Jenner.
The backdrop is the ocean and the figure before it is dark and non identifiable.
It looks like a seedy drug deal in Cannes.
ABC is promoting the hell out of this Friday Night exclusive.
They are explaining little while pushing the message hard.
In keeping with cross promotional voo doo that abc is famous for, World News Tonight ran a story as its kicker, the last story in the show.
Usually the kicker is a lighter story. Tonight is a story chock full of self promotion and ambiguity and prayers for big viewing ad dollars.
The kicker was a thinly disguised entertainment news story masquerading as a promo lurking in the shadows trying to pull you into the circus tent.
“Step this way,” the carnival huckster yells. “See the man who was a man who was a woman who is a woman.”
It’s old-fashioned flim flam set loose on social media.
The kicker was a little odd, a little uncomfortable. It felt like a promo trying to be something else, perhaps like Jenner him or herself.
The story showed current video of Jenner whose appearance has dramatically altered.
His or her features are so feminine. His or her voice warbles like a top that is losing its center of gravity, its life perspective.
It’s hard to know exactly what is happening to this one time “world’s greatest athlete.”
And Good Morning America is the biggest TV whore of them all.
The teaser: “The real Bruce Jenner! Olympic Champion. Reality Star! Father.
What he is revealing this morning about this emotional journey!
Are you going to be ok?
“yeah. I hope I will be ok. I feel like I will be ok. 2015 will be quite a ride,” he says.
WTF?
The news report only touts that Diane will have the exclusive and only then will all be revealed.
Is it a transgender transformation which has been widely rumored?
The abc news kicker has a few facts. Bruce Jenner was Olympic decathlon Champ in 1976.
He is dubbed the world’s greatest athlete.
Jenner’s handsome, masculine face adorns Wheaties boxes and many other products.
In later years he will be celebrated as a reality TV star, as a father to six kids and step father to the famous Kardashians.
The promo shows a softer Jenner with long brown hair.
“I want to know how it ends,” Jenner says, presumably talking about his own life.
The Bruce Jenner Interview.
It’s a news confessional where a man or woman is put on display like a circus freak and we all get to gawk like seedy voyeurs.
“For many transgender people this will be a historic moment,” says the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, or NLGJA.
Much of the social media universe seems to be worrying about how to address Jenner. Do you call Jenner him? Do you call Jenner her?
ABC refered to him as Bruce rather than use a gender specific pronoun.
And that’s it in a nutshell.
Him? Her? Bruce?
Who really cares.
When Diane Sawyer airs this 2 hour transmutation, I will be watching playoff basketball where no one will sulk in the shadows against a brilliantly lit ocean.
Life’s Crazy™