SpikeTV: Why would Spike Lee broadcast such
shit?


Caught the last 15 minutes of the First Annual Videogame Awards on SpikeTV, the First Network for Men. What a train-wreck. Halo 2 wins Most Anticipated Videogame Award? That's an award? Sounds to me like Typical VideoGame Hype creeping off the pages of GamePro and onto the TV. All you with girlfriends might be asking: What's Typical VideoGame Hype (TVGH)?

TVGH means Magazine X features Game Y on the front cover and spine, plus prints pages of fawning previews, a fawning review, and a paid back-cover ad. The line between editorial and pay-atorial is always blurred in videogame journalism because, unlike in real journalism, ethics mean less than junkets and free swag do.


Here's an example of TVGH on SpikeTV. The last award, Best Music, went to Electric Arts' hip-hop wrestling game, Def Jam: Vendetta. Then DMX, who is in the game, came out to perform. Couldn't DMX go on before they award his game? Isn't that a conflict of interest? And is David Spade funny?


On the plus side, I got to see Orlando Jones curse several times to a Crank Yankers puppet (he got bleeped out, of course), while in the background, two children giggle at his language. Videogames aren't a bad influence on children, Orlando Jones is.


Before the awards, SpikeTV ran a marathon of "Most Extreme Challenge," their recycled and redubbed Japanese game show parody that makes "Bonzai" look intelligent. I wonder if Spike TV viewers realize that the original show is "Takeshi's Castle," and that the co-host Count Takeshi is none other than the venerable Japanese director, "Beat" Takeshi Kitano (Sonatine, Brother).

Seems that these shows were taped before he damaged his eye and face in a motorcycle accident.


Whatever. The dubbed voices just said "nose boogers." Har de har har, SpikeTV!


- Media Yenta's Brother