Reality TV Spoof

1948 marked the beginning of the Reality TV era with the first show being Candid Camera, which was an American hidden camera and practical joke reality TV series. This show created a new genre of television in which every day people are put into certain situations and followed by a camera to capture their reactions. Viewers enjoyed watching these people get pranked. Many series have followed, making Reality TV one of the most consistently popular television trends in history.

One of these very successful reality TV shows is The Real Housewives franchise, which constitutes of multiple very successful series. The show documented the lives of multiple housewives throughout different regions of the US. This trend began in 2006 with the Orange County housewives. It focused on the drama and fights that these women had with other people and with each other. Past experiences, such as cheating husbands and unresolved conflicts were often the beginning of every argument in the show. Now a days the public looks at most of these women as stuck up, snobby, dramatic individuals. The buzz about these shows only grew greater and greater. The true success behind this franchise and other reality tv shows is the crave that the American viewers have for drama.

In the case of The Real Housewives of Orange County, the show is very heavily formatted and sometimes even scripted. The events are usually planned before shooting begins. An example of this was clearly seen back in November 1, 2011 when a producer of the show wrote to the ex-husband of one of the stars, Tamra Barney, to see if he would be willing to participate in a staged scene after the couple’s harsh divorce. As in movies, the lives of these individuals are exaggerated and small problem become huge fights, romantic events are fairy tale like, and life just seems to be either so much better or so much worse than the viewers. At the start of the show, the viewers were able to relate to it and felt compassion when devastating events happened, and felt genuinely happy when the “actresses” were faced with a positive event. As time went by, viewers began to realize the phoniness behind these types of shows and felt that the women were being over dramatic and fake. This began the era of the spoofs; one of these being The Real Husband of Hollywood.  

The Real Husbands of Hollywood is an American comedy reality TV parody which airs on BET. It was created to make fun of reality television. Unlike other television shows, this show is actually scripted to create a surreal life in Hollywood mocking rich, dramatic women. The cast is made u of comedians Kevin Hart and J.B. Smoove, actors Nick Cannon, Boris Kodjoe and Duane Martin, and artists Robin Thicke and Nick Cannon. The first episode focuses on introducing the characters. Each character is introduced with a certain characteristic.

The star of the show, Kevin Hart, is introduced as having a show-off lifestyle in comparison to the women in the original show. J.B. Smoove gives the aspect of jealousy and distrust based on the number one reason for the drama in the shows. Boris’ character portrays that well-known woman that thinks she is too pretty for her own good. These are just some examples of the exaggerated comparison the spoof makes to the housewives series. This show directly targets viewers who have a negative conception of the original show and tend to make fun of it. After realizing how fake reality TV really is, viewers began to grow a resentment towards the characters in each show. Seeing other famous actors make fun of these individuals in a non-harmful way, it gives the viewers a sense of enjoyment. Basically, the show target people who hate reality TV and understand the falseness of it.