Teen Weddings Makes Lives of Reality TV Satirists Ever More Difficult

Remember 30 Rock‘s fictional reality TV show MILF Island? “25 Super-Hot Moms, 50 eighth grade boys, no rules”? That was a pretty great joke, right? Well, enjoy that subgenre of referential humor while you can. If current projections hold, in only a matter of months no form of knowing, arch reality TV satire, parody, or spoof will be possible. That’s right: We are now heading directly, face-forward, and at a dangerously rapid rate, into a world where even the dumbest, most outrageous reality TV show concepts get immediately green-lit. Exhibit A: Teen Weddings. I think we can all agree that that’s a concept that sounds ridiculous, offensive, and possibly dangerous enough to work as a perfectly good show-within-a-show gag on a ratings-challenged NBC sitcom, yes? Well, it’s real. Oh, it’s real. Take it away, Oxygen’s capsule preview description (via Deadline):

Teen Weddings goes behind the scenes of America’s most provocative teen weddings. From rich kids to the new middle class, from Manhattan to the Midwest, this show follows several teen couples on a dramatic journey to their wedding days. Intercutting their stories, the show will trail these teens-in-love all the way from the stressful build up (the constant bickering between teen bride-to-be and teen groom-to-be, choosing the dress, arguing with mom and dad, repeatedly changing the guest list, planning the bachelor and bachelorette parties) to the big day itself, the crazy partying after the ceremony and finally a post-honeymoon catch-up.”

In future episodes, Teen Weddings follows the teens all the way through to their teen marriage counseling, teen extramarital affairs, teen divorce proceedings, teen alimony hearings, teen attempts at reconciliation by watching our favorite movie, Teen Wolf Too, and, finally, teen years and years of bitterness and regret.

Anyway, sorry, comedy writers. “Reality TV satire” will soon be one less tool in your arsenal. Maybe focus some of that soon-to-be unspent energy on mocking, say, daytime game show hosts?

Filed Under: Reality Television Hell, Television

Amos Barshad has written for New York Magazine, Spin, GQ, XXL, and the Arkansas Times. He is a staff writer for Grantland.

Archive @ AmosBarshad