Sam Casey: Let’s face it, trivia can be so much fun
Nov 26 2008 by Sam Casey, Huddersfield Daily Examiner
THREE pairs of celebrity breasts and a genocidal dictator’s missing testicle.
The link? They were all subjects for articles that appeared in the list of the top five most-read stories on a national red top’s website on one day last week.
The other was another story about Baby P. He was second, sandwiched between Pamela Anderson’s chest and Hitler’s solitary gland.
Also in the running were John Sergeant’s shock withdrawal from Strictly Come Dancing and an update from the jungle – I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, not the crisis in the Congo.
At about the same time on the same day, John Sergeant topped the BBC website’s most-read list.
There was also an article challenging readers to a sitcom quiz and a semi-serious story about a one-day sale at Marks and Spencer.
The other two stories were arguably more earnest: the latest from the Shannon Matthews abduction trial and the leaked list of BNP members.
The predominance of celebrity gossip and what amounts to journalistic candyfloss on these two websites got me thinking about our preoccupation with triviality.
On the same day that lots of people were apparently reading about Pammi going topless for Playboy don Hugh Hefner’s birthday and Sergeant’s decision to ditch the sequins, there were also reports of growing desperation among refugees in the face of worsening atrocities in DR Congo and UN concerns over excessive sentences handed to political dissidents in Burma.
I don’t mention those last two out of a jumped up sense of moral or intellectual superiority – I only discovered them because I was looking for examples to illustrate my point.
In fact, it was my own intrigue with the John Sergeant story that got me thinking in the first place.
As a Strictly watcher, I was shocked at his decision to walk off the show.
So much so that I felt compelled to talk about it in the office.
A brief conversation about whether the programme was a dancing competition or light entertainment ensued.
I did not express my consternation at the 65-year prison sentences given by kangaroo courts in Burma to those found “guilty” of political dissent.
