The Basement Affair
Decoder Ring
Slate Podcasts
4.6 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 30 July 2018
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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What are the real reasons people go on reality TV? This episode follows the story of Ann Hirsch and Cathy Nardone, two women cast on VH1’s “Frank the Entertainer...In a Basement Affair”, a show about an adult man looking for love—while living in his parent’s basement. How did one performance artist and one accidental performance artist make it onto the show? And how did they behave once they made it there? Their story highlights the ways that reality television distorts narratives, obscures intentions and stereotypes women, yet is still irresistible to audiences and performers alike.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast contains explicit language. |
| 0:06.3 | In season nine of ABC's reality TV dating show The Bachelorette, the cast made a music video for a song called For the Right reasons. |
| 0:15.6 | Today we will be starring in our very own rap video. |
| 0:20.6 | For the video, The Bachelorette, whose name was Desiree Hartsock, and the group of men who were trying to woo her, were joined by the rapper, Soldier Boy. |
| 0:30.0 | Yo, what up? What's up, Soldier Boy? Tell him. |
| 0:32.3 | What's up, Soldier Boy! Let's get it, Des. Let's go. |
| 0:36.0 | Desiree and Solja Boy strut in front of three cars parked outside of the Bachelorette mansion. |
| 0:53.1 | Camera cuts to a dozen or so mostly white men, dancing around in sunglasses, doing questionable |
| 0:59.1 | imitations of hip-hop video cliches, making it rain, pointing to their bling, as they clumsily |
| 1:05.1 | rap about all the wrong reasons to be on the show. |
| 1:08.2 | Oh, man. |
| 1:09.0 | I'm jobless, I'm homeless, she's a means of no end. |
| 1:11.4 | I'm here to get famous, not to make friends. |
| 1:14.2 | Yeah, you got it. |
| 1:16.4 | None of this deeply silly video makes any sense outside of the context of The Bachelor and |
| 1:21.6 | The Bachelorette. |
| 1:22.8 | But within the context of these shows, the right reasons means something very specific. It means |
| 1:28.9 | that a participant is there, or appears to be there anyway, hoping to find love. Someone who is there |
| 1:34.8 | for the quote-unquote right reasons exists in contrast to someone who is there for the |
| 1:40.2 | quote-unquote wrong reasons, and that's anyone who is looking for fame, a career, |
| 1:45.9 | social media followers, or attention. On a dating show, saying someone is there for the wrong |
| 1:52.2 | reasons has become shorthand for calling someone an opportunist. But being there for the wrong |
... |
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