The TV snobility are royally wrong

It’s all too easy to get atop that ever-present high horse when somebody brings up last night’s episode of The Only Way Is Essex. There is always at least one person who will feel the need to stop you mid-sentence, as though if you ventured any further thoughts on the matter the conversation would be contaminated beyond repair.

They’ll lower their glasses, pause, and with malevolent glee proceed to tear down your favourite television indulgence in a string of short yet stinging sentences, perhaps along with a few of your other favourites, too. They’ll renounce The X Factor (too many sob stories, not enough talent), Britain’s Got Talent (enough talent, not enough edge) and The Voice (edgy enough, too much Jessie J). And let’s not even broach the subject of a certain Mr Kyle, who they’ll promptly remind you was even slammed by a court judge as having a distinct “element of cruelty and exploitation.”

Mr or Mrs ‘Rain On Your Parade’ might well contemplate why they even own a television; programming being so mind-numbingly bad these days. They might look back to a simpler time (that they never actually lived through), simply tuning in for a bit of Question Time or a quick chortle at Have I Got News For You.

This is all said as though we should chip in with a rapturous round of applause at this media martyr, and the sheer strength of will it must take to resist the allure of ITV. “Oh gosh,” we should say to this Dalai Lama of daytime television, “You certainly are clever. Please, save me from another episode of Jersey Shore before my brain is well and truly crushed in JWoww’s cleavage!” They smugly saunter off feeling big, feeling clever, feeling like yes, they should be held in some sort of higher esteem because they don’t dally in the realm of low brow telly. Should they hell.

I, for one, have always hated television snobs. Why anybody would resist the call of Take Me Out’s Paddy McGuiness simply in a bid to look intelligent is beyond me. There is a difference between people who simply do not enjoy those type of programmes and those who feel it is their sole purpose in life to end the career of Joey Essex, as well the lives of his fans. Surely if you are so above these shows, you wouldn’t spend so much time attempting to belittle those who aren’t? It always strikes me as a case of ‘the lady/lad doth protest too much.’ I’m certainly no football fan and, in light of that, I never feel the need to mention football. Ever. Except of course if Cristiano Ronaldo is playing, and that is for wholly unfootball-related reasons.

People have come to me in their droves, scorning Take Me Out’s objectification of women, The Kardashians’ glamourisation of stupidity and Eastenders’ remarkable ability to mix banality with sheer ludicrousness (defending Eastenders is often beyond me). It’s not always that much of a big deal – there doesn’t always have to be deep social commentary on every show. Nor is it bringing us a step closer to the apocalypse every time we tune in and have a giggle.

Of course these shows are silly, and sometimes even downright stupid, but that’s exactly why I watch them. After a hard day sitting in a Contract Law seminar and realising I have no idea who this man is or what he’s talking about, there is nothing better than slipping into your pyjamas with a slice of pizza and chanting along ‘No likey, no lighty!’ with Paddy as two strangers rather sheepishly shake hands on their way to the all hailed ‘Isle of Fernandos’. And let’s admit it – we all secretly want to go to Fernandos. It’s all a form of escapism, and a very good one at that. Yes, there are wars raging overseas, and yes, this is happening whilst Kim Kardashian gets a pedicure. But having interest in one does not mean you cannot be interested in the other – the two are not mutually exclusive.

Those who really do rank the importance of Eastenders’ Heather Trott’s funeral above that of London mayoral election perhaps should consider revaluating their priorities – but most people don’t. A lot of people do enjoy a bit of Paddy and a bit of Paxman. It doesn’t make them one dimensional or unintellectual – it just makes them trash TV fans. Perhaps if the people who claim to hate these shows (that some admit to never watching a single episode of) actually bothered watching, they might even enjoy them. Or not. Either way, everyone is entitled to their own sense of entertainment. In the words of Paddy himself: ‘Let the snob see the telly!”