Battlebots is NOT violence

[archiver]

Posted by James Jones at 04/12/2001 8:50 AM EST


Engineer on team #267, The Demolition Squad, from North Broward & St Andrews and Motorola.


In Reply to: Comedy Central vs violence
Posted by Joe Johnson on 04/11/2001 3:58 PM EST:



I have to agree that the way Battlebots and Robotica are packaged for television is disgusting. I don't watch Battlebots any more just because of the commercials on the Comedy Channel. I saw Robotica for the first time last night and my high hopes for the show since it was on TLC were dashed. I thought the hosts on Battlebats were palpably stupid. Mr. Zappa makes them look like refined intellectual giants. Why is it that networks think nobody will watch a show unless the hosts are acting like deranged morons? I may watch it next week to see some of our former students but that will be about it. Not that I'm saying you're wrong if you continue to watch. I just think we often object to pop culture yet we continue to support it by buying the movie tickets, records, video tapes and magazines (or watching the shows)that keep it running.

My intent with my original post was not to defend these shows per se. Let's seperate the concept of dueling machines from the way it is packaged. I just don't believe that a robot crashing through a glass wall is violence. If it is, we have all been paragons of violence since our youth. Come on, have you ever taken a grinder to something that didn't need to ground just to see the sparks? Violence? No.