People aren't objects
On podcasting, old infidelities, and profiting off other people's lives
What happens between and among celebrities is generally of lesser importance than the value of the paper upon which the gossip columns are printed. Very few things worthy of note or admiration happen in the limelight.
â– Occasionally, though, rather than serving as a helpful example to others, someone chooses to serve as a horrible warning instead. Howie Mandel, for instance, has done exactly this by bringing the comedian Bill Burr onto his podcast and surprising Burr with a guest visit from rock star Billy Corgan.
â– Corgan has previously suggested to Mandel that he has been told credibly of the scandalous prospect that he and Burr are unwitting half-brothers. Mandel decided to exploit this rumor because "I thought it was funny".
â– The stunt should have been stopped at the brainstorming stage for sheer lack of good taste. But there are certainly quarters where good taste isn't considered a useful boundary, since it can fail to get audiences' juices flowing. That's sad, and it speaks poorly of people who continue to patronize that kind of entertainment, almost as much as it does of the people who create it.
â– Certainly, though, the encounter should have been stopped on the grounds that it treated both Corgan and Burr as objects to be manipulated for entertainment value, rather than as dignified human beings. Something is badly broken in a person who sees a shadowy but potentially intimate connection between other people as a vehicle for laughs and attention.
â– It's even worse that Mandel has put on a show of feeling wounded by a lack of acknowledgment of his supposed apology. Nobody is entitled to forgiveness, and even a sincere apology is often far less than a complete act of repair for harm done to others. There's a real sickness in objectifying others and then whimpering about one's own hurt feelings. It may be too much to expect Mandel or anyone on his team to truly reconcile the error of their ways, but it shouldn't be too much for audience members to ask honestly whether their own appetite for shock value has gone too far.
