KHLOE (left) and Kim Kardashian are laughing all the way to the bank. AP
Quite a lot of viewers archly and snittily dismiss Kim Kardashian and her huge, attention-grabbing clan as irrelevant irritants on the TV screen, but it looks like the “Krazy” Kardashians have gotten one over their fastidious critics—because they’re laughing all the way to the bank!
Kim alone is now worth more than $40 million, not just due to her savvy marital moves, but also because she has turned out to be a smart businesswoman who knows how to make mega-millions out of her personal “brand” and all the trendy products and services it’s launched.
Profitably intrusive
Topping her and her family’s “popularizing” gambits are all of the “reality TV” shows that they currently top-bill. Those profitably intrusive productions have made stars even of her “lesser” siblings, as well as her parents Bruce and Kris Jenner.
In addition, the youngest Jenners, Kylie and Kendall, have become teen faves in their own right, making their own fat fortunes at an age when most of their contemporaries have to make a buck by slaving away at fast-food joints.
Most depressing of all, even the family’s in-laws and other hangers-on have become “celebrities” of sorts, even if only by way of dim, reflected glory.
Most irritating of all is the lazy, shiftless but handsome in-law who keeps getting into messy scrapes that he constantly has to get extricated from!
Come to think of it, however, even this resident loser could very well be part of the show’s “success,” since he gives viewers a handy moving target to diss and hate, and they feel better afterwards!
After all, when a family has several reality TV shows running concurrently, they have to think up “extreme” ways to keep viewers watching, and not realize that they’re getting bored out of their skulls by the extended family’s shallow conflicts and silly antics.
Recently, for instance, the older siblings were at each other’s throats because Kim was secretly resenting her sister’s being a mother, while she wasn’t sure if she had it in her to be a good parent.
When Kim finally admitted to her being insecure and envious, she shed a few telegenic tears to prove to all and sundry that she was a human being, not a Kim Kardashian wind-up doll, or ’bot!
Some months ago, the big deal on the show was the (temporary) disappearance of Kendall and Kylie, which terrified everyone and sent the entire family on a frantic search through the missing girls’ fashionable playgrounds!
Slim scenario
The entire episode stretched this slim scenario out to the max to keep viewers on edge—only to reveal that the girls weren’t in any real danger at all, just moping over their temporary loss of privileges due to some tiny infraction or other.
That’s the way it goes with reality TV shows, especially those that make a lot of money out of shallow celebrities’ predictable day-to-day lives: “Interesting” things have to keep happening—or, if they don’t, they have to be strategically made to occur by bringing in the right “supporting cast” of irritants and issues that will make stars’ lives less apparently boring than they actually are. That’s the “real reality” on “reality TV!”