Remember those terrible “crazy frog” ringtone commercials that used to air during The Daily Show on Comedy Central? Everyone complained about how stupid they were, but guess what: teenagers have their own credit cards now and the people who made those are feeling ashamed about their annoying crazy frog ringtones all the way to the bank. Similarly in teenagers have their own credit cards now news, I just saw this outraged blog post about the rise of TV shows where people read paid text messages sent in by viewers: Text Me TV: Proof That The Apocalypse Is Near:

That’s right, for only 99 cents, you can send a text message to two complete strangers, and it will appear for a minute or two at 3:00 in the morning on some regional public-access network that nobody watches.

This is one of those times where the mere concept for a show is so stunningly retarded, I can’t believe that it was approved by anyone, ever, for any reason.

Believe it! These shows, which have regional equivalents in a lot of cities (and are big in Europe, apparently) are the exact opposite of retarded. They’re total genius! Not since The Hills has a show concept more brazenly skipped past the “Actually creating content” part of the equation and gone straight for the “Cashing the check” part. There’s something pure and beautiful about these shows in the way they’re just like “This is what you want, kids? Well here. Have it. (Cha-ching!)” These shows are the entertainment equivalent of making your kid smoke an entire pack of cigarettes in one sitting so he never wants a cigarette again. Except that might work sometimes, and these trends aren’t going to make pop culture smarter. There are excerpts from this particular show on YouTube, but despite my “defense”, they’re exactly what they sound like: people reading text messages on TV. I just wish I owned the idea.