Lunch today involved a very interesting discussion. I happen to have a very good friend who was actually born in Korea and moved to the United States when he was a young child. We both enjoy the same types of TV shows and movies which often involve some form of martial arts theme – As previously mentioned, I have spent almost 18 years studying martial arts and my friend has been immersed in the genre from his heritage. A significant portion of our lunch time conversations generally focus on critiquing shows/movies we have recently seen or our progress on Rock Band (yes, we are both hooked ever since he introduced me to Guitar Hero I on PS2). The conversation today started with my summarization of the previous night’s American Gladiator. Okay, okay, let me confess – I did my run routine on the treadmill and ended up pushing myself a little farther than I wanted to. I ended up laying down on the couch and was literally too exhausted to reach for the remote, so I ended up watching whatever station was on. To my disgust, it ended up being the new American Gladiator show.
After watching it for about 15 minutes, I figured out the formula – this ultimately led to a distinction between the Asian culture and ours – but first I’ll explain my observation.
So here is what I consider the formula:
- Focus a show around a competition – in this particular instance, an athletic competition
- On one team, put the most skilled and athletic people you can hire and provide them the very best opportunity to excel in the said competitive events (i.e. pay them to work out all day, provide the best facilities etc.)
- On the other team (or teams) put individuals that are significantly inferior in size and abilities
- Begin by having the superior individuals brag about their capabilities and taunt (as in belittle) the clearly inferior team
- The inferior team responds by boasting on their ability to defeat the superior team and possibly throw in some taunts of their own to define the conflict
- Inferior team participates in the event and in most cases fails to support the pre-event claims
- Superior team re-taunts the inferior team
- Inferior team admits to being inferior
- Repeat cycle on the next event.
Note, if the inferior team does win, then the superior team makes an excuse, threatens individual harm in the next event and sulks off the stage to think up clever taunts for the next event.
So there it is, the heart of the American athletic competition show. Need another example, okay, Pros vs Joes. The exact same formula applies, but on step #2, simply use athletes who have competed in the particular sport most of their life and make sure you put the Joe in the worst possible scenario you can.
My friend and I both agree this formula sucks and leads to very little entertainment value since the odds are stacked – this does provide a higher entertainment value if the underdog actually wins, but it isn’t worth the annoying taunting and superfluous bragging. We then contrasted that with Asian shows based on athletic competitions. For example, the Ninja Warrior show on G4. In this particular show, each contestant is given a competitive task to finish in a set amount of time. Those that complete the course proceed to another set of challenges until either there is no-one left or someone wins by completing the last task quicker than someone else.
There is one huge difference! There is no taunting other competitors, there is no belittling of competitors that fail – honor is in trying. In fact, the other competitors actually cheer on their fellow competitors and share in their disappointments. This I admire and in contrast despise of the American sports. What value does taunting bring to the table – I see it in almost all of our sports these days – Football – I defensive lineman gets beat close to a 100 times a game, but as soon as he gets one sack, he beats his chest and does his dance, Boxing – prefight conjectures, and asinine gestures in the ring, Professional Basketball – miss six shots in a row, but walk three steps and bank a luck shot off the glass results in finger pointing and jersey pulling – to name a few examples. I will take a moment to comment on the UFC – there are some boasts and comments prefight, but I have found a different take on some of these activities likely based on the martial art foundation for almost all of those competitors – yes, there are some exceptions, but generally the camaraderie is there, they touch gloves at the beginning and they remain true to their martial art training by acknowledging the competitor at the end of the competition – wisdom from my Kwan Jang Nim “If it comes to a fight (battle), believe that you have already lost (will die) – any other outcome is a victory”
I actually went back to my Tae Kwon Do and Hapkido instruction manuals (I documented everything I learned after every instruction session – a 3 inch binder full of 18 yrs of knowledge) to recall what our tenents were:
Tae Kwo Do Du Jung Sin (Tenents of TDK) – Ye-Ui (Courtesy)
Kwan Jang Nim Hoon Se (Master Commandment) – Kyum Son (Humble) and Sa-Rang (Love/Mercy)
Tae San Mo En (The more you know, less you talk , or not talk at all)
In Jae Mo Juck (Meek person does not have enemy)
These were core to my training – at the beginning of instruction, we recited these principles – at the end we reflected on our commitment to these during meditation. I have to believe that this fundamental foundation results in my disproval of American athletic competitions – at least the ones dominating our TV shows as of late – and now this appears to be propagating down to our children based on the recent advertisement for the My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad show . show. There are few absolutes in my life, but I can tell you now, I refuse to ever watch that show.
Am I missing something here, have I lost a core trait of my heritage….? I don’t know, but if I was blessed with a child myself, I would look forward to the first day I enrolled him him/her in their first martial arts lesson.
Life Intrigued 