Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Guilty Pleasure Confession

Urban Dictionary defines guilty pleasure in the following 2 ways (with spelling errors corrected).

1. Guilty pleasure
Something that you shouldn't like, but like anyway.

2. Guilty pleasure
n. to describe a certain substance or activity a person enjoys, and often practices, while said person morally believed or is informed that the substance or activity is abnormal, improper or incorrect.

I have also thought that a guilty pleasure is something that you enjoy but realize that it is a total waste of time, energy and money. I was thinking about guilty pleasures when I chose to sit on my couch and watch TV last night instead of doing my laundry. My justification to myself was that the CW was showing an encore of the season finale of Gilmore Girls. I saw the episode back in May when it originally aired, but I missed the last minute which was *the cliffhanger moment* that is so typical of the Gilmore Girls. I wanted to be completely “up to date” when the season premiers next Tuesday.

With all that said, I don’t consider Gilmore Girls to be a “guilty pleasure” in my life. But my recent behavior is beginning to make me wonder. I have recently started listening to several unofficial podcasts about the Gilmore Girls. I am amazed that someone could be so obsessed with a television show that they would create a studio in their home and then create a podcast weekly just to talk about it. I continue to tell myself that I think that these people are stupid and I can’t believe that they are so obsessed, yet, I continue to listen.

I think I realized that I was no better than these fanatic fans when I found myself on the elliptical machine at the gym on Saturday morning and was listening as this husband and wife team described how they longed to visit Stars Hollow (the make-believe town where the Gilmore Girls live) and how they are going to plan their summer vacation to California next year so that they can visit the set at the WB. I can’t believe anyone would do this and therefore I keep listening. It’s like the car accident on the highway that you just can’t help looking at. I find this level of commitment to a television show utterly fascinating. They do know it’s a TV show right?

So I will keep enjoying my guilty pleasure as long as it doesn’t turn me into a totally crazed fan.

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