Tonya is a doomed spelling

This past weekend I got a chance to spend some quality time with my MTV, and, more specifically, the new Real World/ Road Rules Challenge, The Inferno II: Bad Asses vs. Good Guys. Beyond the core entertainment value (which is very, very high. As is always the case when a disgruntled girlfriend says, "If I was a guy and you stuck your vagina in my face I'd fuck you too," totally seriously. And is even more the case when the girlfriend is Robin "my boobs are fake, I am a drunk, yet I am somehow 'good'", and her boyfriend is Mark "I am far too old to be affiliated with this show, let alone be dating Robin," and she's fending off Tonya "most likely schizophrenic to ever go undiagnosed.") there’s something weird about the RR/RW challenges, having to do with the nexus of reality TV and performance and acting and longevity.
Reality TV participants are often acting, either by virtue of editing, strategy, or shame. Certain personality traits are emphasized, others de-emphasized, so the story can go forward, the game be won, and your mother not disown you. What’s different about the ongoing RW/RR series is the feedback. The same cast members appear again and again, giving them the chance to hone their shtick.
So maybe Tonya didn’t know that I would hate her for being a whiney, Christian do-gooder when she was on the Real World Chicago. And maybe she didn’t know that I’d love to hate her when she turned into a shit talking, mentally unbalanced, slut on her first challenge. But now, on a show where the viewers picked the teams by deciding who was good and who was bad in an online poll, she Must know that crazy, whorish antics are what we expect from her.
And, holy shit, she delivers. First in that catfight with Robin in which she monologues to the camera, “I am not a liar. I might be a whore. But I’m not a liar. Call me a whore. But I’m not a liar.” Will do. And then, when she takes all of San Francisco Beth’s clothes and throws them in the pool, all calm, cool, and 100% psycho (this incident is also the first and only time that SF Beth has ever been the wronged party).
While all of this is going on the rest of the cast is gathered around hysterically laughing about how they’re the “bad guys” and this is totally appropriate. The Miz flexes his arms and mugs for the camera, “I LOVE the Inferno II,” hopefully the one and only time we ever think the same exact thing at the same exact time.
The show’s participants seem happier to be on TV than anyone. They’re lives are complete scams of paid vacations, free drinks, easy sex, and motivational speeches that will go on forever and ever so long as they look good in bathing suits and display zero restraint. They seem happy about this deal (and if they weren’t, I guess they’d go get actual lives), and fully aware that it is, in fact, a deal. And that’s, I think, the weirdness. Tonya’s antics and all the self-congratulatory laughter it caused are really funny (to them) because, among other things, they know it makes really, really good television. And they’re all proud of themselves for it, primping like cocks, because they’re putting together a good show. After seasons and seasons of experience, the cast is staging the drama without direction.
But the cast isn’t quite laughing at themselves. More they’re laughing at how funny and clever they are, which is also why I’m laughing- because they’re so not. Their stagy arrogance even lets me laugh at them without feeling bad about it at all.
In the end, they’re so wrapped up in the RR/RW bubble (which conceivably dominates all aspects of their lives, as it’s their job, their friends) that they can no longer see what makes them jackasses. When they look stupid (all the time) fighting, stripping, dancing, cursing, strategizing, and generally misbehaving, it’s entirely self-inflicted.