RECURSIVE TV

The other day I was thinking about that show where ordinary people watch telly: Gogglebox.

Oh alright then. Put that raised eyebrow back. Yes. I was actually watching Gogglebox. Well, we both were; the lady finds it hilarious.

I suppose it is funny. In living rooms of different colours, couples, friends, siblings, and partners gather together and react to the TV moments of the week. Then up and down the country in living rooms of different colours, the rest of us gather and comment on these Goggleboxers commenting on the telly that we’ve all seen together while we watch it all together. Again.

“And they’re real people?” I asked Sammy. They are, she said.

“And they’re in their real living rooms?” They are, she said.

I guess it provides a very honest review of television. It also opens a little window on the nation of telly-watchers, which, if the show is to be believed, we all are. To be honest, I just wanted to tell them all to switch it off and go out. All we ever see of them is them watching the TV and I don’t think it’s very healthy.

“Get outside! Go to the pub, the park, the library, Nando’s, anywhere before this television thing starts eating your life!”

It is interesting watching recursive television. What if the Goggleboxers watched their own programme for their own programme? Then we’d be watching them commenting on themselves watching the TV watching the TV they’ve already seen twice, on TV again. I’ve a feeling the likes of Giles and Mary would get caught in an infinite televisual loop.

The irony wasn’t lost on me either, as I commented on all of this in front of Gogglebox with Sammy on the sofa. The only difference between us and the Goggleboxers was that we weren’t being filmed. And that must be true of everyone who curls up at home in front of the telly. All across the country, people just like us and them, must have been cosying up in front of glasses of white wine on sofas with colourful cushions just to watch a small flashing cabinet in the corner of the room.

I think it’s all of us who need to just go outside.