They Call This REALITY TV…

July 21, 2008 by Lark

The reality is, that the circus has always had ‘freak-shows’. This is nothing new. (pssst. Don’t tell Hollywood!)

In the 1600’s there was a set of siamese twins that toured all of Europe making money.

In the 1700’s, at what is now, one of the finest Museums in Russia, they housed all kinds of rare human oddities.

And in the 1800’s P.T. Barnum exhibited “Tom Thumb”, a man who suffered from dwarfism.

From the mid 1800’s until the second world war, these kinds of shows were very popular in America. There were traveling shows that exhibited deformed animals, humans and otherwise unexplained items.

Coney Island, has a ‘freak-show’ to this day.

If you are interested in more history of mans fascination with freakishness, here is a great site I found, called Sideshow World.

Over the years, these types of shows and establishments fell out of favor. Our information age, has made these folks less of a curiosity. Medical Science has advanced both the treatment and ‘thinking’ of all of us…

But now what? Humans seem to need to satisfy this curiosity for the odd-ball.

I don’t know if watching it, makes each of us feel more normal..or what? I was browsing some video’s on Youtube today, and found these two. Has Reality TV become our modern day freak show?

Check out these two video’s. Watch the faces of the crowd. We haven’t changed in 400 years.