Programs Geared Toward the U.S. Market Dumbed Down, Sexed Up

The Ranger, the host and mascot of Naturenet, the UK’s most popular independent website, noticed a peculiar difference in the way nature programs are narrated for British audiences versus American audiences. Basically, nature programs aren’t interesting to the American market unless they’ve been dumbed down, with inane narration that makes it sound more like America’s Funniest Videos than a documentary about, say, bees pollinating flowers.

The Ranger describes the ‘chuckling, anthropomorphic’ commentary on a National Geographic clip that’s complete with dramatic music and sound effects as compared to the ‘quiet, almost abstract delivery’ of Sir Richard Attenborough on a similar BBC clip. Here are samples, from The Ranger, starting with the National Geographic narration:

“The jumping spider packs a ton of skulking pouncing killing fire-power in its tiny body.”
“If this were a slasher film, the audience would be screaming, ‘Look out behind you!’”
“How’d you like to stare into these eyes, with your life on the line? Ha! Yikes!”

Sir Attenborough’s narration:

“A white crab spider sits, almost invisible, on a white flower, waiting in ambush. And it catches a bee.”
“…ultra-violet markings on some flowers serve to guide insects to nectar.”
“Honey-bees seem more likely to visit flowers with crab spiders on them than those without.”

This is sort of embarrassing, isn’t it? Not to say that all American programs are dumbed down to this extent, or that all British programs are really smart, but The Ranger does have a point. Americans seem to need everything ultra-dramatic and either humorous or full of action in order to remain attentive. Our television shows seem to get more sensationalist and trashy as each week passes… because that’s what sells. It’s sad, but true. It makes satire like Idiocracy seem all the more possible in the future.

Link [The Ranger]
Photo credit: 20th Century Fox

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