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I hate Spencer Pratt. And I imagine most people do. In fact, there are many people I hate. Yet, these are all the people that land on magazine cover, week after week. It seems as if I can’t pick up a copy of People magazine or Us Weekly without seeing Spencer Pratt’s face plastered somewhere, whether it’s marriage speculation, more drama from The Hills, or Spencer changing his name to King Spencer Pratt.2 It seems as if the answer is simple—if I hate Spencer Pratt so much, I should just stop buying and reading the magazines that he is on. Yet, I, along with millions of Americans each week, plunk down3 that dollar ninety nine in order to satisfy our hatred for Spencer.
It is a simple function of the human mind—somehow the people we loathe, the people that we detest, the people that we absolutely abhor—also happen to be the people we are the most fascinated with. Their triumphs allow us to scoff at4 them; their failures allow us to be glad that we aren’t living their sad lives. This simple obsession with the people that we hate simply allows us to feel better about ourselves. Pouring out hatred into people allows us to distract ourselves from our real everyday problems. It is far easier for us to hate someone rather than to approach our own problems.
First of all, pop culture and media are significant parts of our everyday lifestyle. But most often, it is the celebrities that we hate that are most read about, and their shows are the most watched, hence the phrase, “People we love to hate.” According to a survey taken in 2008 by BumpShack.com, a widely read celebrity gossip website, Paris Hilton was the number one most hated celebrity of that year. Yet, during 2008, each of the magazines that she graced5 sold on average, over 1.5 million copies. We often complain that we are sick of hearing about these people’s bad behavior, hard-partying habits, and mental breakdowns. Yet, it is us who consistently6 lands these celebrities on the magazine covers. Magazine companies know that we hate these celebrities, thus, we enjoy it when their lives go badly.
What makes these people that we hate so alluring7? Why is it, that a show must have a villain8 for it to be good? In a way, nice people and their nice lives simply get boring. Because we distance ourselves so from our own personal villains, their lives are increasingly fascinating as outsiders looking in. Furthermore, we like to live vicariously9 through these villains. While we must make actions based on what’s morally right and good in our everyday lives, these villains can do whatever they want with no shame, because they are, after all, villains. In some way, we would like to be the eternal scoundrel10 who seems to never win the affection of the audience, but doesn’t care all the less. And even though we hate them, we love them all the same11—or more of the feeling of loving to hate them.
Reality shows understand this concept perfectly. Although reality shows are supposed to be “reality”, there is always one person played off as the villain to capture the audience’s interest. Take the example of The Hills, for instance. Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag, the disgustingly evil couple, constantly annoy the protagonist, Lauren Conrad, with their gossip-spreading habits and their other petty tendencies.12 Even American Idol—an innocent show about singers aspiring to reach their dream of stardom—has an idol: the much talked about Simon Cowell.13 Simon Cowell is often shushed by Paula Abdul and booed by the audience—yet he remains the staple judge in the panel.14 Fox pays him three times the salary of Paula’s, because they know that he remains a key factor in audience’s tuning him.15 The audiences love to hate him more than they love to love the other judges, who remain kind and sympathetic. Most of us, whether we like to admit it or not, agree with Simon. Simon says exactly what most of us think—he says the things we know are too mean to say—but since he’s the villain, he can say it and we can’t.
So why is it, really, that I can’t stop stalking my enemy’s Facebook profile?16 Why is it that I can’t put down a magazine with yet another scandal involving Spencer Pratt’s life? Why is it that I tune into The Hills exclusively to see more of Spencer Pratt’s annoying monologues or vomitinducing apologies? I love to hate these people. Like a magnet, I am drawn into their lives, hoping to see another downfall so I can cheer, or a victory, so I can mock. We, as a whole, are good at mocking and laughing at other’s failures rather than cheering and applauding for the success of others. So it is easy to ridicule at17 these people whom we hate.
So next time you turn on an episode18 of The Hills or American Idol—maybe feel more appreciative towards Spencer Pratt and Simon Cowell for making them so hateful and yet so lovable to all of us.
单词卡片
1. Spencer Pratt: 斯潘塞·普拉特，是美国MTV频道热门真人秀节目《好莱坞女孩》中一位女主角海蒂·蒙塔格的男友，随着节目的播出，他们也成了美国最受关注的一对恋人。
2. plaster: 大量而醒目地张贴，贴满；speculation: 推测；drama: 戏剧性事件（场面，效果）。
3. plunk down: 〈口〉（啪地）扔下（钱）付款。
4. scoff at: 嘲笑，嘲弄。
5. grace: 使优美，装饰。这里指“登上杂志的版面”。
6. consistently: 一直，经常。
7. alluring: 非常诱人的，极有魅力的。
8. villain: （电影、戏剧、或小说中的）主要反面人物，反派角色。下文出现的villain则是“造成弊病的人或物”之意。
9. vicariously: 通过他人的经验感受地。
10. scoundrel: 恶棍，无赖。
11. all the same: 照样，依然。
12. protagonist: （戏剧、故事的）主角；petty: 微小的，琐碎的；tendency: （性格上的）倾向，个人的癖好。
13. aspire to: 对……胸怀大志；stardom: 明星的地位（身份）。
14. shush: 用“嘘”声要……静下来；boo: 向……喝倒彩，（向某人）发出嘘声（表示不满或轻蔑）staple: 最重要的，主要的；panel: （由选定人员组成的）专门评判小组。
15. Fox: 美国福克斯广播电视公司；tune: 调整（频率、频道等）以便收看（或收听）。
16. stalk: 悄悄地追踪，潜近；profile: 人物简介，传略。
17. ridicule at: 嘲笑，嘲弄。
18. episode: （电视、电影、戏剧等的）连续剧的一集。
我讨厌斯潘塞·普拉特。我想大部分人都和我一样。实际上，我讨厌的人还有很多，但同时，却正是这些人一周接着一周地出现在杂志封面上。无论是在《人物》杂志还是《美国娱乐周刊》上，我随处都可以碰见斯潘塞·普拉特的那张脸，要么是关于对他婚姻的猜测，要么是《好莱坞女孩》中更多的戏剧性相关事件，要么是关于他改名为金·斯潘塞·普拉特的消息。问题的答案看来再简单不过了，既然我如此讨厌斯潘塞·普拉特，那就不买也不看那些刊登有关他消息的杂志好了。然而，每周我却和数百万美国人一样，“砸”下那1.99美元，只为表达我们对斯潘塞的厌恶。
人类的心理具有一种简单的机能：即那些我们讨厌的、瞧不上的、极端憎恨的家伙同时也是最吸引我们的。他们的胜利令我们嘲笑不已；而他们的失败则让我们庆幸自己没有被卷入那种糟糕的生活。这种对我们所憎恶之人的单纯迷恋，让我们对自己感觉良好。把憎恨加诸于别人身上让我们不再关注自己现实生活中碰到的日常问题，毕竟，讨厌别人比解决自己的问题要简单多了。
首先，流行文化与大众传媒在我们的日常生活中占有重要地位。然而，极为普遍的情况是，我们最爱阅读令我们讨厌的娱乐圈名人的故事，他们的节目也是我们看得最多的，因此就有了这样一个说法“我们乐于去憎恨的人”。2008年，一个访问量颇广的名人花边新闻网站——BumpShack.com的一项调查显示：帕丽斯·希尔顿位列当年最被讨厌的名人榜首。然而同样是在2008年，凡是有她出镜的那些杂志，每一份的平均销量都超过了150万份。我们经常抱怨说自己对听闻有关这些人的糟糕行为已经受够了，还有他们时时买醉狂欢和精神崩溃的新闻。然而，正是我们将这些名人一次次地送上了杂志封面。杂志公司知道我们讨厌这些名人，如此一来，我们也乐见其生活变得一团糟。
是什么让这些我们讨厌的人如此充满魅力？为什么节目里必须有一个反面人物才使其成为好节目？一方面，好人以及他们的美好生活都太乏味。因为在真实生活里，我们尽量远离自己人性当中的恶习，节目中反面人物的生活在我们这些旁观者看来就变得愈加吸引人。而且，我们乐于通过这些反面人物来体验另一种生活。因为在日常生活中，我们的行为必须遵循合乎道德的准则，而这些反面人物则可以毫无廉耻之心地任意妄为，因为他们本就是“恶人”嘛。从某种意义上来说，我们希望成为那个永远不被观众所喜爱的无赖，什么也不用在乎。尽管我们讨厌他们，我们却照样喜爱他们——抑或更多的是那种乐于去恨他们的感觉。
真人秀节目深谙此中之理。尽管真人秀节目应该“真实”，但其中总会有一位反面人物来吸引观众的眼球。以《好莱坞女孩》为例，斯潘塞·普拉特和海蒂·蒙塔格这对令人讨厌的可恶情侣，总是用他们四处传播谣言的习惯和其他小癖好来滋扰节目的女主人公劳伦·康拉德。甚至包括《美国偶像》，这个帮助歌手实现明星梦、看似无辜的选秀节目，也有自己的（反派）偶像：即为人所津津乐道的西蒙·考埃尔。（节目的另一评委）宝拉·阿布尔经常对西蒙·考埃尔的评论发出嘘声，观众也常喝倒彩，而他却始终稳坐主评审台。福克斯公司付给他的薪水是宝拉的三倍，因为知道他才是观众收看这个节目的关键因素。观众乐于去恨他，远胜过他们对其他评委的喜爱，后者往往亲切而富有同情心。我们绝大多数观众，不管愿意承认与否，都同意西蒙的评论。西蒙恰恰说出了我们想说的话，他说的那些内容我们知道太刻薄是不应该说的，但因为他是个反面人物，他能说，而我们却不能。
那么，为什么我会不断地在脸谱网上窥探我憎恨的人的动态呢？为什么我舍不下刊登了斯潘塞·普拉特又一生活丑闻的杂志呢？为什么我会去独独追看《好莱坞女孩》，只为更多地看到斯潘塞·普拉特让人厌烦的独白或令人作呕的道歉呢？我乐于去讨厌这些人。像是磁铁一般，我被他们的生活所吸引，希望看到他们堕落，我可以欢呼，看到他们成功，我可以嘲笑。我们人类，作为一个整体，更擅长于对别人的失败幸灾乐祸，而不是为别人的成功鼓掌欢呼。因此嘲笑那些我们讨厌的人相对会轻松容易些。
所以，当你下次观看《好莱坞女孩》或《美国偶像》时，或许会更欣赏斯潘塞·普拉特和西蒙·考埃尔，对我们所有人来说，他们是如此可恨又可爱。
