I have been watching some late night TV and it was great.

First there was a terrific episode of Sex (now I need to get this right) and the City. In this episode there was a particularly terrific scene where Kristen Johnson, who was the big, beautiful one in Third Rock from the Sun and who is a comedienne of genius, playing a fat, forty, New York woman, alone at a party, still trying to snort coke and smoke cigarettes (which are damn near illegal in New York nowadays from what I hear), well, this sentence is getting out of control so I need to start another one. Kristen Johnson first opened the window (which was towards the top end of a skyscraper), so that she could carry on smoking but blow the smoke out, and then she made this speech about how New York is "over!!!". Certainly her time of having fun in New York looked like it was over. Then she said "I'm so bored I could die!". And then she did. By falling out of the window. I know, you could see it coming, but it was still great that it did actually happen.

Here is the magnificent Kristen in Third Rock:

And then, as if that wasn't great enough, immediately after that, there was The Simple Life, with Paris Hilton (see: The Internet) and her Silly Friend, who have arranged to go and live in the Wilds of Texas while being followed around by TV cameramen, and to do terrible things like get Jobs, and do Work. Only they are no good at it, on account of being Spoilt Rich Girls. They make life hell for any employer stupid enough to engage them. Perhaps these employers calculate that having a TV crew wandering around, watching Paris and Silly Friend play the fool will somehow work out to their commercial advantage, but pretty soon, whatever advantage there may be is overwhelmed by the impossibility of getting Paris and Silly Friend to take their work seriously, and to stop giggling and causing havoc. The sight of the two of them wandering around town dressed as giant icecreams and eventually falling on top of each other in a supermarket make me laugh out loud, despite it now being after midnight and this being a block of flats full of wage slaves a few of whom might even bang on my door if I give them an excuse. Also, they are starting to party (Paris and Silly Friend, not my neighbours) at night, which can only cause even more havoc.

I have seen fag ends of this show before and found it fun, but my fixed loathing of "reality TV" shows confused me. Basically, I told myself, I can't be enjoying this. It's reality TV. It's shit. It must be.

Normally, what is dementedly known as "reality" TV is mind-numbingly idiotic, being full of boring English people sitting about having deep conversations about utterly trivial trivialities, but lacking the words to actually say any of the things they are trying to say. Also, they are dumped down in completely unreal situations like a specially constructed house or a desert island and they have to do completely unreal things and win unreal competitions dreamed up by idiotically unreal TV people. But American girls being silly about serious things, real things, like work, other people's lives and businesses, etc., is far more fun to watch.

Why has this person not told me about this programme before? Maybe she has.