Another Commercial for Dog Cloning
Posted by Pete Shanks May 25, 2012
Biopolitical Times
The TLC network's "I Cloned My Pet" show broadcast in January was so appalling that inevitably they did it again. "I Cloned My Pet 2" aired on May 21st, and the network even got a "review" (actually a preview) in the New York Times, which opened:
Yes, a song. "The Clone Song" is a paean to having "the chance to do it all, over and over again" because "life was one hell of a dance, I want a second chance." It does not get better, and is not saved by the melody, unlike Isaac Asimov's older and more ribald lyric of the same title, which is set to the tune of "Home on the Range." We cannot endorse that one either, but at least it's witty.
The new effort was co-written by Dr George Semel, one of the show's participants, in an attempt to raise the money to clone his former chihuahua. That's odd, since he has a 20-year Beverly Hills cosmetic surgery practice and is the co-author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cosmetic Surgery; you'd think he could afford it. Maybe he was crafting a compelling reality-show storyline. Or perhaps he just wants to be a simple rock star.
As to the TLC program, which briefly filled a vacant channel, it brings to mind the words of the prophet on the subject of TV:
Surprisingly, it’s possible to take “I Cloned My Pet 2” seriously for almost its entire length. Right up until the moment when one pet owner consults a medium to find out her dead dog’s opinion on whether she should clone him.Since this notice was in the Newspaper of Record, it was picked up and flung around the Internet, and probably increased the audience, some of whom had missed the first show. John Woestendiek suffered through it for all of us:
I was going to stay silent and let “I Cloned My Pet 2″ pass peacefully in the night.
But I just can’t. ...
All in all, it was, like the first installment, another quasi-documentary that avoided the harsh realities of dog cloning — at least when it comes to all the dogs used in the process of cloning just one.Details, rational arguments, commentary and a song can be found at John's Ohmidog blog.
Instead, reality show style, it reconfirmed how wacky people can get, especially when it comes to their pets, and the lengths they will go to get what they think, or at least let themselves believe, is a live version of their dead dog.
Yes, a song. "The Clone Song" is a paean to having "the chance to do it all, over and over again" because "life was one hell of a dance, I want a second chance." It does not get better, and is not saved by the melody, unlike Isaac Asimov's older and more ribald lyric of the same title, which is set to the tune of "Home on the Range." We cannot endorse that one either, but at least it's witty.
The new effort was co-written by Dr George Semel, one of the show's participants, in an attempt to raise the money to clone his former chihuahua. That's odd, since he has a 20-year Beverly Hills cosmetic surgery practice and is the co-author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cosmetic Surgery; you'd think he could afford it. Maybe he was crafting a compelling reality-show storyline. Or perhaps he just wants to be a simple rock star.
As to the TLC program, which briefly filled a vacant channel, it brings to mind the words of the prophet on the subject of TV:
Sometimes you gotta do like Elvis did and shoot the damn thing out.
Previously on Biopolitical Times: