"OMG. That show was awful."
"That girl needs to go to her room. I can't believe how disrespectful she was!"
"My husband kept commenting that he just wanted to punch the mom in the face."
"She's fat. What kind of pageant contestant is fat?"
"Have you seen her talk with her belly scrunched up like that? How horrible!"
Keep in mind that these people are fans of stuff like "Duck Dynasty" and "My Strange Addiction". I thought they'd like the antics of Honey Boo Boo, Mama, Sugar Bear, and the rest. But my current favorite reality TV show was roundly panned.
In an attempted to deflect, I pointed out that Mary and Matthew finally got married and Mrs. Hughs now has breast cancer. But that didn't work. None of them had ever watched "Downton Abbey" either.
I finally told them that "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" is one of those shows that you really love or you really hate and then I secretly prayed that I would still love the show when I eventually caught it in the reruns.
That happened tonight -- at least the first half-hour. I was at the gym and was delighted to catch the first half of the latest episode. I was a Halloween-themed show. In fact, this entire season is a series of holiday-themed episodes. Next week will be Thanksgiving. Then comes a clip show. Then Christmas will be rearing its head. We might even see Veterans Day, though I'm not holding my breath.
The family spent the episode gearing up for Halloween, including pulling an assortment of pranks on each other, picking out pumpkins, carving Jack O'Lanterns, and going through a huge corn maze. Sugar Bear was still laid up from his recent ATV accident, so was stuck in a wheelchair for much of the episode. Mama died her hair blond with the help of the girls. And we learned that she has a real fear of mayonnaise. We also got to hear the family argue whether or not vegetarians eat mayonnaise.
My favorite part of the show was when the family carved up their pumpkins. They ended up getting into a pumpkin-gut fight and smearing those nasty seeds all over each others' faces and clothes. Things wrapped up with Uncle Poodle deciding to be clever and stick his head inside one of the pumpkins. It was a cute image until he realized his head was stuck inside the 50-pound pumpkin and everyone left him outside to figure out how to save himself.
This is the same family that enjoys goofing off together and being gross together. I'm looking forward to watching the rest of the first episode when I get a chance, as well as the rest of this season of holiday specials... but maybe I'll be less vocal about my joy in watching this show -- especially when at work. It can remain one of my guilty secrets.