The bizarre appeal of ‘Flavor of Love’ at Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture

The bizarre appeal of ‘Flavor of Love’

by Carmen Van Kerckhove

flava flav california raisin Lola Ogunnaike just wrote a great article for The New York Times examining the overwhelming success of VH1’s reality show “Flavor of Love.” The show’s first-season finale in March drew nearly six million viewers, making it the highest-rated show in the cable channel’s history.

(Her observation that Flavor Flav “bears more than a passing resemblance to a California Raisin character” is also hilariously spot-on!)

Personally I can’t stand the show. Even having to hear it play in the background (my boyfriend is a loyal viewer) makes me nauseous, mainly because of all the slurping noises — presumably from when the girls make out with Flav. *shudder*

And yet, I know so many perfectly intelligent, conscious people *coughJenChaucough* who can’t help but watch the show. Is it just the can’t-look-away trainwreck-quality of the show? Or is there some deeper appeal?

Fans of the show call it a harmless guilty pleasure, and its star a lovable and unlikely Romeo. Critics have accused the show of trafficking in racial stereotypes and have called Flav everything from a sellout to a modern-day Stepin Fetchit.

“Anytime we mention ‘Flavor of Love’ on our show, the phone lines start blowing up,” said Donnell Rawlings, a New York morning radio personality on the popular hip-hop radio station Power 105.1. “Good or bad, our listeners love talking about Flav. They can’t get enough of it. You’ve got beauties and you’ve got the beast, and it’s become one of those shows you must watch every week.”

In any case, fans of “Flavor of Love” and Flava Flav are in luck. Apparently, the franchise is expanding:

Mr. Cronin said he and his partner are working on a spinoff of “Flavor of Love,” which will feature 20 men vying for the affections of one woman. This doesn’t mean VH1 viewers have seen the last of Flav. Ideas for a nighttime talk show, an animated series and another reality show, where he acts as a Cyrano de Bergerac dispensing dating advice, are being batted around. He also plans to release a self-titled independent album on Halloween.

Trackbacks & Pings

The 10 biggest race and pop culture trends of 2006: Part 2 of 3 at Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture on 26 Jan 2007 at 12:35 pm

[…] TV: Flava Flav, the new millenium’s Stepin Fetchit, ruled reality TV in 2006. The March finale of his VH1 show Flavor of Love drew 6 million viewers, making it the highest-rated show ever for the cable channel. And when the show returned in early August, 3 million people tuned in for the premiere. But Flavor of Love is just the tip of the iceberg in Viacom’s not-so-classy depictions of black folks, as I outlined in this post. In November we heard a rumor that BET was going to start a reality show starring Bobby Brown and Karrine “Superhead” Steffans (author of Confessions of a Video Vixen). And TV commercials continued to rely on the archetype of the big black sassy mammy for humor. […]

Comments

dcase wrote:

I rarely watch t.v. during the semester due to research and grading responsibilities but due to the tremendous buzz from people I know ( my sister watches the shows and reruns obsessively), I sat and watched episodes . One episode involved a young woman who actually defecated on the floor and showed no shame. I couldn’t bring myself to ever watch this show again. It reminded me of Spike Lee’s Bamboozled.

Modern day minstrelsy; no more, no less. I think the appeal of the show is the concept of a group of (mostly) attractive women demeaning themselves for an old, black,unattractive, ex-crackhead. This show is the culmination of over a decade of reality show popularity combining ridiculous characters (Flav himself in a horned viking helmet and Movado facade on his chest), stereotypical behavior (pick any participant), sex (Flav and the girls), taboo (interracial intimacy), and overall idiocy. No wonder people are drawn to this show.

Posted 02 Oct 2006 at 2:15 pm ¶
Admin wrote:

oh no you didn’t. i can’t believe you called me out as a flav-watcher, cvk. messed up. ok, now that the cat is outta the bag….yes, i watch the show from time to time..the re-runs. you can be sure i don’t rush home to watch the newly released episodes.

for me, it is definitely like watching a wreck. you’re horrified, but you just can’t turn away. on top of that, i just don’t understand whether these ladies are serious?! i mean, after just a couple of weeks, they feel so connected to this man who is also locking lips with the handfuls of other girls who are in the house? it’s so gross, so appalling, and so depressing all at once. what has happened to us?

i mean, i know that these ladies are in it for the fortune and fame. (please try to convince me that it’s really for love. i dare you!)… but even still. is it worth it? entertainment has become watching people who are shameless and down to embarass themselves. it’s unbelievable. i think the fact that i am so in awe of all of it keeps me watching….

i’d rather be blogging though. i feel like i lose brain cells with each tuning in, that’s for sure. ~JC

Posted 02 Oct 2006 at 7:09 pm ¶
Rachel S. wrote:

Don’t feel bad Jen; I watch it too. My students told me that I should say I watch it for “research purposes.” They tell me that about all of the trashy shows I watch. LOL!!

I justify it in my own head by saying I know it’s fiction, and I know enough to recognize and dissect the stereotypes. But I don’t think that about most of the audience.

Posted 02 Oct 2006 at 7:36 pm ¶
Admin wrote:

YES. It’s research. For Racialicious. OF COURSE! Thanks Rachel. ~JC

Posted 03 Oct 2006 at 12:07 pm ¶
Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:

Haha… okay then, it’s research. And I watch America’s Next Top Model to compare and contrast beauty standards among different ethnic groups.

Posted 03 Oct 2006 at 2:28 pm ¶
Damie_Troy wrote:

Why are many of the so called “reality” shows like Flave’s promoted as real when they’re obviously fake. Isn’t that false advertising?

Posted 06 Oct 2006 at 12:11 am ¶