alana-thompson

A Portrait of a Portrait of an American Family: A Day With the Here Comes Honey Boo Boo Clan

Rich Juzwiak · 09/26/12 10:35AM

Somewhere on the brief walk from the Macon Mall's Spencer Gifts to rue21, a bright discount store glittering with pageant-level tackiness but no pretensions of refinement, somebody farted. Loudly. It was in the potential earshot of the staring kiosk workers in the Georgia mall, the mass of people who were trailing the nine of us, and even the paparazzi 20 yards ahead.

Goodbye, Glitzy: Here Comes Honey Boo Boo as Tearjerker

Rich Juzwiak · 08/23/12 09:45AM

TLC's deliriously trashy Here Comes Honey Boo Boo makes a lot of people whine about the quality of TV (as though you can't just change the channel to find something to rest your highbrow on), the exploitation of children (as though this show is a cause and not a symptom of much greater cultural values) and the fall of civilization (as though we haven't been headed there anyway, and as though that even matters since the world is going to end this year). However, it hasn't made anyone actually cry (to my knowledge)...until last night.

What Honey Boo Boo Child Is and Why You Should Care: A Guide to Reality TV's Trashiest Sensation

Rich Juzwiak · 08/09/12 12:30PM

Last night, TLC premiered its first Toddlers & Tiaras spin-off, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. It is a show that reinforces what its source has been trying to tell us all along: the families of those who enter their children into beauty pageants are way more fascinating than the pageants themselves. The show's resulting viral noise has been astounding. You know a piece of pop culture is onto something when many agree that is that it's signaling the fall of civilization. Not since Jersey Shore's debut have the pearls been clutched so ardently, the eyes fixed so steadily.