Two events made the papers this week. Prominent bookshop, Die Boekehuis, announced it would be closing its doors. The other announcement was that cast members from the reality TV show, Jersey Shore, would be visiting South Africa. These two events may seem unrelated but sadly, they are. With more South Africans embracing celebrity culture, and worse, idolising people who in other circumstances you would avoid or point and laugh at, is it any surprise that people are reading less?

I am trying to pinpoint exactly when in our history we became stupid. I can’t blame television. If anything, people such as Sir David Attenborough have inspired many inquisitive minds to study the natural world. Television has always featured shows that are bubblegum for the mind but somewhere in the last decade programming has been on its way to rock bottom.

The advent of reality TV, for me, is the root. Firstly, the people on these shows are hardly good representatives for the human race. If aliens are headed towards our planet and basing their decision to vaporise us based on our reality TV shows we won’t be around much longer. Secondly, perhaps more disturbing, is the voyeuristic nature of the average human. You wouldn’t spy into your neighbour’s house, so why should you care what a couple of annoying Americans with blood alcohol levels higher than their IQ’s get up to?

I can’t put my finger on why but many people seem to be impressed by someone purely because they’ve seen this person on TV. Just because someone makes headlines and is always in the news doesn’t mean we should praise them. Gaddafi, Joseph Fritzl and Robert Mugabe have all been seen on TV – should we show them adulation because their images appear on the box in our homes?

And given that the Karcrapian clan are famous for little else other than paid-for Tweets and scripted “reality” TV shows, would you care about them otherwise? They are only celebrities because they have told us so and the gullible public can’t wait to have a look at their inane antics. By “gullible public” I am obviously not referring to you or I. The fact that you are reading suggests you too lament that closing of a book store and abhor the strange, orange, classless TV creatures that will soon visiting our shores. I am going to suggest to their PR person that the Jersey Shore mob take a dip near Seal Island while wearing pilchard flavoured sunblock. The PR person will no doubt see through my plan but if I had direct access to the cast, I am sure I could convince them that it’s the best place to meet dolphins.

The worst part about celebrity culture is that bad publicity, such as my blog, doesn’t seem to lessen the fame of so called celebs. Paul “Pee-Wee Herman” Reubens was a children’s entertainer who was caught performing lewd acts in an adult theatre. He has a million followers on Twitter.

What does it take to disappoint people?

Find out more about Shaun's stand-up comedy shows at Gingercomedy.co.za