Boos for American Idol

Isabel and I sat through last night's American Idol award ceremony in its entirety. It was one part lounge act, one part minstrel show, and one part fraternity hazing. The "Golden Idol" gag awards, or whatever they were called, were exploitive, uncomfortable, and (in the hands of Ryan Seacrest) horribly mean-spirited. A program that should have been a two-hour celebration and parade of talent, became a cruel freak show. Who thought it was a good idea to haul the grossly overweight, infantilized African American woman on stage to get a fake award? The next recipient was an African American male, who they then asked to sing without a microphone and then cut him off, complaining how bad he was. I'm surprised Ryan Seacrest didn't come out in burnt cork doing a number from the Jazz Singer. But it wasn't as if the show was racist. Not at all. They mocked white people as well...the two white guys who obviously have some kind of physical abnormalities (and was the one mentally handicapped?). "You guys are good sports," Seacrest nervously said to try to make the viewers feel slightly less uncomfortable. Bad form. I would have been embarassed if I were one of the finalists. Indeed, the mockery is what I remember most from the program. I vaguely recall the finalists having some interesting musical numbers, and I remember covering my ears when Bette Midler horrifically tortured her own song -- but what I remember most wasn't the congratulations for the winner, nor the tremendous talent of the singers. What I remember most was the carnivalesque freak show, and the insipidly boring and elongated speech about how many records American Idols previous contestants have sold.
On the good side, this means I now get to make Isabel sit through something really geeky...I'm thinking possibly the straight-to-DVD Robotech movie...the Transformers movie doesn't count because she wants to see it more than I do...