Wednesday 18 April, 2007

Personality Contests....

Hello Dear Friends,
Do you think that the personality contests that we had seen at Convergence and the Arts Fest were run the way it was required to be run? And the questions were proper? And do you really think that to be a great personality one should always respond to all the rubbish showered at you by someone who in doing so reflects the flaws in his/her personality?
For a moment I thought 'You were worshipping false gods'.
May be I'm wrong......
But if I were a contestant I'd never have strayed from the principles & values that I hold near to my heart to impress some one on his terms & win the contest.
May be I'm too old fashioned & conservative......
But I think & I think aloud, that this is not the way.

10 comments:

varun said...

u are right sir..
but that is the crowd puller..and te snide remarks of te judge and te "less than decentlang" all entertain te crowds

and nowadays that is all it hs bcome-
an entertainer...
te thing is that te gladiator contests of old were also entertainers..

Abhilash Suryan said...

...but I think that such rules apply to crowds of hooligans & neurotics...I'm sure my students are definitely on a much higher plane....

Unknown said...

but in my opinion .... its like puttin contestants in pressure situations where they would think wht s t b said next ... more like how well they gt out f t

Abhilash Suryan said...

@ Gokul
I fully agree with you. But from what I had seen of it, the judge was only interested in the sexual preferences and sexual orientation of some of the participants. He had most of them on the back foot on that. May be the pressure was too much...
I thought the stress interviews can be conducted in a different way, especially with a not so mature crowd...
But surprise..surprise, he declared one of them as the winner in the end! without bringing out any positive trait of the personality of the individual to convince the audience...

Unknown said...

must agree with you, sir.
you spoke my mind ...

what's tested isn't multidimensional ... but rather, singular traits like havin quick reflexes to give tit-for-tatty answers to most absurdly cooked up questions, as you've said ... like sexual preferences, ... so on & so forth.

i'd suggest a group of judges (*wink* with different preferences, and not limited to questions that're overtly sexual); maybe they'd bring in a more multidimensional and that test personality from all its aspects.

Abhilash Suryan said...

And Akhil; the saddest part was that the young guys & gals among the audience got a wrong notion about the personality contests.......
those who think twice before uttering something may never win a personality contest....
those who can remain silent and carefully listen to others can never win...
Men & Women of few words are not great personalities....
........

Rohin said...

Well this may seem kinda stupid comin from me but i personally hate personality contests.I participate just for the money.Best manager contests, I participate for the experience and the knowledge along with the money. There is no way that a personality can be judged in half an hour. There is actually no real meaning is such an event. But so are beauty pageants.But I guess thats where the difference between A best manager contest and a personality contest lie.
I absolutely hate contests where there is an intro round followed by a talent round and then a questionnaire session.
And please do not think i am supporting the judge, but having seen him judge a lot of contests, I also know that he is trying to change the way participants see the contests. Before Personality and Mock Press events were basically "Insult the Judge and you win" kind of events. But ive seen him announce that the participants should answer the questions seriously ...
Now I do agree that he sometimes he gets too indulged in questions relating to a person's sexual preferences.But maybe thats exactly what he was tryin to acheive. Because that is something that people are always insecure about. .. people questionin their masculinity and such.Maybe its time he discovered a new line of questioning.

Rohin said...

Like akhil said ....what's tested isn't multidimensional ... but rather, singular traits like havin quick reflexes to give tit-for-tatty answers to most absurdly cooked up questions, as you've said ... like sexual preferences, ... so on & so forth.

Well that cant be blamed entirely on the judge. Because its the organisers who come up with the rounds and judges are restricted to those. For the arts fest we saw the
old tried and tested and dead and long gone rounds once again ... intro,talent and questionnaire. If
the participants have to be judged on multiple qualities, the rounds should be designed in such a way.
And another thing, Ive never really understood even after participatin in a lot of these contests what the judges are lookin for.Some look for humour, some for logical thinking.So its a pretty stupid event honestly.And its almost always someone who acts like a fool (which I admit I shamelessly do)on stage. In what way can personalities be compared?
And ive seen multiple persona winners having a certain routine to their entire performance.They have rehearsed intros and talent rounds.And the personality they project on stage is rarely their true selves.So how valid and relevant are these contests? Not very.
But to add to that, When 3000-5000 are up for grabs for just actin like a fool on stage and not having to do something against my ethics and principles or if its a matter of ponits for my class.... Ill clown around all you want...

Abhi said...

Very well said Rohin! I do believe that the guys who actually win most times have a regular pattern and when we see them at 2-3 places we get bored! But then its the practise of one individual getting mauled from the ancient ages that's getting continued now! Earlier it was the animals tearing apart the contestants as in the gladiators now its the judge tearing apart the contestants.

Both cases have an audience which always claps and gets Entertained. Am reminded of General Maximus aka Spaniard from the GLADIATOR, when he asks the crowd " Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained?! Is it not why you are here? "

Again we see the crowd chanting " Spaniard!!! Spaniard!!! Spaniard!!! ". As long as ther are people to watch these type of events ther will be contestants and judges who make a mockery of the name that these contests have taken on now " Personality Contest " it is indeed!

gasmutai said...

I havent seen the latest versions of the so called personailty contests and so couldnt probably comment on them with as much impartiality as i would want to.. I remember the first of my experiences - it was at YMCA, when i was in 10th. A girl was on stage and she was impersonating Suresh Gopi ... the first question she got was - Your chest muscles are well developed, which gym do you frequent. She was quite unruffled and came up with a phony name...
The point i wanna make is, the indications were already there for one to see; over time the standards probably went downhill. In college, i remember someone portraying a cricketer from Pakistan and on being asked what he thought ws the diff between Indian and Pak wickets, said, the latter one was half shaved off grass.

Now, if it was not to elicit such an answer, why ws tht question ever asked? Is it not true that nowadays, the public expects, buys and enjoys humor which has explicit content in it? Hence, is it not true tht all forms of entertainment now have such content? If so, how can such cultural festivals be far behind?

Hence my take on this is - our "aaswaadana nilavaaram" has probably gone down and it is because of this that we see such kind of contests.

But to call it a Mock Press as it was earlier (am nt sure if it continues to be called so) is an insult to the very characters we portray.

A better off competition would be to wire up the contestants to a Lie detector, and ask them the "right" questions... Why slander others when you can have a laugh on your own count... Any takers to have this as a contest in the next cult fest being planned :-)

 
;