I didn’t know about The Truman Show for years but discovered it this past year after watching a few conspiracy videos on the Illuminati (yes, I find the subject matter fascinating but I don’t take everything at face value thankfully). What drew me to The Truman Show though was the idea of questioning our own existence as it relates to coincidence. In short, why are we here?
I’m positive the vast majority of people have encountered numerous points in their life where they began to question their existence. People turn towards religion to try to make more sense of the world. Others turn to philosophy and science. For myself, I just question everything.
With the last decade’s uprising of reality TV shows, The Truman Show takes the idea and throws into high gear by connecting it and asking whether or not our own lives could be an epic reality show that has not been cancelled thus far. Similarly, South Park had an episode which revealed that the earth itself was just a comic reality show in the universe, hence why different species have been placed here.
Whenever I think about how things have gone in my life, I feel as though there are numerous parallels between myself and the character Jim Carrey plays. If suddenly a UFO appeared in my back yard and the producer of this “show” manifested, I wouldn’t be surprised at all. My reaction initially would be, “What took you so long to get here?” That whole thing made me think about a conversation that might take place with this so-called higher being.
Being: “You’re not surprised?”
Me: “Not at all. Your hints weren’t exactly subtle. I mean, I’m glad you didn’t drop a camera out of the sky because you would’ve blown your cover. Not to mention, why do the same gag twice?”
Being: “True. But the subtleness we retain because it’s part of the show; we want to keep the audience on the edge of their seat. Whenever there’s a possibility of discovery, rather than having the traditional piped in stock laughter, we added a stock gasp audio byte.”
Me: “Do you have a counter for that?”
Being: “Nah, but it would get old quickly. We thought about something similar where people could guess when you’d figure it all out and give away a prize. But as you can tell, our budget is pretty low.”
Me: “Wow. I’m glad I’m worth all the 99 cents you could muster. That all said, why now? Is this the whole ‘death’ thing? I mean, do I get to become part of the audience? Do I get my own space craft and have my prize after enduring this crap for so long?”
Being: “Ratings started to drop. They didn’t like the fact that you started to figure out how to be happy for yourself. They always liked watching you suffer so you could push yourself. Things have to feel epic on a normal scale, if that makes any sense. We could’ve just put up a bunch of physical obstacles for you to consistently trip over, but you don’t handle slapstick very well.”
Me: “Well, that kinda blows. It would’ve made things a LOT easier.”
Being: “As you well, know easier isn’t always the most entertaining. Especially profitable.”
Me: “Sheesh. I would’ve thought that you guys wouldn’t be about money. Is it all about money there too?”
Being: “How else do you think we created your system? Anyway, we aren’t that creative as you can see.”
Me: “So no hope either for whatever place you’re at?”
Being: “Don’t be so melodramatic. And you have the audacity to call Jim Carrey melodramatic!”
Me: “Ugh, I just want to get to this theoretical place called ‘paradise’ already! I figure for all the pain and suffering I’ve endured, I get something nice out of this, right? Or is this where the whole, ‘you must live life strictly by those rules you heard about from the gospel?’”
Being: “Oh that stuff? That’s more comic relief to see who really falls for shit like that. Come on. Do you really think we’re such nice folk for tossing you onto a shitty rock and letting you flap your wings on your own? I think it was Fred in accounting who came up with that joke. Ended up being a bet on how many people would fall for that gag.”
Me: “Wait. So how many people are in on this? How many people are just cast members?”
Being: “A mixture. Some are, some aren’t. You really thought you were the only one?”
Me: “Hard to say.”
Being: “Random factors make the show more interesting. We want enough control to guide you to the next possible plot twist, but enough randomness to keep our viewers interested. It’s an art and a bit of a science to be precise.”
Me: “Okay, so I guess you just threw all my hopes and dreams out the window. Do I get anything that’s not lame at least? Please say it’s not something stupid like a t-shirt.”
Being: “Well, that joke got old decades ago. For the gift, what’s your pick?”
Me: “You’ve known all this time what I wanted. I’ve well publicized every little bit. I figured you’d at least plant spyware in my systems.”
Being: “Oh, alright. A flying saucer with 500 people of your choosing and enough room to carry your house and all the compliments for an eternity supply of happiness. Are you satisfied finally?”
Me: “Squee!”
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