Last night was another episode of the TLC show Extreme Couponers. Once again, I chose to watch The Middle and Modern Family. Once again, all the various coupon boards and deal blogs are all a-buzz with chatter about the show.
Me? Meh. I’m already bored with it and think the show has run it’s course. I certainly understand the voyeuristic appeal of the show, especially for those who don’t coupon. Just like I enjoyed watching a woman eat several rolls of toilet paper per day, I see how some like to watch this. But after watching the toilet-paper-eating woman and the woman who sleeps with her blowdryer, I got bored. And watching people redeem coupons is not that exciting.
Sure, I’m mildly annoyed that the show is giving so much mileage to a woman who commits coupon fraud regularly. She’s even getting more PR today as she is on my Yahoo feed. But watching someone commit coupon fraud is about as exciting as watching someone commit insurance fraud. And I don’t see TLC scrambling to make a show on that.
And what she shows is crazy. The Yahoo article quotes her as saying that for one trip, she and several friends clipped ten hours a day for four days. Seriously? I can only imagine what that conversation is like–me trying to convince my friends to clip coupons for me, for 40 hours. They deserve to be portrayed as loons if that’s what they’re doing.
Apparently last night’s episode showed the guy taking his haul and donating it to the troops. How quaint and American. That’s our battle cry, so that you don’t think we’re nuts. “But weeeee dooonnnnnattttttteeeee!” we whine in unison. So that you don’t instead nominate us for the other TLC show Hoarders. Look, I get dozens of coupon inserts every week, I clip lots of coupons, redeem lots of coupons and have a huge stockpile of free stuff in my basement. And lots of you think it’s quirky and odd and all those things. I really don’t give a shit if you think I’m nuts. Yes, I donate. Tons of stuff actually. But I could care less if you even know about my donating, I don’t need your validation thankyouverymuch. I find it peculiar that so many do need validation. I think some of the interests that lots of people have are odd, it’s just that TLC isn’t necessarily making a show of it. I think it’s weird that some people dress up in outfits from another era in time, and then gather with other folks who are similarly dressed. I think it’s odd that some people reenact battles. I think it’s odd that some people can recite every.single.statistic for a particular sports team, know every fact about them going back 50 years. But just like I wonder why they would fill their head with that much information, they wonder the same about me–and how I know the coupon policies for every store within ten miles of my home. I sort of get, but still don’t, why so many couponers feel the need to explain themselves as a result of this show. I do what I do and was doing it long before it was cool. Mrs. Duggar makes absolutely no apologies for what she does. Why should we? People are going to think what they’re going to think, regardless of what we say.
In closing, I’ll share two articles I’ve been asked to share. One is from the Coupon Information Center which investigates fraud. The other is from one of the deal sites, and has some good points about things that the show doesn’t show you. Personally, I do think it encroaches upon the principle of “he doth protest much” as far as explaining ourselves, but overall a good essay.
Let’s get back to the deal talk. And I completely understand that getting multiple coupon inserts and supercouponing is NOT for everyone, so I promise to not only focus on that. I try to make this sort of a ‘couponing for everyone’ blog that everyone can participate in, at their own level of interest.
ETA: And if you’re not watching ABC on Wednesday nights, I really think you’re missing out. It’s not often that my husband actually laughs out loud at a tv show, but Modern Family and Better With You had him doing just that. I love The Middle because the writing and acting is so good, you really believe characters like Sue are real. It’s a good night on tv, the first one we’ve had in a long time, watch it!
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