It’s not like the people who try out for American Idol have never seen the show before. They know that the people who wear crazy costumes or spend most of their time performing “dance moves” simply get ridiculed and pushed out of the audition room. but they also know that they get air time. so the auditions process becomes a breeding ground for Internet celebrities like William Hung or this season’s General Larry Platt, who, at age 62, had no reason to even make it in front of the judges. his song had five million YouTube views within the first week it was up.
It’s easier to get people to watch the show who are not interested in a singing competition by inserting these crazies into the promos for an episode. anything that can be bleeped or censored heads to the top of the pile. When each audition show begins, the viewing audience is inevitably treated to a montage of crazy antics to come. The fact that they censor contestants’ mouths with an American Idol logo has always kind of baffled me—why would they want to associate their logo with those words, exactly?
So it was no surprise that Tuesday’s show this week (Denver auditions) had its share of the weird, including the girl who killed cats with her voice, the guy who couldn’t handle John Mayer’s falsetto, and the normal weird outfits. Weird on American Idol ranges from kitschy or overindulgent to scantily clad to the point of nudity. And such was the case of Bikini Boy.
If you didn’t see it, it’s exactly what you’d think. a guy in a bikini. he was the last contestant in Denver, and he didn’t even get to audition because Simon led the rest of the judges off set. obviously, picking that outfit, he must have known that he didn’t stand a chance at making it to Hollywood. but he had to know he’d get on TV.
The take-away? Under no circumstances do you have to win American Idol to be famous.