If you’ve seen “The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia,” a documentary about the pill-popping, murderous White family, you probably don’t think too highly of Boone County in West Virginia.
And if you’ve seen “Jersey Shore” (I’m sure you have), you may feel similarly disappointed at the thought of New Jersey.
A similar phenomenon could happen to Louisiana — if it hasn’t already.
In the past a few years, a number of Louisiana-based documentary TV series have appeared across cable channels.
Some might think this is a positive thing — our economy is suffering, and promoting our great state could lure visitors.
Unfortunately, three popular shows in the last few years have the potential to do the opposite.
One TV hit was A&E’s “Billy the Exterminator,” which was shot near Shreveport. The show follows the leather and chain-clad Billy, owner of Vexcon Inc., as he conquers one bug-infested, impoverished home after another.
In the show Billy is rarely called out to affluent neighborhoods to solve pest problems. He’s almost always called to small, rundown shacks occupied by roaches and underprivileged residents.
Aside from that, Billy wears ridiculous black outfits consisting of spiked bracelets and dog collars throughout the show.
So here’s what we understand about Louisiana from “Billy the Exterminator”: Louisianians are all poor, live in shacks and we get our pest control from a ridiculous-looking man wearing a spiked dog collar.
In 2010, The History Channel revealed “Swamp People,” a documentary series about a handful of Cajun alligator hunters fighting their way through the season to harvest as many alligators as possible.
The hunters barely spoke distinctive English, as their Cajun accent was so thick. Between interviewing the hunters at their — gasp — shack-ish homes, the camera followed them into the swamps chasing poachers, arguing with each other and shooting alligators in the head with a .22-caliber rifle. “So the bullet bounces around in the head,” one of our Cajun heroes grumbled to the camera.
What the nation learns from “Swamp People” is that Louisianians can barely speak English, we’re all missing teeth, we all wear shrimp boots, all own a flat-bottomed boat and our favorite pastime is killin’ gators.
Lastly, the Discovery Channel’s Baton Rouge-set “Sons of Guns” series came out in 2011. The show follows the day-to-day work of the gunsmiths of Red Jacket Firearms.
Apparently, our fellow citizens of Baton Rouge consistently demand custom silenced shotguns, AK-47s, double M16s and rocket launchers because these are the types of weapons the Red Jacket team is consistently contracted to produce.
After the guns are created, the men play with their shiny new toys. In one episode, they do a river assault from a boat outfitted with two M16s.
What the U.S. can gather from “Sons of Guns” is that Baton Rouge citizens have thousands of dollars to spend on outrageous modifications to firearms. We also assault riverbanks for fun.
Overall, as you can imagine, these shows don’t exactly show anything positive about our state — the same way “Jersey Shore” makes New Jersey look bad.
Each of these Louisiana-based shows display ridiculous fringe groups of people who don’t represent the state as a whole.
Do you remember the last time an absurdly dressed exterminator rid your shack of roaches? Or the last time you spent a month in the swamps slaughtering alligators? How about the last time you bought a silenced shotgun?
I don’t, and I doubt most can.
And we can’t because they aren’t common occurrences. Sure, we have a rich Cajun heritage and quite lax gun control laws, but why focus only on these topics in the TV shows?
The answer is obvious — more viewers will tune in to see people participating in questionably barbaric behavior.
And sadly, when shack homes, pirogues, dead alligators, double M16s and Billy the Exterminator represent Louisiana’s TV portrait, the state’s reputation is bound to mirror that image.
Chris Grillot is a 20-year-old English and mass communication sophomore from New Orleans. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_cgrillot.
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Contact Chris Grillot at [email protected]
The C-Section: La.-based reality shows have potential to hurt state’s reputation
April 10, 2011