Swearing is part of his trademark; the “F Word” is the title of one of his shows. Just a few years ago, this type of presentation would not even have been allowed on our screens. Yet Gordon Ramsay, despite a year of financial trauma, is still the most recognisable chef in the world, respected not only for his culinary skills and his showbiz pizazz, but also strangely adored for being rude and bad-tempered. Like many of the new wave of minor celeb who have broken into the big time, Gordon has established a revolutionary, challenging and exciting persona that people just can’t get enough of. So what does this say about us, the audience, who continue to watch his shows and buy his books?
The cult of the well-paid minor celebrity has been made possible by the explosion of mass media and high paying TV networks that are able to cater directly to the needs of a specialised audience. It is a lifestyle movement which answers to the demands of an increasingly independent and constantly self-improving populace who love to be entertained while they learn and experience new sensations. Gordon Ramsay does not just represent a model for those who are interested in a career in catering, he is a self-made millionaire who seems to have achieved phenomenal success by just being himself. One thing all the well-paid minor celebs have in common whether it is Ramsay, Cowell, Jamie Oliver, Beckham, or Katie Price, is that they appear to be ordinary people, the sort of person you could have living next door.
Nearly everybody swears at one time or another, if not as regularly as Ramsay does, but when we hear the chef idol do it, it reassures us that he is one of us, just an ordinary bloke come good. Jamie Oliver’s presentation is similarly in the vernacular, appealing to the general viewer. What the reality TV revolution has done is take power away from trained and qualified Oxbridge and RADA graduates and handed it to the man in the street where it began. It is the single most effective symbol of democratisation our civilisation has witnessed. The king’s fool has come of age and been given his own court. Now, literally, anyone with enough courage can be a star. It is empowerment to the nth degree.
But living in a society with such a high level of individual hope and ambition built in comes with a price. There will be those who become obsessed with “making it” and see it as the all or nothing of life. At some point we need the corrective pressure of an ethic which does not have a “fame and fortune at all costs” mentality as its cornerstone. While on the one hand we worship those who appear to “have it all” our own lives can seem drab and pointless by comparison. To counter this, we need solid social values to shore up damaged egos, and a sure and certain morality as a defence against liberal media output.
Milton Johanides is a retired businessman, church elder, writer and artist. He has been featured on BBC TVs Songs of Praise, owned numerous art galleries and once ran an award winning picture framing business in Scotland. The views expressed in these articles are his own. email: miltonjohanides@yahoo.co.uk http://www.helium.com/users/510112/show_articles
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