Ripping on Ripa
Listen to this articleWow, thank you Kelly Ripa for assuring us our national nightmare is over. You’re wrong, but then that does not matter nearly as much as your personal happiness.
You see, Ripa believes our national nightmare is centered around women who are paid millions of dollars to look cute and make worthless chatter to audiences that need signs to remind them when to applaud and when to laugh at her comments, but in the process are left out of major decisions like whether or not a colleague should take a better job elsewhere.
Here is a national nightmare; narcissism. You know, that illness that strikes people who are paid to essentially do little else than to entertain the masses who take a break from their electronic devices to be mindlessly entertained by someone not quite good enough to actually be considered a real star but is still paid like one.
People like Ripa, and Michael Strahan for that matter, are nothing more than talking selfies paid to promote bigger stars who just so coincidentally have a film, book, TV show, or worthless beauty product to sell to the public. When her colleague, Strahan, landed a better gig elsewhere, she was unable to express any semblance of happiness for him and instead felt compelled to storm off the set, go on a “vacation,” and announce to the world how betrayed she feels. Huh?
Only the sickest, most self centered person is able to take someone else’s good news and turn it around into an attack on her. It makes me question just how happy her children must really be when life is all about mom. Ripa has managed to go from being viewed as the cute, perky, and always upbeat co-host of a day time talk show to the Mommy Dearest of daytime television. Please, for the sake of her cohost, keep sharp objects off the set.
Kelly, and her show’s producers, would like us to think she was just making a stand on behalf of women who are mistreated at work when in fact she will now be seen as nothing more than a spoiled brat who should be fired and forced to find another gig that pays her millions to do nothing of value.
Can you imagine a surgeon refusing to report to work because a colleague took a better gig at a rival hospital? Does anyone really think a cop storms off the job because his partner leaves to join another police force? What teacher walks off the job because she found out she was not consulted about a colleague deciding to leave? Does Ripa really believe she is the only cute, quick-witted, woman alive who can sit in front of a camera and fake interest in a segment about new uses for jello?
But here is the strange thing. Ripa has a legion of fans who stand by her and really believe she is a victim all because an ex-football player with a big gap in the front of his teeth was determined to be more valuable than someone who sees herself as America’s Sweetheart. Ripa got a much deserved, albeit way overdue, reminder that she is nothing more than just another face in a very competitive field.
What is next for her? I am sure she will have you believe she will be hand-picking Strahan’s replacement, and I am sure her superiors will do all they can to make her believe this. However, she should be looking over her shoulder to see how people respond to the women who sit in for her when she is brooding over her next slight. That woman may well end up being viewed as slightly cuter, slightly funnier, and slightly easier to work with and Kelly Ripa could well find herself calling Michael Strahan and begging him for a job.
Until then, we can just rest at ease knowing Kelly Ripa has not made a scene about being left off the $20 bill.
Kelly Ripa’s first episode after the Michael Strahan announcement.
Photos are screen shots from YouTube.
Jim is a life long resident of California and retired school teacher with 30 years in public education. Jim earned his BA in History from CSU Chico in 1981 and his MA in Education from Azusa Pacific University in 1994. He is also the author of Teaching The Teacher: Lessons Learned From Teaching. Jim considers himself an equal opportunity pain in the ass to any political party, group, or individual who looks to profit off of hypocrisy. When he is not pointing out the conflicting words and actions of our leaders, the NFL commissioner, or humans in general, he can be found riding his bike for hours on end while pondering his next article. Jim recently moved to Camarillo, CA after being convinced to join the witness protection program.