How TV Ruined Your Life

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Don't say it didn't. It did.

How TV Ruined Your Life (2011-) is a new series from Charlie Brooker and a fine example of Hypocritical Humour. In this TV series, Brooker illustrates the various ways that the hateful lie-box has ruined your life, by giving you a flawed image of reality. The show itself takes the form of a combination of clips from shows with commentary, strange skits, and parodies. Each episode focuses on a particular way that TV has ruined your life, such as by filling you with fear, or giving you false and impossible aspirations.

Tropes used in How TV Ruined Your Life include:
  • Apocalypse How: In a parody of doomsday shows, the world ends by pens getting inexplicably hot.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: Televised humiliation.
  • Stealth Parody: Sometimes the lines between real TV shows and the parodies made for the program are so blurred, that the only hint of something being fake is when "ShitPeas Productions" is subtly listed as the producer.
    • The technology episode had a segment where people were asked their opinions on a phone that let you make calls through time. These reactions were real.
  • The Beautiful Elite: They make you feel ugly and set your standards too high.
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