Who Are the Kardashians and Why Should I Care?

The first time I heard the name Kardashian, I was flipping channels and paused on TMZ for a moment. Harvey Levin is one funny attorney and TMZ is the only entertainment show that treats celebrity with the irreverence it deserves. The staff were talking about the K family with a hint of that trademark TMZ sarcasm. Still they said Kardashian like it was a name everyone should know. I didn't know the name, and I wasn't really interested. I kept on pushing the remote buttons that day; but the name has since come up again and again.

Like a bad car crash

I must admit, once I noticed one Kardashian the rest of them became pretty hard to miss or ignore. You know how it is with a really bad car crash, you don't like what you see but you keep right on looking. Kardashians were everywhere. They were on TV and on line. My Yahoo! "Kardashian" search brought over 90 million results. Google with all its junk-curbing algorithms gave me 159 million Kardashian search results (in 0.18 seconds!) While searching I did find out they were the children of the attorney who defended OJ. That only made their fame even more strange.

My web search proved the rest of the world loved the Kardashians, so naturally I began to wonder if I were missing something? Perhaps they were fabulously talented. Maybe they did something really important like feed the hungry, help the cause of world peace, adopt African orphan children or star in a "Harry Potter" movie. No. No. No. No and No. I couldn't figure out the K family fame thing, but I kept thinking about it?

Could it be because they are a pretty?

I get that they are decent looking people, but aren't there far prettier girls all over the world? What about Miss America or Miss Universe... or even Miss Rabbit Hatch, for goodness sake.

Is it because they are pretty and stupid?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not one to stereotype, but from what little I've seen and heard of the K family, they all seem just about two sandwiches short of a picnic. Some people, especially men, get excited over that dumb/pretty fusion.

Is it because all their names start with the letter K?

Let's see, there's Kourtney and Kim and... I never really cared enough to learn them all; but I suppose it's kind of cute to have your kids names begin with the same letter. My sister and her kid's are J people: Joy, Jonathan and Jennifer. Like I said, it's cute and all, but you don't see anyone offering them a reality show. Frankly that whole K-K-K thing reminds me of those original southern gangstas. You know those guys who hid behind white sheets and burned crosses.

Is it because they are so untalented it's entertaining?

Think back to the popularity of bizarre icons like Pee Wee Herman, Carrot Top, The Unknown Comic and Tiny Tim. It's been decades since they were famous. Their moments of big time fame still don't make sense; but they were popular, so why not the Kardashians?

Is it because of the tough economy?

It's been popular for a few years now to blame everything bad on the economy, why not the Kardashians? Perhaps they're just cheap entertainment for hard economic times.

And the answer is?

I did finally decide on an answer to my why? question though. The Kardashians have a reality show because one of them was on sort-of a reality tape thing. The whole family became famous because one of them (and their dad) was famous.... sort of. It's kind of like Snookie and her New Jersey friends. I will probably never understand that whole Jersey thing, just like I will never understand why the world is in love with the Kardashians.