It’s shark week. Holy crap, it’s shark week. Once a year, televisions explode with terror-peddling shark stuff. People love it (or hate hate HATE it). Here’s the thing: I really like sharks. I hate the cull. But part of the reason I like them so much is because they scare the hell out of me, so I can understand why people love watching videos about how freaking scary they are. And while promoting them as soulless monsters hell bent on dragging you to a watery death isn’t doing anything to help their plight (yes, sharks in a bad way right now, and no, we’re not doing much to help them), shark week is about entertainment, and nothing more. It is not about conservation. It is not about helping the sharks. It is about making someone sitting in their easy chair spill their gigantic soda all over their shag carpet. Just look at the titles from previous years:
Shark Fight (are there choke holds?)
Sharkzilla (clearly, this is not a real thing)
Air Jaws Apocalypse (is this Air Bud meets Jaws meets Apocalypse Now?)
Ultimate Air Jaws (please stop)
Sharkzilla Lives (NO IT DOESN’T)
Do those sound like educational pieces? They are not. So welcome to Shark Week. Enjoy the show. But don’t mistake entertainment for education – Sharkzilla fin soup is not something you need, and Ultimate Air Jaws doesn’t need to be baited in and shot in the head.
