Way To Build An Audience?

Insult your most avid fans:

In yesterday’s post I dared to say Paris Hilton entertains me, and I confessed I liked her because she works when she doesn’t need to, she has a sense of humor, and I’ve never heard of her being mean. This caused a Category 5 irony storm in the comments.

My favorite comments came from people who believe Paris Hilton’s television show on E!, The Simple Life, is a reality show about two stupid rich girls who do mean things. I hate to be a spoiler, but it’s a show produced by smart people, starring two rich girls who pretend to be mean and stupid. Their target audience is people who aren’t bright enough to know the show is staged.

And people wonder how I can be entertained by Paris Hilton. Good lord, the woman gives and she gives. This is performance art, and you’re part of the show, even if all you’re doing is strenuously denying its entertainment value and causing me to write this post that you are now reading.

My other favorite comments came from people who angrily point out how wrong it is to be entertained by something as trivial and unimportant as Paris Hilton’s life. This raises an interesting question: What the hell are you doing that’s so important? You’re not only reading The Dilbert Blog, but you’re leaving a frickin’ comment. How can you afford to take time out from your primary activity of performing free heart surgery on poor African babies?

In Scott Adams defense, the folks who feel compelled to comment on the blog, aren't all there as fans of his strip. Some might comment just to fling poo, others comment to vent, others comment cause others are commenting. So insulting the lot of folks who come there just to feel better about themselves by insulting the blog host for voicing his own personal opinion, will at the very least not drive away anybody who was actually a fan, and possibly even shore up his credibility with people that are fans. Plus more importantly, it probably feels satisfying on a personal level to ridicule the idiots who think their snide comments are comic gold, or worse yet, the sanctimonious jerks who think they've caught Adams in some sort of moral failing.

So insult away, Mr. Adams. I don't find the Paris Hilton act entertaining personally, but I do believe that the folks that pile-on in the Paris Hilton hating department have some mighty big problems themselves.