You don't need me to tell you that there's a lot of trash on TV in the US these days.

Many people, with far more patience than me, have watched and written about such awful shows as The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Fear Factor, Survivor, and Joe Millionaire.

But lately, it's as if the network executives had said to themselves, "Y'know, our output has been just waaay too high-brow lately. Let's take it down a couple of notches."

The latest offerings include, Meet My Parents, based on that mediocre Ben Stiller film, where a number of (limelight-seeking) young women have to meet and be interrogated by, the parents of a male contestant, including use of a lie-detector.

But that's not what prompted this article. No, today I saw a trailer that said, and I swear I'm not making this up, "Who can pull an airliner better? An elephant or 50 dwarfs?"

Yes, Fox, those doyens of high-quality television, have struck again with a series called Man vs. Beast.

Of course the obvious man vs beast test would be, "Who can produce higher-quality television? A bunch of Fox network executives or six dung beetles?"

I'd rant more on this subject, but I'm off to the pub. Maybe after a few Guinnesses I'll find further inspiration?

Update
The Guinnesses were lovely, but they didn't provide more inspiration, and even after several of them, I didn't feel the urge to tune in an watch the dwarves.

I did, however, manage to miss The Office - an award-winning comedy from the BBC.