Viacom CBS’ new show MTV CATFISH: Trolls

VIACOM CBS

We were watching the first episode of CATFISH : Trolls hosted by Charlamagne Tha God and co-hosted by Raymond Braun. Jedi Joy was really getting into this show. Here were two young men standing up for Miss Mia Rose aka Meike, a porn star who was being viciously harassed online by a troll named Maldiva. Jedi Joy thought these guys were cool.

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She even laughed at their jokes when Charlamagne Tha God made fun of white people. As a side note, we noticed that Black humor is mostly making fun of white people. A joke’s a joke. It was funny. But repeating the same joke becomes monotonous. After awhile, it becomes awkward. Then, it’s not funny. Finally, it’s hurtful, borderline racist. The thing about racists is that they don’t necessarily hate other people. Racists (sexiest, misogynists, anti-semiotics, etc) simply envy other people. 

​Such is the case with Charlamagne Tha God. In the first episode, Charlamagne Tha God made degrading two jokes, judged Meike for making porn and sexually harassed her when he was supposed to be saving her.

Charlamagne Tha God degrades Raymond On-Air

At one point in the show, Charlamagne and Raymond need to figure out a way to meet Maldiva without Maldiva suspecting they are with Meike. Raymond uncorks a brilliant idea. He says “let’s tell him we are doing a show on gamers!”. That’s a lie, of course but Charlamagne says, “I knew there was a reason I kept you around”, as if Raymond was Charlamagne Tha God’s slave.

That struck me as odd. As a producer or a boss or a host, I would never talk down to other people on camera. If made a mistake or landed a joke that sounded degrading, I would edit it out. I understand, “it happens”. But Charlamagne chose to leave his jokes in the show because they are not jokes. That’s how he feels. And it’s hurting the show.

Meike was a sex worker. They judged her for being a sex worker. Raymond wanted to make sure that “part of your life is behind you” before they proceed. Here is a newsflash for Raymond : 99% of sex workers get sexually harassed online. They also get constantly judged by Christians on a mission to “rescue” them. Then they get viciously harassed by guys who they rejected. And they also get judged, belittled and degraded by people who are supposed to be helping them.

But that was online. One can walk away or turn off their phone or computer if they need to take a break.  But where will Meike go when she's cornered by Charlamagne Tha God and Randall Braun?  

Jedi Rich applied at Viacom CBS for several positions but they said he wasn’t qualified to make vlogs, write blogs or edit videos.

All Maldiva did was call her a “slut” and a “whore”. But what Randall and Charlamagne Tha God did was 10 times worse than what an unknown troll with 13 followers on Twitch could do. They asked Meike to trust them. She trusted them to help her. But instead they made fun of her, got sexually aroused by her videos and then went home to “have sex with my wife”. And Charlamagne didn’t even say thank you to Miss Mia Rose for giving him the boner, which was TMI by the way unless he wanted to make a point.

The Jedi are artists. We talk freely. Anything else would sound disingenuous. We can make mistakes on camera and edit them out. Therefore, anything that Charlamagne Tha God says in the published product is a direct correlation on how Viacom CBS’s Chairman must feel: women who do porn are less than women who do not do porn. Well, that’s sexist. And judging a woman for choosing sex work is not the role of Charlamagne Tha God, Randall Braun or even Shari Redstone.