Miss Pop Rocks: Rev. Run’s Clan v. The Kardashians: There is No Real Comparison

I spent much of this weekend feeling a little under the weather (I think I caught something from a bottle of gin on Friday night). Regardless, the time Miss Pop Rocks spent sprawled on the couch allowed for much consumption of two reality television shows about families. And of course, I must share my thoughts with my dear readers.

First up is Run’s House on MTV, featuring the glorious Rev. Run of RUN-D.M.C. fame. Now, I remember when RUN-D.M.C. first made headlines “back in the day” (as we say on the streets), and the truth is that Run is not even old enough to be my father. Yet as I watched the show marathon that was on Saturday afternoon, I ended up secretly dreaming of packing my bags and driving up to Jersey to ask him and Justine to take me in.

The Rev. Run family is so damn cute, likable and achingly normal – a rarity in a reality television world that has completely lost its mind. True, their Saddle River home is worth more than Miss Pop Rocks will make in her lifetime, but you still get the vibe from the whole crew that they aren’t overly impressed by fancy material goods. They genuinely love each other, have hilarious comic timing, and more importantly, the Rev. and Justine keep those kids in line. You just can’t help but love them.

Click the remote and you’ll end up in frighteningly different territory: E! Entertainment Television’s Keeping Up With The Kardashians, or, as I refer to it, Keeping Up With Some Filthy Whores and A Scary-Looking Bruce Jenner. (Seriously, what the F has happened to Bruce Jenner? His face looks like it was stretched out over a cookie sheet.)

First up, Kris Jenner, the “mother” of the clan, has got to be one of the most frightening stage parents I’ve ever seen in my life. She has no problem encouraging her daughter Kim – whose sole claim to fame is a sex tape – to pose nude for Playboy. (She then takes part in a nude photo shoot of her own…icky, icky.) Of course, I don’t know why this behavior should shock me. After all, here is a woman who named her daughters Kim, Khloe, Kourtney, Kendall and Kylie. (Do you think they were each given their own pair of little baby stripper shoes at birth?)

The daughters all appear be channeling Paris Hilton (even the youngest, who had fun on a stripper pole at her parents’ anniversary party), and Bruce Jenner does little more than walk around the house with his huge, cookie sheet head, sighing and getting angry. (Remember the `76 Olympics, Bruce? Yeah, me neither.)

Anyway, I don’t have some big revelation to give you over these two shows. Only that one family is very good and funny and worthy of being on television. And one is very terrible and scary and not worthy of being on television. And you can bet your sweet ass that I’m not going to miss an episode of either series. – Jennifer Mathieu