Invading Spaces
By: Pete Phillips
April 29, 2003
2:58 PM

warning: show may induce vomiting

What's the deal with Trading Spaces?

As I was waiting to attend the lovely social gathering at Kat & Fraggle's, I had the (disputed) pleasure of watching Trading Spaces on TV. I know people make fun of this show, so the only information I have on it is gathered through satire... until now.

As it was explained to me, by a fan:
"See, you move into a family or friend's house, then you re-do one of their rooms and then you move back... it's funny when people don't like it."

This show isn't funny. I saw a long Lowe's commercial, an annoyingly spunky brunette, a "not gay" guy, and a guy who looked like the old Double Dare host. These people all make up the regular cast, I assume, with a guy named Doug who works both sides of the table. This Dough was the shadiest character in the show because he was annoying, you didn't see him do anything constructive, and he was on both teams. On the show, I liked how team members wore the same color shirts, but I didn't like how the shirts changed colors on one team. The two ladies kept the same color shirts on, while the male & female team changed shirt colors and blew my mind. How are you supposed to keep track of these people? As Miss Kellie Burns pointed out, the regular cast members don't change clothes. This would be acceptable if it wasn't obvious that these people were much richer than you or I, but is highly uncalled for when they're on TV. And just because you can pain it doesn't mean you're better than me you little....

So what happens is you trust someone to redo part of your house, then you have to live in it. What up wit dat, yo? I think this is a healthy practice for a engaged couples to help build trust in a relationship, but I could see it killing friendships and ruining family relations for centuries. Families are barely held together without conflict, so this could only hurt. If your family doesn't have problems, the you're weird-- just as a side note.

Let's not forget the inane chatter that these people engage in. Making jokes about what color the trim on a door is or how you might paint a cabinet is really pathetic material. Leno has worse jokes than these people, but he still manages to stay one rung above them (barely). If you can listen to what these people say in between the planning and the reaction, then you may as well put in a tape of banshee cries because it's just about the same damn thing-- painful.

So this is  pretty weak article, I know, but four good ones is expecting a lot, ok?