Okay, just kidding. But you looked, didn’t you?
After all: can it be too far ahead? When we saw “The Real Housewives of Proverbs 31” as a headline to a fine meditation on the current moment in popular culture by Diana Butler Bass, it got us to thinking.
A little research turned up the following clip of Imam Muda, a Malaysian religious reality TV show – and an unabashed one at that.
Meena Hartenstein notes that for their first challenge,
the men performed traditional Muslim ablutions on corpses at a morgue that had gone unclaimed for weeks, later burying the bodies in accordance with Islamic rites. In later episodes, the men joined a police crackdown on teenage motorcyclists and cried as they counseled unmarried pregnant women at a women’s shelter….
The producers say “Imam Muda” is the most-watched program ever on its Islamic-themed cable channel, and a Facebook page dedicated to the show has nearly 30,000 fans.
Truly there’s nothing new under the sun, and especially in the realm of television development. So, despite the fact that reality competitions can be little more than occasion for schadenfreude, we wait. Meanwhile, here are some other titles we’d like to apply for – or at least cover in this space.
- Who Wants to be a Thurifer?
- So You Think You Can Administer the Sacraments
- Preaching with the Stars
- Survivor (of Church Camp)
- The Real World Lambeth Palace
- American Idol-Smasher
- Extreme Makeover: Chancel Edition
- What Not to Bless
- Chasuble or No Chasuble
What title are you waiting to DVR?