Is Susan Boyle A Cowell Creation?

The viral video that made Susan Boyle an instant star and the backstory that created a collective of tears has at least one writer for the New York Post wondering if the who fairy tale ending wasn’t a set up.  Maureen Callahan asks why no one is suspicious of how the saussage is made at “Britain’s Got Talent.”

But there is something disturbing about the collective rejection-embrace-elevation of Susan Boyle. There is the element of self-congratulation in the viral spread of this link around the Web, the idea that we, the secondary viewers, the judges of those who are judging, are far more evolved. There is the clip itself, suspiciously ready-made for online consumption: A 7-minute movie, slick and pithy in its perfect execution of the underdog narrative. (That something like “Rocky” took two hours to tell now seems antediluvian.) There is the classic David vs. Goliath subplot, the primal satisfaction of seeing the bully (Cowell) slain by such a seemingly inferior force. And there is the profound desire for this entire thing to be authentic, which in and of itself suggests that it probably isn’t. Not since P.T. Barnum has there been a show business master of the trompe l’oeil like Simon Cowell.

And, after all, at the end of that video, didn’t Cowell say he knew all along Boyle would deliver?

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.