Average Joe makes fun of all of us. It not only brings out our inner snob, it also brings out our inner slob. We laugh at the Joes (especially in this second edition) for being so geeky, but we also thumb our noses at Melana and Larissa for being such snobs. And the joke is on the ladies, too, because the producers never told them what they were getting themselves into. Some of us like to see the ladies humiliated a little bit I think, and some of us absolutely *LOVE* to see the Joes humiliated. We also love to hate the studs when one of them gets selected.

It's fun, I guess, but thankfully not everything on TV or the movies brings people down.

Not too long ago, I took a film course about the movies of Frank Capra. One of the legendary Hollywood directors, he made movies that celebrated human nature -- the common man and woman. He saw the best in all of us.

If you've never heard of Lost Horizon, You Can't Take It With You, or Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, you've probably heard of It's A Wonderful Life. All of those movies were directed by Frank Capra.

The message that these movies conveyed was, essentially, that there's something good about average people. Deep down inside, using our best efforts, we can accomplish great things. Films today that deliver that kind of message are called "Capraesque."

One of my favorite recent movies in the capraesque tradition is "Titanic." Leonardo Dicaprio loves Kate Winslet and frees her in every way. He knows what is real about life, while all the rich snobs who run the cruise line and are its best customers haven't a clue.

It's hard to get that kind of message watching Average Joe.

As I've I said in other threads, I like Reality Television because some of the shows actually *do* celebrate the common person. Shows like Survivor and The Bachelor show average people doing great things. They don't make fun of us, they lift us up.

So why do I watch Average Joe? Call me a fool, but I think Larissa just might choose an Average Joe. Why? Because deep down inside she comes across to me as an Average Jane. And that's a good thing, not a bad thing.

It's not the way she looks. It's something beautiful inside that makes her beautiful outside.

Trite, you say? Ok, so she'll probably never chose an Average Joe. Something so good and so wholesome would never happen on this show. But I've known girls like Larissa who in real life did chose average Joes.

And they didn't stay average very long.

That's reality, to me at least.