Now we all know the show Wife Swap, and probably all secretly enjoy watching a chavy ASBO filled family of brother-dads and sister-mums from Scunthorpe swap their mother figure with a Soho based family whose children vomit their parent's money straight into the g-strings of London's lapdancers. However, you're always going to get polar opposites being swapped over, as two incredibly similar families swapping wife roles would look as dull as Gordon Brown reading the dictionary. Yet it amazes me how the people on the show still haven't realised themselves that they're going to be trading places with someone totally different to them and their families. The shock that a picture perfect housewife from Cornwall experiences when she ends up living in a caravan with a Gypsy family is nice to watch as in you're mind a huge flashing sign pops up saying "CONFLICT IMMINENT", but I still find it baffling as she says things like "I didn't sign up for this" and "I can't believe this".
This shock is more evident in the American version, as the wives can be essentially the same but with an added ingredient that we in Britain got rid of, much like swine flu and mr bean. This element is religion. The Christianity fuelled families go beserek at morals, the lord's word, family values etc and when it's time for the rule changes to be implemented they freak out and go insane, pacing around their kitchen quoting various bible verses that don't make sense "The Lord's cheese shall not be grated - Matthew 3:17". It's actually a little bit scary to watch. Now I'm not saying there's anything wrong with religion or having a faith, all I'm saying (speaking as an 18 year old who thinks he knows it all when actually I can't even fry an egg, seriously, there's just too much aparatus involved) is that it just isn't as dominant in the media or society any more, sure we get things like Songs of Praise and The Heaven and Earth Show but that's not really anything, so when you get a huge dollop of American preacher material shoved on to your screen it's quite weird to watch, as you can't, quite, believe these people are being serious.
Now this is just a brief article, I'm only really writing it because I've had one too many pepsi's (or Fizzy Pop as it's known to anyone over 40) and can't sleep, and just watched a rather eye opening episode of the show in question.
