hip stars

Is MTV Aiming to Seem More Hip and Less Hills?

The Hard Times of RJ Berger’s Paul Iacono, the closest thing the network’s got to a hipster right now.

MTV is turning the book I Just Want My Pants Back into a TV series about a 22-year-old and his friends. In the book, “A recent Cornell grad [is] more more interested in marijuana, booze and quick lays than his boring job or romantic relationships.” This week, MTV is even filming the series in Williamsburg and asking for “real hipsters” to come out and be part of it, perhaps in a bid to seem “authentically” cool! From Craigslist:

So is MTV trying to segue from the exhausted, glossy Hills aesthetic and toward something closer to actual youth culture? (It was once kind of hip, we’ve heard, before it became inundated with increasingly vapid, albeit fun reality-TV shows.) The network also just renewed The Hard Times of RJ Berger, despite the show’s modest ratings; the Paul Iacono–helmed series was MTV’s first stab at scripted TV in a while, and, like Pants, it features an outcasted youngster and a semi-edgy premise. Filming on location in Brooklyn for I Want My Pants, too, shows almost a commitment to the project, and to seeming “hip.” But that Craigslist ad? Of course, all wrong. It should have just said, “Make some money for standing around. Be on MTV, maybe,” if it actually wanted hung-over scenesters to show up. Instead, it just sounds predictably forced, as the show might, too.

Do you own skinny jeans, old school chucks, cabbie hat, the 70’s vest, an ironic t shirt or hat, a fitted sweater, flannel shirt, or chunky lens-less glasses? Do you drink PBR, have an ironic mustache, have a blog that allows you to post pictures you took with your digital camera? Been called a hipster? Deny being a hipster, but own various wardrobe and sport an asymetrical hair style that is considered Non-Mainstream? Smoke Parliaments? Got any cool tattoos? Perhaps one of a star, maybe on your wrist or elbow? Own a vintage dress or have an awesome beard? Shooting the week of 8/30/2010.

So is MTV trying to segue from the exhausted, glossy Hills aesthetic and toward something closer to actual youth culture? (It was once kind of hip, we’ve heard, before it became inundated with increasingly vapid, albeit fun reality-TV shows.) The network also just renewed The Hard Times of RJ Berger, despite the show’s modest ratings; the Paul Iacono–helmed series was MTV’s first stab at scripted TV in a while, and, like Pants, it features an outcasted youngster and a semi-edgy premise. Filming on location in Brooklyn for I Want My Pants, too, shows almost a commitment to the project, and to seeming “hip.” But that Craigslist ad? Of course, all wrong. It should have just said, “Make some money for standing around. Be on MTV, maybe,” if it actually wanted hung-over scenesters to show up. Instead, it just sounds predictably forced, as the show might, too.

Seeking Hipsters to be Extras for a New MTV Show (Williamsburg) [Craigslist via Crushable]

Is MTV Aiming to Seem More Hip and Less Hills?