That's the song they're suggesting people buy, called 'Killing In The Name Of'. Ah, I fondly remember Bruno Brookes playing the 'wrong' version of that during Radio 1's chart countdown when it was in the charts first time round. As I said at the time 'you can't beat a bit of potty-mouthed teen rebellion'. It didn't quite get to number one and they were very careful to play the edited version after that .

Although I always thought 'Sleep Now In The Fire' was a much better song.

They tried this a few years back with 'Scorpio Rising' by Death in Vegas, didn't work then and it won't work now. As I believe PT Barnum said "'Nobody ever failed by overestimating the stupidity of the public" .

I understand what people are saying about buying it 'in protest', as that thought had crossed my mind too, but I think I'm gonna buy it out of spite for £X-Factor and all that it stands for anyway

And let's be honest, when it comes to cynicism, nothing or nobody touches Cowell and his ingenious, evil media circus

I don't hate x-factor, I've never seen it, likewise all of the talent/celebrity shows that clog up tv at the moment. I also make a point of never buying xmas songs, let alone the nbr 1 song, no matter what it is. My exception is going to be Rolf Harris teaming up with what's-his-face from Quo because it's actually quite a fun song and I like it!

Rick Parfitt.

Mark

I don't know, apparently Cowell got in a bit of a strop about Peter Kay's X-factor pi55 take show.

Yep, that's the fella. I heard it on the Jukebox Jury on Radio 2 a little while ago and found myself chair-dancing to it in my car it's catchy and quite jolly.

I hate X-Factor, but I won't be buying the song on that basis. I'll be buying it because I think it would be great to have it as the Christmas No 1. It won't work, last year's one didn't, but it's fun anyway.

+1 to having it as a cheeky No.1, but I think it might be in with more of a chance just cos it's a much stronger song, people already know it to some extent, and there's more hatred of X-Factor than previously as far as I can tell...

You don't have to join the group at all, just buy the song when the time comes.
I like the fact that quite a few people here are rebelling against the rebellion. But the coolest person will the one who rebels against the rebellion against the rebellion

You people are just over-thinking this. Don't look for anything profound or deep in this act, it is just for fun, we are not gonna change the world or anything. We'll just have coolest Crimbo n1 ever.

296000 people joined the group so far and that is pretty good going...

This is the video btw:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4M0B_hUlNY

Perhaps, but by not participating in this sort of thing it's my protest against the whole dumbing-down of the British media. You could play any of the songs from Pop Goes the Strictly Ice Factor of the past umpteen years, and I wouldn't recognise them. I'm actually rather proud of the fact I don't have a clue who or what a Jedward is (I fib, since I'd have had to have been living on the Moon for six months to avoid any mention of them), and I couldn't name one of the contestants in that thing the Beeb keeps flogging mercilessly. What is it? Um, oh yeah, Strictly Get Knotted or something.

Does that make me an anti-rebellious rebelling rebel, or something?

I think it might make you rebel scum. *smirk*
I've no idea about any other iteration of "reality TV" apart from The X Factor, and the chances of me ever catching that again are next to none now.

Mark

You don't need to go as far as the moon.

Never heard of any of them. But we get DSDS (Germany looks for a Superstar) and Popstar Du und Ich and other such tripe. Luckily we get about 12 basic channels plus another 40 regional variations on them on satellite, so I don't have to watch them - and the state run channels don't run any of this guff anyway.

I think I've watched about 30 minutes of the current DSDS - my girlfriend was watching it! - and about the same for the Popstar thing - same reason.

It helps that I probably watch about about 3 hours of TV during the week and maybe another 2-4 hours at the weekend, depending on what we are doing. We often watch DVDs instead of TV, in which case my weekly "television" (as in broadcast) viewing drops even further.

I was going to say you should consider yourself lucky, but perhaps that's not a good idea.

What gets me is all the peripheral fluff that goes with the shows. There are behind the scenes shows, there are discussion shows that follow the main show, minutely dissecting every little scrap of rubbish they can get away with.

Frankly, it's just filling airtime. I lump it all into the same box at the back of the garage where I put all the TV soaps. I don't need it, I don't want to know about it, and I think it's all a monumental waste of time that would be better if the broadcasters threw a bit more cash into the pot to make half decent entertainment instead.

</rant>

(I'm rapidly becoming Charlie Brooker, I'm afraid.)

Hear, hear! DVDs of real TV FTW!

Mmm. Self-restrain in The Meeting Place can be difficult at the best of times …

Mark