There’s a new Big Brother blog on the block, very much worth a look. My Virtual Reality contains some of the wittiest writing about Big Brother I’ve read this year and is already on my list of favourites.

Better still, Cdaewa, who writes the blog has some very alternative viewpoints on the housemates, not just the usual “Love Pete, Hate (insert name of non-Pete housemate)”. Look at his thoughts on Spiral, for instance:

I’ve been thinking about Spiral a lot since I wrote about him last night, and I have actually discovered a newfound respect for him. He’s only been in the house a few weeks and has already broken down more racial stereotypes than any other housemate in the programme’s history…for years the Irish have been portrayed in the media as loveable drunks, downing pints of Guinness and joyfully waving their shamrocks at passing leprechauns. But instead of pandering to this crude generalisation, BB have gone out and found a belligerent, tee-total Dublin lad with absolutely no sense of fun whatsoever. It’s a masterstroke. Expect a new breed of jokes to spring up any day now along the lines of: An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman walk into a bar. The Irishman says to the barmaid “Just an orange juice for me love, and don’t forget to bend over while you fetch it so I can get a good look at your bum.â€?

Definitely worth a read!

It seems everyone’s lining up to criticise Endemol for their management of this year’s Big Brother. Like I said in an earlier post, psychologists are all creeping out of the woodwork to declare war on what a few years ago they thought was a daring psychological/sociological experiment.

But it’s just getting laughable now. The latest claim is that Big Brother’s prison task is a dangerous mind game and might end up in torture - literally torture - for the housemates:

One expert claims the jail task is a copy of a notorious 1971 psychological experiment in the US.

In it, 24 students became “guards� or “prisoners� — and the prisoners ended up being TORTURED.

Sociology prof Rob Green said: “Things could get out of hand. This very dangerous stunt could cause lasting psychological harm.�

Pleeease wise up, people! Have you ever heard such rubbish? After the amount of flack BB producers have taken recently, do you think they’d allow housemates to physically and mentally torture each other?

Tellingly, Professor Green spares us the details of how he thinks the latest task might erupt into massive Human Rights violations for the housemates. My suspicion? He’s just jumping on the “Kick Endemol” bandwagon.