thank you notes (6/6)(kardashians special edition)

i'm thankful that i had experienced the episode's central setpiece, which is khloe, kylie, and kendall dressing up in costumes and prosthetic makeup to look like "normal people" and going out to live a "normal life," a day trip which, because it includes a self-reflexive ride on a bus tour of stars' homes, is a literal kind of poverty tourism, a few weeks ago through snapchat and thought oh this is kind of stupid but i'm thankful for the way that it was expanded and framed within the show, which gave rise to my deeper feelings of alienation and estrangement.

i'm thankful for three reference points which i think are useful context for this episode: 1) saturnalia, the roman holiday which temporarily inverted the social order, so that masters served the slaves, who were also free (temporarily, at least) to show disrespect to their masters, 2) the petit trianon, the chateau at versailles where marie antoinette escaped the formality and display of court to live a fetishized version of the simple life, and 3) the simple life, the reality show starring paris hilton and nicole richie "as they struggle to do manual, low-paying jobs such as cleaning rooms, farm work, serving meals in fast-food restaurants, and working as camp counselors." (i'm thankful, for good measure, to throw in barbara ehrenreich's nickel and dimed, even though i don't feel that book has aged well and when i tried to read it a few years ago it gave me an (unintentional) frisson of alienation and estrangement)

i'm thankful for the inciting incident of the show, which involves kendall and kris trying to go on a whirlwind tour of rome, which kendall has never before visited, and initially having a great time, but having their day disrupted by the appearance of paparazzi (i'm thankful to note that of course the word "paparazzi" comes from a character in la dolce vita, fellini's film about the corruption of wealth and excess in rome). i'm thankful that kendall's reaction to the appearance of paparazzi, the minor panic attack she's having, feels real, and thankful that i think most normal people can identify with feeling overwhelmed in that way. i'm thankful at the fendi event the two of them attended, kris gives a started from the bottom kind of talking head interview about seeing karl lagerfeld's designs in the first fashion magazine she ever bought and how she never imagined she would own his clothes, much less be standing and talking to him. i'm thankful, even though this feels a bit humblebraggy, that it didn't spark any alienation and estrangement in me.

i'm thankful for the moment when i began to feel alienation and estrangement during the episode, which was when the kardashian sisters, famous for being themselves on television, are being fitted for prosthetics by a team of highly paid makeup artists and have to try to decide on the characters they're going to play as normal people during their day out. i'm thankful, even though it's disappointing, that they decide to become these strange mutated caricatures of normal people. i'm thankful for the way that the uncanny valley prosthetic makeup enacts this idea of "normality" perfectly. i'm thankful for the foghorn leghorn paula deen cornpone country accent khloe slips into as she becomes her character, dolores, and thankful that i don't know if that's more or less offensive than the faux-ghetto code she switches into when she decides a phrase needs a bit of extra garnish. i'm thankful that kylie and kendall are mostly quiet during the rest of the trip, which makes me feel slightly less alienated and estranged from them.

i'm thankful for the gross perfection of how they decide to go to subway for lunch because that's where they assume normal people would go. i'm thankful to remember going to subway with my friends in college and sitting at a table and drinking water out of a small paper cup because i didn't have enough money to buy a $5 sandwich. i'm thankful to be reminded of the ugly american moments from the amazing race that i've seen on the treadmill, like when the players are in the philippines riding between challenges in a jeepney and express such disgust at the smell of the world around them, pinching their noses shut and retching as normal people sit around them riding to school or work or to do other things in their everyday lives (i'm thankful for kflo's notes about jeepneys). i'm thankful for the ridiculousness of the kardashians' surprise that paparazzi find them as they stand around subway being filmed by an e! camera crew, which increased my feelings of alienation and estrangement.

i'm thankful, if only for the sake of the other people on the tour, that their trip on the hollywood bus tour is fairly short and thankful that on it, despite their desire to be normal, they flex their celebrity twice, once when they realize the paparazzi are on to them and they decide to giddily snapchat each other so that the paparazzi can't get "first looks" (and thus, i assume, so that these normal people making a living in the los angeles gossip industry will earn less money for the photos they've taken), and then when they leap from the bus and haul ass onto the grounds of the beverly hills hotel, that enclave of the rich and famous where paparazzi are not allowed in and so the kardashians can be "safe." i'm thankful for the moment in their ride to kendall's apartment afterward when khloe is in the midst of peeling the fake flesh off her face while still cutting loose in her "normal person" voice and the car stops at a light and she looks out the window and sees a woman in the car next to them and shouts that was the old lady i wanted to be! i'm thankful that i cannot even begin to express the feelings of alienation and estrangement this statement made me feel. 

i'm thankful, though, that the episode does in fact offer a kind of counterpoint to this gross poverty tourism, which has to do with the b plot about corey wanting to go rollerskating with kris. i'm thankful for the lunch he has early in the episode at a nondescript italian restaurant with kris and her mother mj. i'm thankful for how mj gives him old rich lady shade when he seems excited about opening the bottle of wine they've brought to lunch and then again when she seems to snootily insist that ice skating might possibly be an appropriate activity but certainly not roller skating. i'm thankful that he doesn't let either of these things affect him and in fact kind of pokes fun at her faux poise by pointing out that she's from la jolla, where one has to assume the only kind of skating is roller skating. i'm thankful how he doesn't let the dissonance between his class background and the background of the people around him cause him to feel angst—i'm thankful for the scene at the beautiful mess store which is all about how he goes to expensive antique stores with kris because she loves it and he doesn't but he loves her (i'm thankful for the moment of him tapping a punching bag lamp). 

i'm thankful that for the sake of a setpiece (and thanks to kim's diegetic intervention), corey eventually gets his way and the episode ends with the whole kardashian clan together at a skating rink. i'm thankful that they've clearly rented out the skating rink for themselves but thankful also that it is fundamentally just a normal person skating rink, like many of us have been to, with ugly old red-brown carpet and gumball machines and gaudy lights—i'm thankful you can almost taste the fake buttered popcorn and nacho cheese. i'm thankful for the moment when kris falls and corey is holding her and kind of catches her as she falls; i'm thankful to the jumpcut of him helping her up and hugging her from behind, which you can tell makes her feel good and makes falling worth it. i'm thankful for the scenes of the whole family skating around the normal person skating rink and clearly having a great time—i'm thankful that it doesn't feel like they're "slumming" by doing corey's thing, they're just doing the thing because it's something he wanted to do and enjoying it for what it is. i'm thankful for that, for how it didn't make me feel alienation and estrangement.