Watching Keeping Up With the Kardashians is enough to send anyone into an existential crisis. You may ask yourself: Why am I watching people I've never met pretending to live their lives like there are no cameras on them? What does it say about me that I already heard about this incident on the Internet, yet here I am, watching it transpire on a carefully edited "reality" show? Did I DVR this? What am I doing with my life?
Wow, that got dark. But, the Kardashians and Jenners can do that to a person. Friedrich Nietzsche famously made the case that it is impossible to separate an entity from its relations to other things, like lightning from its flash. When it comes to the Kardashian and Jenner clan, that has never felt more true.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
In "Keeping Up With The," YouTube user tough Boy pockets removes the Kardashians from the equation, editing out the Kardashians and Jenners until we're left with just Bruce. It would send Nietzsche and Foucault into an absinthe binge, since it calls into question every assertion they made about genealogy. It's the Garfield Minus Garfield of reality television. By removing all of Bruce Jenner's relations, we are left with just one solitary entity, who is clearly thrown into chaos in the absence of his usual defining family members.
Without Kim, Khloe, Kourtney, Kris, Kendall, and Kylie, Bruce Jenner is a man without a much-needed sounding board, spinning his wheels as he golfs, cleans, and hoards baby gear in his garage. He's got no one to keep up with, and it might just be the most poignant tale of our time. Brace yourself for a metaphysical spiral when you watch below because in a way, we are all Bruce Jenner, trying to define ourselves as we hurtle around the sun on this journey called life. (The A.V. Club)