Extreme News commentator Qu Jing
On May 17, the Beijing Municipal Cultural Market Comprehensive Law Enforcement Corps issued a notice that Xiaoguo Culture and its actor Li Haoshi wantonly tampered with the content of the performance declaration, and seriously insulted the people's army during two consecutive "Xiaoguo talk show" performances on the afternoon and evening of May 13, causing a bad social impact, and decided to confiscate 1,325,381.6 yuan of Xiaoguo Cultural Holding Company's illegal gains and fined 13353816 yuan. The relevant violations of the persons involved in the case, their performance agencies and performance venue business units will be further investigated for responsibility in accordance with laws and regulations, and all performance activities of the company involved in Beijing will be suspended indefinitely.
In response, Xiaoguo Culture responded: Sincerely accept the severe criticism from all walks of life, and apologize again. The labor contract of the actor involved and the artist's agency contract will be terminated immediately, and a series of measures will be taken to rectify it. (According to Beijing Business Daily on May 17)
Official Announcement (Source: Cultural Tourism Beijing)
Tens of millions of fines, further accountability, and indefinite suspension of performances in Beijing are quite heavy administrative penalties in the cultural performance industry, and the lessons are also very profound. However, judging from the information reported by the law enforcement department, the punishment of "Xiaoguo" is really not unjust.
The circular pointed out that Xiaoguo Culture and its actors both "tampered with the content of the performance declaration", and that in the two consecutive "Xiaoguo talk show" performances, there were episodes that seriously insulted the people's army, indicating that this paragraph was prepared, rehearsed, and deliberately tampered with, rather than being "temporarily added" as Xiaoguo responded before. And after the incident, "Xiaoguo" only suspended Li Haoshi indefinitely, and did not "fire" him until the law enforcement department reported it, and it seems that he is still waiting and seeing, and there is still a fluke mentality.
But if there is a person in the company's team, who also has the bottom-line awareness of "saying something and not saying something", and has some value judgment ability, listening to the audience's feedback a little, he will not be so dull and silent in front of the big right and wrong. It can only be said that the entire team blindly pursues low-level "laughing fruits", and extremely lacks bottom-line awareness and risk awareness.
Screenshot of the performance of "Talk Show Conference Season 5" (Source: Tencent Video screenshot)
There are many viewers who love talk shows, and the mood at this moment is very complicated. On the one hand, everyone is angry and puzzled by the behavior of Li Haoshi and "Xiaoguo", on the other hand, they are worried that a rat poop spoils a pot of porridge, "Xiaoguo" makes a mistake, and the entire industry has to blame. In fact, the "Xiaoguo culture", which has been unlimited from online variety shows to offline performances, as an industry leader with social influence, has made such a serious mistake and paid such a heavy price, which is indeed a wake-up call for the entire talk show industry.
Screenshot of the performance of "Talk Show Conference Season 5" (Source: Tencent Video screenshot)
The thunder of the "laughing fruit" was not planted only in the past two days. For a long time, in order to chase traffic, attract capital and expand influence, "Xiaoguo" has always regarded laughter as the first criterion of performance, and has repeatedly jumped on the bottom line of various controversial topics. On the variety show "Talk Show Conference", guest Yang Lan once had a disagreement with Li Dan over "what should be ridiculed and what should not be ridiculed", and Li Dian's answer was: "There is no standard, just be funny." "If the standard is too single, too blind, it is easy to go astray and even "overturn". As the "majority of the entire talk show industry", "Xiaoguo" has its performance style and scale inevitably become a certain reference standard for other companies and actors, which has led to frequent controversies and accidents in the entire talk show industry in recent years.
Screenshot of the performance video of the child indifferent man
To be fair, Li Haoshi and "Xiaoguo" made a big mistake, but the talk show that closely follows the trend of the times and shows the variety of life has its own unique charm and is also loved by the audience. Although everyone is ridiculing that the English training industry turned into a stand-up comedian, once again "killed" the industry, but in fact, many people do not want the talk show to collapse. This requires the entire industry to learn lessons, face up to the shortcomings of irregular operations, scarcity of talents, insufficient creative power, and unbalanced regional development, and not be over-brainwashed by the so-called "offensive art" and ignore the authenticity of comedy. Only by truly fearing, guarding and stopping in deeds can we learn from the past of "laughing fruit", embark on a healthier and more sustainable new path, and promote the benign development of the industry.
(Source: Polar Eye News)