I don’t think the Kardashians are stupid.

Some of them may not know the molecular composition of table salt or the capital of Missouri, but they knew how to parlay their net worth into hundreds of millions.

Photo by Melody Temple on Unsplash

I lived in Southern California for almost 20 years. Anyone who has driven there knows how the freeways are hellacious almost 24/7. I was in sales and my territory included customers in L.A., Orange, San Diego, and San Bernardino counties. I was very meticulous about the time I would leave my house and the time to head home. This was BW or GM, Before Waze or Google Maps. A 2-hour ride home could be a 4-hour ride depending on how far away from home I was…and this was without a traffic accident.

By the time I got home, I was in no mood to be on the computer or read a newspaper. I love to cook so that was usually my outlet but that was only half the time. The other half I either walked to a restaurant or went down the hall to my neighbor’s to hang out. I needed to decompress in the worst way. If I turned the TV on, I didn’t want to think. I wanted mindless entertainment.

Jersey Shore was a favorite of mine because I was born and raised in Jersey. No, I don’t say “JOY-ZEE”. One of my all-time favorites which I still have yet to finish to this day is Nip Tuck along with Entourage. A close comrade of mine told me not to watch the final season of Entourage, he said it was that bad. I listened to him and still haven’t seen it nor do I have any interest. Nip Tuck on the other hand I want to finish.

E! was a favorite channel of mine because I loved watching The Howard Stern Show and Chelsea Lately. No matter what time of day it was, if I was tuned into this channel, there was always a promo for Keeping Up With the Kardashians. I didn’t know much about this show. All I knew were three things:

1. Kris, Kim, Kourtney, and Khloe were related to the late lawyer Robert of OJ Simpson of fame.
2. Kim had a sex tape with Ray J.
3. Kim was married to Bruce Jenner

I was indifferent about the show. Until one day I came home from a long drive, opened the sliding door to get the beach breeze, plopped myself on the couch, and turned on the TV. As I’m flipping through the channels, KUWTK was on and Bruce was talking. I thought to myself, “I know this voice. It sounds like my Uncle Rob! No way!” I was intently listening to make sure it sounded like him. I was tired and I could’ve been hallucinating. After watching through to the next commercial, I called my brother in Hoboken. I asked him if he watched KUWTK and he said he did and said, “Doesn’t Bruce sound like Uncle Rob?!” I laughed back, “I thought the same thing!”Uncle Rob sounds exactly like Bruce. That was then. Today Uncle Rob is still Uncle Rob and didn’t change to Caitlyn.

I found myself watching more episodes and getting caught up in the minutia. There were many things said that I agreed with and many that I disagreed with. To me, the show was simply entertaining. There was no need to bring up political debates or discussions about current events. It was simply a family living life. That’s it. I did not have to think or ponder. Mindless entertainment at its best.

I stopped watching around 2014 because I was in the midst of moving back to the East Coast to start the next chapter of my life. I met my future wife in 2015 in NYC. As time passed, we were always galavanting around the city. The only TV I watched was sports and the news (in that order). The last show I can remember binge-watching was Breaking Bad. It was that good, that I would often stay up till 4 am waiting to see what was going to happen. I would often say to myself, “Ok, just one more…”. I lost touch with KUWTK. In between 2014 and now I’ve been a part of a few conversations in which people have mentioned their disdain for the show and certain (if not all) members of the show. The most common word heard to describe them was, “stupid”.

For each member of the Kardashian family, whatever their net worth as an individual or as a whole, are they really stupid? People calling them stupid may be referring to them as not being able to figure out how to boil pasta or how many states there are in this country, but I just can’t call someone stupid for making tens, hundreds of millions of dollars annually. If someone asked you, “Would you let cameras follow you and your family around 24/7 for 10 years and end up with $100M?” Don’t be stupid. I’m not saying money is everything. Money does make life easier though. Their TV show isn’t the only source of their millions. They actually have ventured into other businesses, media, and endorsements. They never stop producing. They have an insatiable drive to keep making more. To turn a small family business into an empire, I don’t think that’s stupid.