Wild Bodies and True Lies: Carnival, Spectacle, and the Curious Case of Trailer Park Boys

The Halifax-based TV series Trailer Park Boys shares some of the characteristics of reality television, yet at the same time contrives to present a vision of society that is significantly different from that of shows like Survivor. By theorizing reality television in terms of spectacle versus carnival, this chapter argues that neo-liberal-inflected, transnational “game-doc” shows and the Canadian mockumentary Trailer Park Boys invite us to construct the real in qualitatively different ways.