Posted February 22, 2008
By tseigler

Just when you thought it was safe to dip back into the dating pool, in jumps Flavor Flav. The greasy jester of rap is back on TV, ostensibly looking for love but likely to find more attention-hungry women who will get their own development deals with VH1 once the clock strikes midnight. That’s the clock around Flav’s neck, of course.

Celebrity reality shows have an edge on “regular” reality shows in that the “ick” factor isn’t “what will they do to win” but “what won’t they do to revive their career.” Flav, who has given proof to the axiom that “chicks dig musicians no matter how unattractive they are,” has become a pop culture icon twice over. First, as the hype man for Public Enemy, he made hip-hop humorous. Now, as the only TV bachelor with a personality, he’s in a league of his own.

Despite being the black Gollum, Flav isn’t just “famous for being famous” (the status ascribed to other reality celebs like Paris Hilton). He has an actual artistic legacy, and he’d be remembered for his rap career even if he never set foot in the reality-TV landscape. But Flav is now back on the air, and America is better for it. The rock version of his “search for love” (with Bret Michaels of Poison as his stand-in) is nowhere near as fun, and Scott Baio is just a jerk with commitment issues. I’m guessing when Flav approached the VH1 execs about saving their schedule with a new installment of his show, their collective response might have gone something like this: “Yeah, boyyyyyy!”