Monday, April 7 at 9:00 p.m. M. Bodyshock: “I Am The Elephant Man” aired on Channel 4. Watching the show, an apparent microcosm of humanity, encapsulating a story with all the notions of difficulty, suffering, love, dignity, pain and optimism. We learn about the life of Huang Chuncai, a patient with neurofibromatosis: the same ailment that afflicted John Merrick, the Elephant Man, in the run-up to and after an operation to remove some of the 20 kg of tumor on his face. We saw his poor farming family, we heard his mother crying and crying perennially, we felt her terrible pain and we thanked God that this disease does not afflict any of us or our families.

The producers spared no extreme close-ups of Huang in the middle of the operation or chose not to film an adult pig being slaughtered, crying as jets of blood gushed from his heart to the ground.

Watching it, I realized that I was watching less of a documentary and more of the traveling circus that Haung and his family so worthily refused to be a part of. And I thought this is just an obscene appearance of a heartbreaking and believable fact show when in reality it is little more than abominable reality TV shows.

Did we see Huang tortured emotionally and physically to learn more about China? To learn more about humanity? For more information on neurofibromatosis? Or as a form of sordid voyeurism, to see how disgusting this puddle of a human being can survive and feel how lucky we are?

I think my feelings are justified by Channel 4, choosing to show us slaughtered pigs and surgical footage for entertainment, their lack of consideration and respect for having the Volkswagen Passat-sponsored show ‘Beautifully Formed’, and how to end the show without a notable conclusion. To shame.