People pay so little notice to Angus T. Jones on “Two and A Half Men,” not only have they not noticed that he’s a not such a half-person any more, they never really knew his real feelings about the sitcom he’s on.On a video made for his new faith community that gained a bigger audience on YouTube, he tells those watching that he’s a little embarrassed about the show he’s on. What else could a Christian say about a TV show founded on the double entendre?
“If you watch ‘Two and a Half Men,’ please stop watching ‘Two and a Half Men.’ I’m on ‘Two and a Half Men,’ and I don’t want to be on it,” he says in the video for the Forerunner Chronicles, a video blog for the Voice of Prophecy Seventh-Day Adventists in L.A. ““Please stop watching it and filling your head with filth.”
Some equate Angus’ statement with Charlie Sheen’s going off the rails last year, but it’s actually just the opposite. Sheen was fueled by drugs and girls; Angus is fueled by religious fervor. His advice — don’t watch “Two and a Half Men” — would be the same advice I’d give somebody who asked.
It’s an unfunny show of mostly sexual innuendo that ceases to be witty after the seventh grade. That it remains a big hit, with 14 million viewers, says more about the low grade tastes of the American public than the quality of the show.
Jones is past his adolescence as well, and seeks to put the sophomoric humor in his past as he grows to a young man. At 19 it’s quite natural for any young person to rebel against his childhood on the road to becoming his own person. In Angus’ case, he’s rebelling against the dim jokes in the show where he’s spent 10 years of his childhood.
Still, sitting alongside an uncomfortable-looking fellow believer, he realizes the tough spot he’s in.
“If I am doing any harm, I don’t want to be here,” he said of his job, noting “I don’t want to be contributing to the enemy’s plan.
“You cannot be a true God-fearing person and be on a television show like that. I know I can’t. I’m not OK with what I’m learning, what the Bible says and being on that television show.”
But, earning about $8 million a year and $350,000 per episode, he doesn’t want to quit (and I’m guessing the church doesn’t want him to either).
“I am under contract for another year so it is not too much of a decision on my part,” he says on the video. “I know God has me there for a reason for another year.”
Entertainment reporters are treating this like Sheen II, some kind of meltdown that demands a response from the showrunners and specifically creator Chuck Lorre.
But Lorre never reacted to Sheen’s increasingly loopy statements until they got personal and anti-Semetic. And unless Lorre is identified as “the enemy,” he’ll probably keep quiet.
“Two and a Half Men” has proven itself immune to any and all controversy: Ratings jumped during the Sheen incident and rose higher when his replacement, Ashton Kutcher, was unveiled.
Other than an answer from Lorre on his indulgent vanity cards (which would also boost sales of his $50 coffetable book collecting them), there’s not likely to be any official response. Jones is hardly ever on the show anyway compared to the adult stars Kutcher and Emmy winner Jon Cryer.
In fact, he’s not scheduled to be on the next two episodes.
Nor will Jones’ suggestion have any effect on ratings. Christians probably weren’t watching in the first place; those who aren’t and are watching the show won’t care about his outside beliefs.