(Dis)honoring the dead

As I've said before, I'm not a big fan of award shows, but I did tune into the Emmys very briefly last night, if only to follow along with Bob's live blogging of the event. However, since he's in Boston and I'm in Minneapolis everything he was writing about hadn't actually happened yet. I felt like Reverse Nostrodamus. The one segment I did manage to catch was the one they have in all these award shows where they honor people who have died over the last year. I think it's fine that they honor people, but what always bothers me is that not everyone who flashes onto the screen gets applause from the audience. Bob alluded to this a little bit, noting that some of the lesser known producers get only a smattering of applause, but to me it seems like such an insult. Yes, even in death you're unpopular. I don't just clap for any dead person, you know. You would think after all these years the vapid, overpaid space-fillers who make up the audience at these shows would realize that you should just applaud everyone out of common decency.