Is Jamie Kennedy the Father of 'Kid Nation'?

Far as we know, no one’s ever called comedian-cum-rapper Jamie Kennedy a visionary. But with the imminent premiere of CBS’ controversial reality series Kid Nation, he’s looking downright prophetic.

Long before CBS decided to leave 40 kids, aged 8 to 15, to their own devices in a New Mexico ghost-town set, Kennedy gave the world “Child Island,” a parody of CBS’ own Survivor from his prank show, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, which ran on The WB from 2002-04 and now runs on the G4 cable network.

In a clip that has been circulating online, Kennedy impersonates “a typical Hollywood producer” who tries to convince a group of parents to sign their kids up for “the most horrible reality show imaginable.”

Teasing the show with the tagline, “Six kids, 13 days, no adults, no food, no fun: no kidding,” he cues up a trailer for the parents, who are soon agape over scenes of kids eating insects, hunting wild boar and degenerating into a full-on face-painted Lord-of-the-Flies orgy. When they object to a scene of a kid falling off a cliff, Kennedy assures them, “Great shows are not born every day. But kids are.”

Child- and labor-rights groups have denounced Kid Nation. But, while minor accidents have been reported, no kids have been thrown from cliffs.

Kennedy, CBS and Kid Executive Producer Tom Forman did not respond to requests for comment.

Whether Kid Nation proves to be “the most horrible reality show imaginable” remains to be seen.

UPDATE: BuzzDash, a Website that posts an array of pop-culture polls called buzzbites, added a poll yesterday based on this blog entry: "Think the idea for Kid Nation came from a Jamie Kennedy sketch?" Check it out.

By Joel Topcik