What is wrong with Vern Yip, and why is he being such a bitch?  I hate using the “b-word” — but sometimes there is the perfect time and place for its employment and now is one of those times.  We first grew to know and love Vern on “Trading Spaces.”  He was the best designer on that show, and we admired his caring for people and his brilliance in design.

Vern just finished a stint as the lead judge on HGTV’s “Design Star” — and while Boring White Bread Emily Henderson was crowned this season’s winner last night — the rest of us are left wondering about something more pressing:  What happened to our Vern?

All season Vern was overly stern and upset with the contestants.  Did he hate them?  Did he feel threatened?  Was he insulted by their obvious lack of talent?  Vern’s feedback was consistently bored and cruel.  He was unloving, mean, and disinterested.  He seemed to hate the contestants while loathing his hosting duties.

Where was the Vern we had come to know and love?  Where was the Vern who taught through example and brought us all together by wanting a higher aesthetic that was facilitated through his simple, insightful, design philosophy?

Sure, you can be a Simon Cowell-esque judge — and hate the world around you — but you will have a longer, and more sustainable success, by being kinder and more helpful to those who obviously adore you.

Vern’s bad attitude poisoned the show.  His feedback was always sternly and stonily delivered — as if the center of the world were about to explode inside his head — and we Vern fans are left in the lurch wondering what happened to our force of brightness and positivity.

Were we seeing the real Vern on “Trading Spaces?”  Or is this new dour and headstone-faced HGTV judge the real Vern?  He can’t be both.  It is impossible to have two such opposite sides of the human condition residing in the same temporal body without ripping a hole in the Space-Time Continuum.

We can only hope the Real Vern will one day come back to us — and we’re holding thumbs the reality with be a return to the warmth and support we’ve come to expect from one of the best designers we grew up imitating on television.

5 Comments

    1. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
      David W. Boles says:

      I don’t know what’s wrong with him — but being a judge on a show that involves finding a good host — shouldn’t you, as the judge, be an excellent host? There’s never an explanation or an insight into any of their decisions as to who goes or stays — which makes one believe the judges aren’t making the decisions, the producers are…

  2. ANNE – I live and teach on the upper West Coast of the United States. My interests are Philosophy, English, and Social Communication.
    anne says:

    Oh, I agree with this. Vern sure has changed. I wonder if it is old age setting in because he sure is grumpy and not interested. I want the old Yip back.

    1. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
      David W. Boles says:

      Every loves Vern! I don’t know what happened to him, but he is clearly unhappy or uncomfortable in his role as “judge” on the Design Star show. Let’s hope he can go back to what he loves and we can, indeed, “Get Our Yip Back!” Ha!

  3. He’s power tripping. You can read from his face that he’s sarcastic and condescending. He called somebody “irresponsible” for bungling the curtains and then smirked. “Irresponsible”?!!

Comments are closed.