"Yes, darling?"
"Your life is meaningless."
"Don't even joke about that."
"I'm not."
Kevin stopped eying the cake that had been placed in front of him and surveyed his surroundings. Everyone that he knew was there, at his 30th birthday party. Just like an episode of Your Life Is Meaningless, when the victim sees all of his friends and relatives, his co-workers and his lovers, dissolving into professional actors who no longer care about him. It couldn't-- they couldn't-- "Mother?"
A familiar voice, in a strange and indifferent tone: "I am not your mother. Your mother blatantly violated the Family Restriction Act by bearing a fifth child, who was confiscated by the State and licensed to the General Broadcasting Consortium."
"What right do you have to destroy a person this way?" Turning to his wife, Kevin shouted in anger, "What right?!"
"The ratings are our right. And you are as guilty as anyone else of your fate; you have watched it happen to others."
"In disgust! With pity!"
"Our surveys have shown that those feelings make people more receptive to our subliminal advertising. I-- I am sorry."
Kevin stopped to organize his thoughts. He realized then that he would have to begin his life anew, like all of the other victims. Here there would be a commercial break.