Honey Boo Boo Has Turned Into a 'Visibly Troubled' Monster Child

Alana Thompson, the 8-year-old star of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, appeared on The Tonight Show last week and, according to one studio audience member, she was a “dimpled monster” whose defiance, entitlement and disrespect (for both her mother and host Jimmy Fallon) was conveniently edited out of the broadcast.

Christy O’Shoney had attended the taping of The Tonight Show last week and wrote about the “eerie tension” that was present in the studio for Salon. She says that the little reality star was not only rude and disrespectful (she refused to give Jimmy Fallon a friendship bracelet and also told him that his muscles weren’t that big), but that the big personality that we see on TV was merely the result of a pageant mom’s prodding.

For example, the friendship bracelet moment seems cute and quick on TV, but in person, it was actually kind of agonizing. It didn’t just happen once, but several times, and the more it was discussed, the more openly hostile Boo Boo became. And in addition to the friendship bracelet crisis, the episode left out some deeply uncomfortable spats between Mama June and Alana. You see it a bit in the broadcast, but Mama June was continually either answering questions on behalf of Boo Boo or mumbling answers to her. The quick wit we’ve come to expect from Honey Boo Boo was nowhere to be seen, but instead it was fed to her by her pageant mom.

But it got even worse:

But the most notable moment to be left out of Honey Boo Boo’s appearance on “The Tonight Show” was when she became so fed up that she actually struck Mama June. Up until this point, Fallon had been doing a great job of navigating Alana’s weird behavior, but it was at this moment when he became positively awesome. “NEVER hit your mother!” he exclaimed, in a voice that was serious with just a hint of a joke, and the studio audience erupted in applause. Finally, we thought, someone is addressing this child’s attitude.

Ultimately, O’Shoney, who had previously been a Honey Boo Boo fan, left the taping with vastly different take on the child star and how her personality is manipulated to be much more telegenic.

The Alana I saw on “The Tonight Show” set was visibly troubled: disrespectful, defiant, entitled. Of course, with a bit of editing, “disrespectful” becomes “precocious,” “defiant” becomes “sassy,” and “entitled” becomes “confident.”