Not long ago, if you wanted to be on TV, radio, film or just plain recognizable, you needed a discernible ability that distinguished you from the rest of the pack.

William Shakespeare, Lucille Ball, Sinbad, Nina Simone, Kobayashi, Sir Mix-a-Lot.

All of them are famous because they have what it takes to be recognizable.

Ever since the whole reality TV craze took off with “Survivor” in 2000, the qualifications to be considered famous have dropped significantly.

Now, if someone wants to get their 15 minutes of fame, they just need to be at least one of four things: 1) crazy, 2) really stupid 3) slutty and hot (applicable to both men and women), or 4) a big, fat party animal.

A quick peruse through much of the programming on MTV or VH1 provides an excellent example of what people are willing to do to be in the spotlight, and what C-list celebrities are willing to do to fend off that beast known as obscurity.

Heidi from “The Hills,” New York from “Flavor of Love” and Omarosa from “The Apprentice” (all of whom meet the previously mentioned qualifications, right?) became way more famous than they had any right to be.

And let’s not forget YouTube. Granted, if you have 18 hours to waste, there’s no better place to go.

But as a source for talent, you’d have better luck looking in Andy Dick’s house.

Yeah, it’s all sorts of funny, but any schmuck with a face/leg/groin can get injured by a hammer/merry-go-round/house pet.

About 49 percent of the content deals with people mocking other people who do have talent.

Some of them put a little more effort into it than others, but when it comes down to it, if you just add Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” to a mascot fighting a kangaroo, or make a shot-by-shot recreation of a very special episode of “Blossom” using LEGOs, you’re just proving that you have the capability to use a computer or have basic mimicking abilities.

The last percent is divvied up between crazy commercials and people who do have talent but lack the means to do anything else but promote themselves on YouTube.

All these talent-challenged individuals are just taking away from the time that could be spent on people with noteworthy abilities.

David Sedaris, The Velvet Underground, David Mamet and Paul Dano are less recognizable than the likes of Miley Cyrus, Spencer Pratt and Paris Hilton – none of whom add anything special to the progressive world.

With the ever-growing possibility of a Screen Actors Guild strike, it looks like people who are barely qualified to park cars are going to have their chances to entertain America.