Honey Boo Boo's gassy reality TV family: A stinker, or refreshingly real?

We know it's trash, but we'll be darned if we can't look away from the jaw-dropping real life antics of the Thompson family in their new show Here Comes Honey Boo Boo Child.

Premiering in the US last night, the Toddlers and Tiaras spinoff has left critics and viewers in shock. Sure it's puerile junk, but everybody's talking about it today.

Six-year-old beauty pageant contestant Alana Thompson, aka Honey Boo Boo Child, rocketed to viral fame with her smart-mouthed Southern drawl and uninhibited belly flashing on Toddlers and Tiaras

Six months on, Honey Boo Boo has her own show, Kardashian style … only gassier, trashier and minus the bikini babes.

The Thomson clan consists of 17-year-old "Chickadee" (who is pregnant), 15-year-old "Chubs", 12-year-old "Pumpkin", six-year-old Alana, their dad, 40-year-old "Sugar Bear", and 32-year-old "Mama".

If Alana is the Bart Simpson of the show, then "Mama" is Homer.

According to Mama, washing your hair in the bathtub is unhygienic — so she washes it in the kitchen sink…

…a woman's private parts look like a "biscuit"…

… and farting 12-15 times a day will help you lose weight (see her uphold this philosophy in the clip above).

The response from viewers? Well, #honeybooboo is a trending topic on Twitter today, unsurprisingly. And it's not all negative, with many trash-lovers declaring it their new favourite show.

As for the critics, they may be grossed out, but they're at least impressed by how unmanufactured this "cooties and all" family actually is.

"They fart. They eat cheese puffs for breakfast. They revel in being rednecks. They compare their vulvas to Hardee's biscuits. They weigh themselves on national television. They are riveting," writes a reviewer on Jezebel.

"You know a piece of pop culture is onto something when many agree that is that it's signalling the fall of civilisation," declares Gawker.