Gotta give a man credit. Flavor Flav is one of those rare celebrities that’s figured out how to work the snooze button on the ol’ fame clock.

Flav’s “15 minutes” started running two decades ago as he gained notoriety as the excitable, clock-wearing hype man for legendary rap crew Public Enemy. (Good thing his parents never put him on Ritalin, or he might be anonymous.) But with PE’s profile greatly diminished a decade later, Flav seemed destined to spend the rest of his career in the “Where Are They Now?” zone.

That is, until he and Brigitte Nielsen hooked up on “The Surreal Life” in ’04, a match made in – um – somewhere I don’t even want to imagine. That was compelling fodder for spin-off “Strange Love,” which in turn begat “Flavor of Love.”

And here we are, with “Flavor of Love 3” recently launched on VH1. By now, a whole generation of hip-hop fans knows more about Flav the reality TV big shot than about Flav’s actual music. And as a diehard Public Enemy fan (check the name of my blog) I feel conflicted.

I’ll admit, the first two seasons of “Flavor of Love” were a guilty pleasure. I laughed, I cried. I feared for the future. But sometimes I imagine poor Chuck D watching at home, just shaking his head, grumbling and maybe shedding a little tear as Flav bludgeons Flav’s legacy. The “D” stands for dignity, you know. Or did you learn nothing from Jimmy Kimmel’s speech from Comedy Central’s Flavor Flav roast?

It was funny at first. But here are a few reasons I just can’t watch any more, and why the madness must stop.

1. Reality TV is killing Flav’s street cred: I’ll give him a pass for letting Brigitte smack the snot out of him on “Surreal Life.” Hey, that lady’s kind of big and scary, and I’m not sure that I could take her. But what’s harder to ignore is that he’s let her get away with calling him “foofy” for four years.

Foofy? No, sir. You cannot be a member of the fiercest political hip-hop group in history and roll as “foofy.”

2. … and Flav’s chances of winning the national spelling bee: I give Flav credit for knowing that “delicious” isn’t spelled Deelishis. But the chick who likes to spit on people should be P-U-M-P-K-I-N. And that’s at least one too many E’s in Buckeey? Don’t even get me started on “Payshintz.”

3. Now, is it really ethical to exploit dimwitted people like that? There have been a couple of smart cookies among the “Flavor of Love” girls. Well, people who can string sentences together and maybe balance a checkbook. But otherwise this is quite possibly the dumbest collection of people not sitting in Jerry Springer’s audience.

4. Speaking of dumb: Ewww. Some of them aren’t even potty trained: I thought I’d seen some of the most degrading acts committed on television on “Fear Factor.” Then I saw the Season Two episode during which contestant “Somethin’” didn’t have sense to excuse herself before losing control of her bowels. Ask yourself, can Season Three top that shock value? I don’t even wanna know.

5. It’s made Flav the very thing he hates: “Go read a book or som’in’.” Isn’t that what he told the daytime TV-addicted subjects of “She Watch Channel Zero” to do instead of letting their minds rot? Somewhere the next Chuck D is scribbling verses lambasting guys in viking hats.

6. I hate New York: Any show that’s responsible for making Tiffany “New York” Pollard a celebrity – not to mention her psychotic mom – has outlived its usefulness. And even her show has a spin-off. It’s the TV equivalent of the ebola virus.

7. Other has-been pop stars need some action, too: As Bret Michaels proved on “Rock of Love,” the formula can benefit from new blood. We hear Biz Markie and Gerardo are free.

8. The show’s sapping all of Flav’s creative juices: Reality TV? He should be spending all his time trying to write another song as brilliant as “Unga Bunga Bunga.” Or better yet, dreaming up new non sequiturs to shout when he gets excited. What about this one? “Yeaaaaaaah, boyee! Straight up bunions, yo!”

Ernest A. Jasmin: 253-274-7389