As much as I loved The Real Housewives of New Jersey, I knew that I was loving it for all the wrong reasons. I'm New Jersey all the way: born here, went to college here, have lived here all my life. About ten percent of the people I've met fit the yelling, lunkheaded Jersey stereotypes we've seen on TV since The Sopranos; what I don't understand is where reality TV's recent fascination has been with the louder residents of the Garden State.
First it was Housewives. Then it was Cake Boss, where Buddy Valastro and his crew scream and gesture so much it's a wonder how their cakes don't collapse in the oven. Even TLC's relatively gentle Masters of Reception seemed to highlight the more "Jersey" aspects of my home state.
Now we have Jersey Shore, an MTV reality series premiering December 3. It documents goings on last summer in a shore house with the "hottest, tannest, craziest Guidos," according to this particularly annoying promo:
The New York Daily News' reality expert, Cristina Kinon, seems to be extremely excited by this news: "It has all I've ever wanted in a reality series, and then some (like pit stains!)."
Oy. Just what my home state needs: more people thinking that it's filled with idiots like these. Again, I'm not saying that I don't find all of this entertaining. I may even watch Jersey Shore (I'm sure my fiancee will immediately add the season pass for it to the DVR as soon as she hears about it) and love it. But I kind of love it in the same vein where I can make jokes about my own family, but will get upset at any outsider who does the same.
Hopefully, this Jersey reality craze fades soon and people move on to another state. Maybe something on desert dwellers in New Mexico... yeah, that'll be nice to see.
MTV's Jersey Shore: yet another chance to laugh at the Garden State
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
11-11-2009 @ 8:13PM
ac said...
The series should be nicknamed: Why locals avoid Seaside Heights.
Seriously this is real? It looks (and sounds) like My New Haircut: The Series. At least The Sopranos was fictional and well written and the characters (except AJ) were more than just douchebag tools making idiots out of themselves.
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11-11-2009 @ 8:46PM
Aaron said...
I thought guido was a bad word....
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11-11-2009 @ 10:21PM
Creep said...
Wow. It's only a matter of time before they have a reality show about trailer park residents.
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11-12-2009 @ 1:23PM
Laura said...
They need to do a show on REAL Jersey Shore people, not guidos from staten island that come to the shore in the summer. Give such a bad rep. to true Jersey. So annoying.
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11-12-2009 @ 10:16AM
matt said...
Why would you encourage this behavior by giving it a TV show?
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11-12-2009 @ 2:16PM
Franklin said...
This must be inspired by that series of popular YouTube videos where guidos (and guidettes) are interviewed at the beach. In fact, it would be cool if the creators of those videos are somehow involved with this MTV show.
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11-12-2009 @ 9:07PM
mikerocket said...
We have a song called "Gotta Get To The Jersey Shore" www.myspace.com/mikerocket
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11-15-2009 @ 6:03PM
AboutNewJersey.com said...
Funny how the article claims this show is about "loud" New Jerseyans - yet it's about TOURISTS from New YORK who visit the Jersey Shore. For information on the TRUE Jersey Shore - visit AboutNewJersey.com or http://www.facebook.com/the.jersey.shore
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11-17-2009 @ 2:52PM
J 2 The b said...
Jersey, just embrace your Guido stereotype. Who cares what everyone else thinks.
What is Jersey? A politically-corrupt, mob haven with a bunch of muscleheaded meatballs who drive iRocs and grease their hair back. Sounds about right to me.
I grew up in South Jersey (Vineland), so that North Jersey stereotype is funny to me (and probably true).
Dude, wake up, go watch MTV's "True Life: I have a summer share". That whole show was about a bunch of guidos and guidettes in Bellmar (I think).
This show has been done before. And when it is over, everyone involved will end up looking like the guineas that they are.
And yes, I already programmed my Tivo for this one.
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12-19-2009 @ 1:57AM
john said...
Mob wannna be guidos, all just dumb punk gophers for New York and Philadelphia families
11-18-2009 @ 1:21PM
ali said...
i think this show is complete b.s. no one who actually lives at the "jersey shore" acts the way the people do on this show . the only people who act like that are the bennies who come down here in the summer who dont even live here. you guys are making complete fools out of yourself . no one fist pumps, you look stupid with your orange tans, and your spikey gelled hair, no one thinks your hot and no one cares who invented the "poof" and guys.. please start using deoderant no one wants to see your nasty armpits. if mtv is goin to make a show about the "jersey shore" try to actually cast people who actually live here not people who vaction here .
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12-11-2009 @ 7:41AM
mapo said...
First of all its not Bennie its Benny. Brooklln,Elizebath,
Newark,New York. I have lived in Pt Pleasant for 55 years,most of the tourists that I have met have been nice
people.MTV is to blame for the broadcasting of this
garbage.Do not buy products that sponsor MTV. They only
understand money. Native South Jersey People ARE GREAT PEOPLE. Seaside Park is a good place to visit.
From September to May.
11-21-2009 @ 12:13AM
JoJo said...
They should call this show "Staten Islanders Visting the Jersey Shore."
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11-28-2009 @ 4:52PM
Sara said...
I'm so sick of them making shows like this. I'm from the Jersey Shore (Belmar) and as everyone from the shore knows, we HATE the guidos. The show is all about loud mouth, annoying, Staten Island people who have nothing better to do then come ruin our beaches and state as a whole. Shows like this give New Jersey such a bad name, but I really hope people aren't stupid enough to think that we are not like this by any means. The guidos need to stay away and seriously get lives. I don't even go to my own beach anymore because I cannot stand them. It's all about ratings though, and if MTV were to have a show about the Jersey Shore with the real people, it wouldn't get as many views.
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11-29-2009 @ 10:35PM
dylan palmer said...
this is not the real jersey.. ive lived in new jersey my entire life and this show is just the stupid guidos coming down from staten island and up state... they go to sea side and act dumb and get drunk... and put a bad rep up.. locals to sea side know its not just all stupid guidos!
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12-03-2009 @ 11:30AM
Jen said...
It's good to note that only ONE person in the cast is from NJ, most of them are from New York and as any NJ local will tell you, all of the trash on the NJ Shore comes from New York. You can't go into a club without seeing an old, sleazy New Yorker trying to pick someone half his age.
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12-04-2009 @ 12:37AM
Melissa O said...
This show makes me have a fantasy: Remember in Independence Day when the alien spacecrafts hovered over the white house, and other buildings and opened up to let forth their glowing light which then pulverized the below structure....yeah...that's what I am thinking this shore house needed. These are 8 sad existences.
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12-06-2009 @ 12:08AM
Dawn said...
The show is not about 'Jersey shore" people. It's about guidos down the shore and they are portrayed perfectly. As a Staten Islander and never, ever a fan of guidos/guidettes, I've never seen a truer depiction of those people in my life.
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12-09-2009 @ 6:45AM
Nicole said...
Keep in mine. Most of the players ARE NOT FROM JERSEY.
The Jersey Shore is a great place to spend vacations, weekends or just the day.
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12-09-2009 @ 3:04PM
Bill said...
I'm from the Jersey Shore too (Wall Twp.) and even 35 years or so removed from the "Shore" scene of my youth (The Stone Pony, Springsteen, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Beaver Brown and Bon Jovi, Max's, Vic's, etc., etc. ) I can't help but think nothing changes. While the "characters" depicted on the show make up maybe 10% of the summer visitors to the shore ( EXCEPT for Seaside Hts where they probably make up 30% of the crowd) they have stayed pretty consistent over the decades since I was their age. The technology differs but the Bennies (the locals nickname for guidos and guidettes ; ) aren't that much different from the 70's. Really, it's like the disco age on steroids. ; )
We used to make fun of the chicks whose makeup would literally melt as they walked down the boardwalk in July and whose high heels would get stuck in the gaps of the boardwalk. While most of the locals were wearing cutoffs and baggie surf shorts the male bennies would be in speedos. Note: you can't fake or hide much in a Speedo Guido. ; )
This show is as close to the real Jersey Shore as Belmar is to Baghdad. If MTV can make money off this kinda crap then more power to them though I weep at the thought there is an actual audience for this show.
Then again we have Real Housewives, Jon and Kate, etc., etc., so America's appetite for garbage entertainment seems to have no end or boundaries.
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