A new Internet phenomenon has emerged in the past week and a half: disgust/celebration in the new MTV series Jersey Shore. Although not a ratings or advertising success, the show has become a major focus for Internet commentators and television comedians. I can only imagine the delight the editors of The Soup displayed when they realized they had weeks of new material of individuals embarrassing themselves in drunken revelry on a reality program that did not revolve around match-making or Bret Michaels.
How I feel about the show is hard to describe. On one hand, the show is pure entertainment. Watching these attention-seeking morons (for what other words can be used to described them?) berate each other and revel in their ignorance is can’t-turn-away spectacle. Their complete lack of shame regarding the televising of their behavior is unbelievable to me. Not a single one of them seems ashamed that their families, friends, and potential employers are watching them drink themselves into a stupor, climb into hot tubs wearing little more than mesh thongs, or refuse to show up to work because they are a “bartender” and working in a cheesy (and slightly offensive) t-shirt shop is beneath them.
On the other hand, I am from New Jersey and proud of it. I hate jokes about the Garden State with their emphasis on likening it to garbage or armpits. I don’t talwk or walwk or drink cawfee. I don’t know anyone connected to the mob. I revel in the hair rock of Bon Jovi and the blue-collaredness of Springsteen. I love being minutes away from at least three malls and I will say with a straight face that Newark is going through a cultural re-invigoration under Mayor Cory Booker. New Jersey is beautiful whatever those stupid tshirts from Urban Outfitters might say.
So, I take issue with Jersey Shore‘s emphasis on the Jersey aspect of this show. The vast majority of the people living in that sub-par Real World-lite house are NOT from my great state. They don’t know the beauty of Long Beach Island or the Palisades. They could care less about the Pine Barrens and the myth of the Jersey devil. They, from Rhode Island, Long Island, Staten Island and elsewhere, are the stereotypes perpetuated by others. Connecting them to my home state cheapens the diversity of New Jersey.
I know the major concern of many commenters is the stereotype perpetuated of Italian Americans and the over-usage of the g-word (no, not gangsta). Yes, that’s a concern, but for me, I hurt for the reputation of my home. Watching this show reminds me of when I worked for a British political party in London. Just like most Americans can’t identify Kent or Sussex on a map, they had little comprehension of the U.S. federal system, particularly the division between the states. When I told them I was from New Jersey, they said “Oh cheerio–where those bloody Sopranos reside.” (I may have taken some license with their conversational syntax.) When I then replied “True, but Springsteen lives there too and he’s real,” they responded “Oh, we thought he was from Michigan.” The look on my face was one of shock.
Just like the look on my face when I realized that by coupling these idiots on tv with a title containing the word Jersey, MTV had turned the show into a referendum on the culture, climate, and people of New Jersey. And we had only just recovered from those Real Housewives.
