Jersey Bore

For the past month everyone has been talking about MTV’s new show Jersey Shore, which follows a bunch of young Italian Americans spending the summer at (surprise!) the Jersey Shore. The general buzz was that Jersey Shore took MTV’s stupidity and debauchery to new heights. Having never seen the show, I believed the hype because why else would everyone talk about it so much?

I recently saw a few episodes however, and I was wildly disappointed.

Sure everyone is selfish and stupid. Yeah they drink constantly. Of course they hook-up a lot. But none of this is new. It’s exactly like MTV’s The Real World, just without the token angry black cast member.

So when Italian American groups call Jersey Shore racist for depicting negative Italian stereotypes, they miss the point. Jersey Shore cast members aren’t acting stupid because they’re Italian, they’re acting stupid because that’s what it takes to get through an MTV casting call. MTV isn’t racist. It’s ageist. Jersey Shore, just like all their “reality” shows, creates the stereotype that all 20-somethings act like idiots.

As far as I can tell, Jersey Shore is wildly popular for the same reason new Woody Allen movies are popular. Woody Allen made the same movie for decades and people eventually got bored. Then he started setting them in Europe and the new location and accents made the old formula seem new again.

All that being said, the one thing I like about Jersey Shore is that they work at a novelty t-shirt shop. So in that vein here are two shirts I made to reflect the MTV ethos.

I’m With Stupids
Printfection
$25

I’m Up Here
Printfection
$24