This past winter The Jersey Shore took over TV. The premise of seven strangers living in one house together wasn’t original (Big Brother, The Real World) but capitalizing on their one similarity—identifying as guidos and guidettes—turned this show into a huge success. HC is here to help you gear up for season two which begins filming in Miami right around now! We’ve got the lowdown on their controversies, their personalities and their lingo.
Meet the Cast:
Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino
You may have seen him just about EVERYWHERE since December. The guy is creating a Situation Nation as he hits clubs all over the country and does loops around the talk show circuit. The patriarch of the shore house, The Situation cooks and cleans for his fellow guidos and guidettes by day (when he is not doing GTL…I’ll explain later). By night he is showing off his ripped abs (nicknamed The Situation) and macking on any girl who will grind up to him.
Angelina “Jolie” Pivarnick
She just couldn’t cut it through the whole season. The Staten Island version of Kim Kardashian had nothing but attitude during her short stay in Seaside Heights. She complained about the girls the boys brought home and her awful job at the T-shirt store. Thankfully for everyone in the house, Angelina went packing (using garbage bags…). She is on hold for season two, but no idea yet whether MTV will use her.
Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola
She is the sweetest bitch you’ll ever meet. Sammi stole The Situation’s heart right off the bat—but ended up falling for another cast mate, Ronnie. While she is a bit feisty when she is drunk, the soccer-playing-extensions-wearing guidette is actually a really good friend to the girls in the house.
Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi
Snooki shocked the cast when she came into the house immediately ready to party that first day. After getting sufficiently hammered, she astounded the cast mates who were appalled by Snooki (or Snickers, Snicks—they weren’t sure about her nickname at first). After some apologies and a bar fight that left Snooki infamously punched by a gym teacher, the group fell in love with Snooki’s fun-loving personality, her inability to remember the name of the guidos she hooked up with and her back flips at the club.
Ronnie Ortiz-Magro
A giant teddy bear, Ronnie was sure he was not going to fall in love at the Jersey Shore. Famous last words Ronnie, famous last words. The massive muscular guido fell hard for Sammi Sweetheart and the two had a rollercoaster relationship throughout the season between drunkenly fighting with each other and other provoking couples, dealing with The Situation’s crush on Sammi and “smushing” in the guest room.
Paul “Pauly D” DelVecchio
Who knew they had guidos in Rhode Island? The gel-loving guido has perfected his blowout and was eager to use it to attract girls with his partner-in-crime Situation. The two would be on the prowl, bringing home whatever girls they could from the clubs. While Pauly D loves to “get to business” his real passion is DJ-ing. He even talks the Jersey Shore club owners into letting him spin.
Vinny Guadagnino
The quietest and tamest of the boys, Vinny is the baby of the group. The self-professed mama’s boy stays mostly out of trouble on the show until he steals a girl from his boss at the T-shirt store (all the cast members have to work there). He continues with this momentum and hooks up with The Situation’s younger sister Melissa when she comes to visit.
Jenni “JWoww” Farley
JWOWW is crazy from the get-go. She is a great friend (taking Snooki out drinking after she gets punched in the face), but an awful girlfriend (she cheated on boyfriend Tommy with Pauly one night early on). She is an insane dancer—some may say promiscuous—but it is just house music (her justification to Tommy about dancing dirty with Pauly). Her fake boobs are on display with every outfit she wears and her blonde streaks in her black hair make her instantly recognizable.
CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING THE SHOW
Once Italian American groups heard about the show, they were up in arms. Even before the show hit primetime, the Italian American group, UNICO National (Italian for unique) criticized the show. “It continues to perpetuate negative stereotypes about Italian-Americans,” President Andre DiMino told FoxNews.com. “If you replace Italian-Americans with any other ethnic group, would they use such a pejorative term to promote the show?” DiMino was most outraged with the word choice “guido” on the show and to promote it. “It’s really a buffoon-type person who acts crass and vulgar,” explained DiMino. “When we saw those promos, it confirmed our fears. Those promotions are a disgrace.” It wasn’t just Italian national groups wishing the show would stop perpetuating what they believed to be negative stereotypes. Alyssa Milano stood up against the show, even making a video with Funny or Die to highlight how ridiculous guido culture is. On media tours, the cast responded to these allegations of creating a bad reputation for Italian Americans. They claimed they weren’t even all Italian (Snooki was part Chilean and JWoww wasn’t at all Italian) and they weren’t at all representative of Italians as a whole—merely representative of themselves. Furthermore, Snooki said being a guido/guidette is a lifestyle of being good-looking and well-dressed; it is a compliment to be called a guido! Most recently, UNICO has considered suing MTV. “I cannot say too much right now about the actual legal steps we are going to take but we feel what MTV are doing with Jersey Shore is outrageous,” said DiMino. “The use of words like ‘Guidos’ and ‘Guidettes’ is racial stereotyping in the worst possible sense and they are portraying young Italian Americans in the worst possible light. They would not try and get away with the same tactics if it was show full of young African American or Jewish kids so why is it acceptable to portray Italian Americans in this way? There are a lot of young American Italians who serve in the community and the armed services who are ashamed of Jersey Shore and we need to stand-up for them.”
THE UNDENIABLE POPULARITY
But despite controversy, the show has been wildly popular—with 4.8 million viewers tuning into the season finale. The show has been mocked, ridiculed and appreciated for its humor value—with spoofs ranging from babies to celebrities. Robert J. Thompson, founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, explained the show’s popularity. “They chose people […] who were going to do outrageous things and behave in these kind of infantile manner,” explained Thompson. “In the first couple episodes they already had fights and that kind of stuff. And the nicknames didn’t hurt either [for the show’s popularity]. I’m not sure how many of the nicknames existed [before the show] and how many were added later but it certainly helps.” Thompson also said the number of standup comics mocking the show made people want to look into it—plus with the availability of episodes online today, people could see the comics make jokes about the show, and then immediately watch the show on mtv.com. “The fact that everyone started talking about it had to do with the nicknames and the attacks by the Italian American community. And they had attacks from other groups as well,” said Thompson. “Everybody was talking about it. Even if what they were saying wasn’t very good or was often not very good, it let people know that it existed.” Jersey Shore has already been renewed for a second season this time in Miami’s South Beach. Filming is said to begin right around now. But there is concern that the second season just won’t match up to the amazing-ness that was season one. “The big problem is, the second season of any of these kinds of shows is different from the first season. It’s like two different shows,” said Thompson. “The first season these people weren’t celebrities, people didn’t know who they were. When they hit Miami they’re superstars. [This is now] a reality show about seven really famous people. That is going to be very, very different. Just getting them to be able to go to the beach and do to a club and walk around and everything—they’re going to be followed around by people. [And] there will be people on the periphery, such as paparazzi, shooting the shooting of the show,” explained Thompson. “These are very different people now than they were before. It doesn’t mean it won’t be interesting. A second season that responds to the fact that they’re now big superstars would be very interesting. I would go with that.” Only time will tell what season two will be like—will the cast be the celebrities that they are in real life, or will the things that made season one so funny (like Mike being rejected at the clubs and resorting to bringing home “animals”) still be around?
INFLUENCE ON CAMPUS
Jersey Shore parties were ALL over college campuses. Windsor even showed us how to dress for one. Poofs started springing up in girls’ hair and the blowout seemed to appear on a few more boys’ heads than before. Despite this, Thompson sees no concern with college students’ obsession with the hit show. “A lot of people are afraid and saying ‘all these people on college campuses are now wearing their hair like Jersey Shore, what a bad influence this show is.’ I teach at a college, I get to know 150 students every year and I don’t know a single one that is watching or imitating things on Jersey Shore because that’s what they want to be,” said Thompson. “They’re doing it for mocking and for fun. And there have been people who’ve shown up with the Jersey Shore haircuts and say some of the catchphrases, but I don’t think it’s because they’re using them as role models. I think they’re using them as something that everybody watches, that is really funny and it’s something to talk about. I’m not concerned that Jersey Shore is corrupting our college youth.” Thompson noted that people were drinking and partying well before Jersey Shore and that it was creating no real negative influences on campuses.
THE LINGO
If you’ve been confused throughout this article, the lingo of Jersey Shore will help clear a few things up… Animal – A gruesome girl that you bring home when you can’t get anything else. For example, Mike brings home two animals one night who then get into a fight with Snooki, who later refers to one as a hippo. Beat the Beat – A dance move Vinny loves where you start down low in the beginning of the song and hit the floor, slowly rising your body as the beat rises, trying to fight the beat. Blow Out – A guido hairstyle in which your hair is gelled up and raised as high up as possible. Business – Sex for Pauly D. Creep – Hitting on girls in a club and/or dancing up on girls. For example, Ronnie says, “I left her [Sammi] at the house to go creep on some girls at Karma.” Fist Pump – The preferred dance move of guidos where you lift your arm in the air and punch. Grenade – A friend of a girl you want to hook up with who gets in the way. Mike leaves Pauly D to a grenade who he just cannot deal with, which ruins Mike’s hook up. (A grenade can also, very often, be an animal). Gorilla – See “juicehead.” Juicehead – To be very big and muscular; to take steroids. GTL – Gym, Tanning, Laundry. A normal day for Pauly D and The Situation, this is what they have to do to be “fresh to death” for the clubs. Poof – A guidette hairstyle in which you take the front of your hair and tease a small section of it and then pin it in the back to add between 1-4 inches of height to yourself. A favorite of Snooki. Robbery – To steal a girl from another guy (i.e., what Vinny did to his boss). Smush – Ronnie-speak for sex. “We smushed” he says of a night with Sammi. Sources http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/jersey-shore-season-2-location-confirmed-miami-south-beach-2572528.html Robert J. Thompson, founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2010/01/jersey-shore-finale-breaks-ratings-records-for-mtv.html http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2010/02/excluive-italian-american-group-consult-attorneys-sue-mtvs-jersey-shore http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2009/11/25/italian-american-group-asks-mtv-cancel-jersey-shore/] http://www.tressugar.com/Jersey-Shore-Slang-6958922