Are We Post-Jersey Shore?
Jersey Shore is on tonight. Did you know that? Did you know it’s still on, I mean? Both this season and the show in general? I did not.
This is coming from someone who spent hours nursing her Valentine’s Day-related hangover watching episodes of MTV’s FriendZone. Aka I will pretty much watch anything.
I used to watch Jersey Shore religiously. Like I would have parties so my stupid friends who didn’t have cable could come over and watch it. True Life: I’m a Jersey Shore Girl is one of the best ever episodes of that show and I couldn’t wait for the new franchise to come out.
I was dismissive of the initial rampant criticism that the show was racist—they were depicting a real culture and not trying to perpetuate derogatory stereotypes. I mean come on, most of them aren’t even Italian. In my mind I likened it to if someone made a show called Twink Beach (and really, whyyyyy doesn’t someone); twinks are a thing, yes it is based on a stereotype (technically) but twinks identifying as twinks and doing twink things like tanning and shopping at Hollister with their chihuahuas is really only offensive if you think being a twink is bad, otherwise it’s just watching people do their thing. As offensive as if there was a show called Single White Girl where the riveted audience watched as I ate a whole box of Gushers while watching American Horror Story in my underwear.
But I don’t care about Jersey Shore any more.
At first I thought this was maybe because it had just been on forever. Novelty fades. Nobody really cares about The Office any more. There was a period in my life where I lost my shit to The OC and I didn’t even know it had ended until Mischa Barton was in the news for doing all that weird suicideish stuff. But The Jersey Shore has only been on since January 2010. They have somehow packed five seasons into just slightly over two years. My attitudes and appetite for television couldn’t have changed that much that quickly. And a reality show can’t really lose its edge or jump the shark in the way a scripted show can, right?
So why don’t I—or presumably we—care any more? Maybe it’s as simple as what I said before; we’re just bored of Jersey Shore and the same old story lines. But the Real World has been beating itself off to the same material for longer than I’ve been alive and it seems like and people are still tuning in.
Could it be that we just don’t really care about the buddies from the Jersey Shore any more because we don’t feel interested in and/or are jealous and thus off-put by seeing these obviously lower class, under-intelligent, minority-ish people go from something we felt comfortable/not guilty openly mocking to something that was on par with or even superior to our own social standing? It’s no secret that the cast is real real rich now. They got fancy clothes, side-businesses, book deals, $10,000+ an episode, a joint hosting gig for New Year’s Eve last year, a season spent at a beautiful home in Italy. They are celebrities now; that’s undeniable.
And if that’s the case, is that okay? Is it alright to prefer to see normal people in their normal habitat (or at least ‘normal’ in the sense that it roughly approximates something they would do without cameras present) that is different from something you’ve experienced? Or is there something wrong with essentially saying (or at least implying), “Nah, I’d rather see you being trashy and embarrassing so I can continue to feel better about my superior social standing.”
Maybe you all like the Jersey Shore still and I’m just losing my mind, idk. Either way, I’m probably not gonna start watching Jersey Shore again anytime soon. (Things I’d rather watch, for the record: Divorce Court, Cupcake Wars, anything on Discovery ID.) But I am going to think about why I liked Jersey Shore in the first place, and maybe think a little more seriously next time I dismiss intellectual criticism of a television show just because, well, I like it.
