Ever enamored with the Garden State, MTV is promising another glimpse of reveling, big-haired, fist-pumping "guidos" on its newest show, Jersey Shore, which premieres this Thursday at 10PM. The series is a rehash of two previous MTV reality segments about people with timeshares in Seaside Heights, and follows eight young, self-proclaimed guidos for a summer.
The show has drawn the ire of Italian-American group UNICO National though, which has demanded that the reality television show be taken off the air. Based in Fairfield, NJ, UNICO has issued several statements about the representation of young Italian-Americans.
"The show glorifies very bad behavior, boys hitting girls, girls acting like slutty bimbos. It's very trashy television," said UNICO president André DiMino.
This, in fact, doesn't sound too different from typical representations of youth culture on the network, but the show focuses particularly on their Italian ethnic background and uses the word "guido" extensively to promote it. This juxtaposition of trashy behavior with the derogatory term is particularly upsetting to UNICO:
"The word "guido" has come to mean a negative Italian-American stereotype. Buffoon-like, only interested in their looks, with exaggerated features: big hair and muscles. [MTV] wouldn't do that with any other group," DiMino said. "They wouldn't have a show about black people and call them Ns."
UNICO president Andre DiMino has written a letter to the CEO of MTV asking that the show be drawn. He has since received an email from MTV's President of Programming, promising to arrange a meeting between MTV executives and representatives of UNICO National to discuss the show.
UNICO is on record for protesting HBO's The Sopranos as well, and DiMino believes that the representation of Italian-Americans in pop culture is generally negative. "Most of the time, all we see is a negative portrayal. It's either two extremes, the mafioso or the guido. Even Joey on Friends, he was the dumb one," DiMino said. "But, it sells."
This time, however, the group has found widespread support for their protest. DiMino and UNICO have received hundreds of emails from all kinds of people showing their support for UNICO's stand and expressing their disgust with the show.
And while perhaps one shouldn't look exclusively to anonymous commenters on the Internet for cultural bellwethers, comments on Youtube and MTV so far aren't shy about voicing anti-Italian and anti-New Jersey sentiments.
What do you think? Is the show racist? And will you be watching it anyway?
Now what to make about this....
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Comments (27)
I am SOOOOOO WITH THIS!!!!!
And because of it, here are some simple points I co-opted from the little clip:
"prof's on Baristanet-- BEE-YOCH!!!"
"the prof is the Kim Kardashian of Baristanet!"
"You never know, on Baristanet, what's going on..."
Seriously though, these are kids having fun. Nothing wrong with that.
Every ethnic group has 'em. Although, for NJ, it seems the Italian-American experience is one that continues to trade on its stereotypes-- Sopranos included.
The difference though, is that for all the negative stereotyping that Italian-American have (and play up), FAMILY is a constant.
(How many of your dads brought doughnuts unannounced to you in college like Tony Soprano did? How many folks eat dinner with relatives once or twice a week?)
And for many groups where family is not a constant, or even a presence, that cannot be stressed enough.
So for me, despite all the badness this show is going to portray, the issue of family will be there.
It always is.
And that's good.
I'm sure their (great) grandparents that gave up everything in the 'motherland' and trecked their way here for a new life, fighting prejudice , working hard and earning respect for themselves would be quite dismayed at what has become of their grand children.
Tasteless? Probably. Dumb? Most definitely. Should it be taken off the air? Definitely not. This show has as much right to be on the air as any other mindless, tasteless junk on TV. No illegal acts are being committed. Don't like it, don't watch it.
The dumming down of America continues. Great idea for a show though.
People vote with their pocketbooks. If the show doesn't do well (if it doesn't attract enough eyeballs who will go out and spend money on the sponsors), it will be cancelled.
Anyone who's actually grown up in this area knows already how the "Nicky Newarks" and the "Salvatore Staten Islands" are always much with us. This show will merely educate the rest of the country. It is thus a Martha-like good thing.
Yes, too, of course it's a cliche. But no more of one than the "real housewives" bit. And no less accurate about a certain sub-stratum of society(which is not exclusively Italo-American). I once saw this crowd at its general worst at Joey Harrison's (ne' Barcellona, by the way) in Clifton. At a benefit for, of all things, UNICO, which was headlined by Johnny Maestro (ne Mastroianni, I believe) & The Brooklyn Bridge.
You may wish to hail the celebration of "family" in this program, prof, good prof. But the problem is that the family is as likely to be the Bonannos, the Gambinos, the Jukes or the Kallikaks (if you remember your old sociology texts about Jersey-specific aberrations) as it is the Medicis or the D'Estes.
Still, it's harmless, much less wearing than spending a night at the Surf Ckub in Ortley Beach or D'Jai's in Belmar.
Don't forget Bar A!
I have but one word to say: whoaahhhh.
Well noted, Mrs. Martta! Well noted indeed.
(And then there are all those pits of Jersey horror, places where you'd better make sure your tetanus shot is current before you use the restroom, on 35 in Sayreville...)
I agree with Mrs. Martta, people will vote with their pocketbooks, if the viewers do not show up, the advertisers will leave, and the show will be canceled. Thats just how TV works.
So many shows are flops, most people just don't remember them because they were so bad.........
Does everyone remember American Gladiators return to television, well it happened and got canceled. How about CNN giving DL Hughley a shot, sorry DL your time was really short! What about Frank Caliendo, his show was terrible and off the air in one season.
Its all about the advertising dollars folks!!!!!!!!
Nothing could be more offensive than The Hills.
U tawkin to me? Enuf about me, how's my hair?
But , Herb, let us praise " guidos" for having Christmas trees, rather than Holiday trees.
As a young person I can speak that unfortunately this is the reality of the "jersey shore".
People get into shore houses for the sole purpose of drinking away their summers and being ridiculous. It's a rite of passage, really.
It's trashy entertainment, but i bet the ratings will be high! lol.
flower,
I am not a "young person" and I can tell you that before any of these kids were born, the "reality" of the Jersey Shore (or many beaches for that matter) was the same: to drink, hook up and have stories to tell.
And for some, they fell in love and have kids who now think that they invented going to the Shore..... Not realizing that decades before, their parents and other kids were doing the same thing.
But forget this:
SHOW OF HANDS---
Who's been drunk at the Jersey Shore????
prof: HAND UP HIGH!!!
I don't think you could get me to go to the Jersey Shore without being under the influence of something good.
If you haven't watched MTV's True Life: I Have a Summer Share, you must! http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515292052264804929#
Jersey shore nothing. You can see douchebags like this right here in Baristaville, in Bloomfield. Bada-bing, Ohhhhh!
Real Housewives of NJ in training.
Embarrassing for the entire state - whatever your ethnicity.
Plus, whats up with these people coming from STATEN ISLAND? You can't ask people from Staten Island what "exit" they're from... They have no business "down the shore"!
Aweful.
It's exactly like every other reality show - same theme, same dramas, same characters, same dialogue, same, same, same.
Let's hear it for more stereotypes of Italians!!
Let's hear it for more stereotypes of NJ!!!!
Sigh.
Anyone still doubt who "Lefty" is?
Of course not, ROC. He is George.
Our beloved laserleftymikeypal may simply need several posting alter egos to keep the voices he hears in his head pacified, and perhaps "George" is indeed one of them, jerseygurl.
But he also surely remains laserleftymikeypal at his core, thus ready to hurl a spittle-flecked epithet of "Nazi!" or "Fascist" with every rise, however slight, of his gorge. And I am sure he'll wish you a "Merry Christmas" given even the smallest of openings. For what such a greeting is worth from him, of course.
Aweful: To be filled with awe, as in: When George Bogdanov left the Soviet Union and arrived at the Jersey shore, he thought the beaches were aweful.
Shock and Aweful.