Recently in Jersey Shore Category

Watching Snooki dance alone on the Seaside Heights boardwalk last week, I immediately thought of one thing: this classic YouTube video of a pseudo-Pauly D shaking his thang in a similar beachside community; albeit in Mexico, not Jersey. Perhaps someday these two rhythm lovers will meet. Until then, we'll just have the memories of their moves.

Sadness. The first pure, "innocent" season of Jersey Shore has come to an end, which means we'll no longer have not just a surplus of fist fights and house music on TV, but also a profound lack of self-awareness. Yes, as Jersey Shore has gone on to become a pop culture sensation, its stars -- particularly Pauly D, The Situation, Snooki, and J-WOWW -- have taken the media by storm, seemingly popping up at every and any venue that might feature a camera or two. Clearly any further seasons with this cast will be tainted by this sudden fame. Did we not learn anything from The Hills?

But for now, we're left with the memories of a raucous, funny, and shockingly endearing series -- one that's contributed wonderful things to the pop culture canon: GTL, "smushing," beating the beat, etc. etc.. Not gonna lie. I'm going to miss these crazy jerkoffs. All of thems.

Photocap after the jump...

Sorry I'm a little behind with my photocapping duties. Last week's double episode of Jersey Shore was a lot for me to take in. Granted, it was sort of the usual stuff: fist fights, booty calls, wide-scale butchering of the English language. This time, however, we got the added bonus of an Israeli stalker, and let me tell you something: no one hunts down people better than the Israelis. You ever see Munich? Exactly.

Poor Pauly D was the unlucky recipient of this psycho beach prowler -- a humorless woman who adamantly insisted she didn't want to be made to look the fool. Her first mistake: trolling after a guy with a giant Italian flag on his back and a blow-out on his head. I'm not sure she'll ever be able to live this one down, especially when Pauly finally told her off on the insufferable duck phone. He laid it out to her pretty harshly, and you'd think she would have taken the hint when he up and hung up on her, but alas, she sought him out once again at a club (Karma? Bamboo? Pepperoni?) and again insisted she was NOT a stalker. Pauly probably should have simply marched away, but instead he humored her presence, seemingly acquiescing to her demands that they continue to hang out. Kind of poor form on his part. You can't complain about a stalker if you're willing to string her along...

I gotta admit that Jersey Shore has grown on me immensely. At first, I didn't really love it. The entire show felt like a low-rate version of The Real World, what with its shoddy production values and flashy visual flourishes (ie. fake film "noise" on screen). However, Jersey Shore has come a long way, baby, and now I truly enjoy it. Perhaps that's thanks to the cast -- a group of seven mooks whose personal style and penchant for Ed Hardy at first invites mockery but ultimately belies a surprising sweetness and warmth. In many ways, Jersey Shore is the anti-Real World. Rather than seeking a heterogenous mix of clashing personalities from all walks of life, this show goes for multiples of the same type, all living in their natural habitat. It's perhaps more real than anything on The Real World (at least for this freshman season).

But let's not get too academic here. After all, this still is only Jersey Shore, and as fun as it is to analyze why we're drawn to a pop culture sensation, sometimes it's easiest to just chalk it up to good old fashioned anthropological rubbernecking. Such was the case on last night's episode, which was so action packed, I had a hard time believing it was all contained in one hour. We had a little of everything: idiotic romantic squabbles, two brawls, a lovable Italian mom, and Snooki getting punched in the face AGAIN. Could you ask for anything more? No, I don't think so.