In short, my answer is: me. This piece will give you an idea of me and my conclusions on what the attraction is for me to watch the show.
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this entry by no means represent those of the entire Rinki-Reviews staff. I wholeheartedly take full and sole responsibility of writing and publishing this, as I do with dealing with the possible consequences. If you read thoroughly through the post, you can find my e-mail address for hatemail. Rinki-reviews strides towards utter honesty, and so these things about Jersey Shore had to be said. The bit about the e-mail address was a lie, though. Continue reading at your own discretion.
Jersey Shore is yet another reality show by MTV. The show is in it's 3rd season on writing this and it shows no signs of slowing down in terms of popularity. Seeing IdiotBox.ca's "Jersey Shore ... I just don't get it!" post, I realised that this respected TV news site didn't see eye-to-eye with me on this show. As I respect the site a lot, I felt it was time to justify watching the show to myself again.
The prerequisites
When I think about what things about me could make me susceptible to enjoying the show, I came up with the following things:
I've had a big heart for dubstep and drum'n'bass (genres of electronic music) before ever seeing season 1 of Jersey Shore. So basically my musical tastes didn't radically change after Jersey Shore, the focus just shifted and expanded to include music that was and could be from the soundtrack of this show. My playlists suddenly had more Deadmau5 alongside Goldie (d'n'b forefather) and Benga (the best Dubstep ever).
The second thing I thought of, was the probable influence of an ex-girlfriend. She was into house, introduced me to Deadmau5 back years before the show. She also just generally enjoyed the life of clubbing and wild parties associated to electronic music (think: raves (in the Finnish forest), underground bars to packed clubs with strobe and laser lights, all perforated with bass-pumping tunes and mating rituals through this kind of hard partying). So I was somewhat aquainted with this world, although never really was a part of it.
Some other things about me
I'm an university student, I go to some parties, but study hard. Everything I study every day has to do with thinking about tomorrow. I also happen to be studying a field that is going to be completely different when I graduate to what it is now, so it's really hard to try to prepare for the reality of the future. There's just no knowing what its going to be like and yet I should be prepared for it.
How not worrying turns into my la-la-land
In other words, I feel that I have less and less understanding of people that don't worry all the time. To me, the Jersey Shore cast are prime examples of people, that simply don't worry. And this is exactly the draw to the show for me.
For example, for all the guys on the show, GTL, Gym (staying in shape), Tanning (staying tanned) and Laundry (having a fresh t-shirt for the night) forms the basic structure of every day. Performing these rituals form the base of one's well-being and these rituals always pay off at night when they hit the nightlife. Life is all about having fun, and everything that precedes the act of having fun, is enjoyable activities that constitute towards the ability to have fun. This to me, sounds like a damn near accomplishment of "making life your own" and finding the meaning of life, making it your own and totally achieving it. Other things they enjoy, are eating good food, doing your thing and just enjoying the company of other people. This is something I can totally relate to.
Here's a peek into the world of the boys through the character Pauly D:
I can understand how the petty fighting, macho-bullshit of the guys, neurotic behaviour of the girls and just overall incoherentless of the show (it doesn't go anywhere) can be a huge turn off for people. For me it has the opposite effect, because between the lines reads this: life can be about petty things. For these people it sure seems to be! Somehow I feel, that for the time I watch this show, thinking about the big picture in relation to all the small things involved, suddenly becomes unnecessary. Jersey Shore is my chance to focus attention only on my self and my hedonistic yearnings. And I can do this by living through them. Why think about tomorrow, when its just going to be like today?
Food for thought, is there any?
If you ask anyone I know, they'll tell you I have a very analytical streak to me. I think this is why people close to me don't understand me watching this show at all. Well in response to this, I have to say that Jersey Shore actually offers a social experiment setting like nothing that has ever been pulled off in scientific studies of social sciences (such as psychology, sociology). Sure you can't study anything in Jersey Shore scientifically or make any scientific conclusions, but for the kitchen psychologist, there's quite a bit of material.
You can form a lot of theories of how the characters view their social setting and try to cope in it. For a work of fiction, characters seem to work through their problems in quite many different ways, although they might seem at first to have the same methods for all problems. Their methods all seem to involve evading responsibility, the inability for empathy and the need for confrontation. The drama that constantly evolves in the house gives some delicious food for thought about the central human struggle of defending his own ego. It is fascinating how the characters' descriptions of themselves just radically differ from how they actually act. In fact, for me their self-descriptions differ so wildly from how they actually behave, that I feel disbelief at how things still manage to stay together. But they do. People stay together (well, Angelina leaves every season) and in the end nothing happens. So again, a permit is given to me to not worry about how a relationship between two people turns out. There's no consequence in the world of Jersey Shore.
Conclusions and some further studying material
So there, I think I might've touched a little on why I watch the show. I understand completely everyone's views on how the show is pointless and just isn't worth watching.
But as you press "Play" on the following video, throw away your standards and think about the things I said about just not worrying. For the next 4:11, life's meaning is to have fun and party. Hate it all you want once its over. Mr. Iglesias has nothing to do with my point, btw. The music just happens to be "his". Now press PLAY!
Chris 2010
