Tight shirts, hair gel, tanning beds, and a man who calls his abdominal muscles “The Situation” have caused outrage in the Italian-American community and one less advertiser for MTV’s new “Jersey Shore” reality show.
Domino’s has pulled its sponsorship from the program after Italian Americans cried foul about the show, which stereotypes the ethnicity as tanning, thick-accented self-proclaimed “guidos” and “guidettes,” reports the TODAY Show.
“The other advertisers should do the same thing,” UNICO President Andre Dimino told TODAY. “They should be responsible and not promote this attack on Italian Americans…With the ‘Sopranos’ we’re either Mafioso or with this we’re bimbos and buffoons.”
The bimbos and buffoons Dimino is referring to are the cast members of the new reality show that answered the MTV casting call requiring, “loud and proud Italians under 30…the proudest guidos and guidettes, all expenses paid.”
Pauly D. is one of those Jersey Shore vacationers getting a free ride:
“I was born and raised a guido. It’s just a lifestyle. It’s being Italian. It’s representin’ family, friends, tanning, gel, everything. I’ve got a (bleeped out) tanning bed in my place, that’s how serious I am about being a guido and living up to that lifestyle,” Pauly D. says.
“It takes me about 25 minutes to do my hair. It comes out perfect every time. There’s no way I’m going to Jersey without my hair gel,” he says as he packs eight bottle of the stuff.
Nicole is one of the “guidettes” in the over-gelled, over-sexed, Tequila-shots-for-everyone house.
“My ultimate dream is to move to Jersey, find a nice, juiced, hot, tan guy and live my life,” says Nicole, also known as “Snooki.”
And then there’s Mike “The Situation.”
“My abs are so ripped up, it’s called ‘the situation,’” Mike “The Situation” says.
“This show would never be on the air if it was blatantly negative stereotyping of African Americans, of Jewish people, of Asians, of any other group,” said Linda Stasi, a TV critic for the New York Post. “Every time you get away with calling it entertainment when it’s actually stereotyping an ethnic group, it’s not entertainment.
The public disgust and outrage has spread throughout the World Wide Web, and even moved people to create Facebook pages such as “MTV's "Jersey Shore" is a Disgrace to the Jersey Shore and its Inhabitants.”
MTV defends the show, saying, “We understand that this show is not intended for every audience and depicts just one aspect of youth culture. Our intention was never to stereotype, discriminate or offend.”
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