Jersey Shore/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Acceptable Ethnic Targets: Italians, particularly Guidos. In season two it's Cubans.
  • Affectionate Parody: As discussed by Cracked, the Jersey Shore porn parody is remarkably faithful to the show. To the point where two of the characters don't have sex in order to advance the plot.
  • Bile Fascination: Oh so much.
  • Drinking Game: Whenever the word "situation" is said by any cast member, especially the Situation.[1] Hope you live near a hospital.
    • This is Lampshaded in Jersey Shore: Spoof'd.
    • Alternatively, you could take a drink every time someone says "at this point".
    • Ad of Win strikes again... [2]
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Vinny, the Only Sane Man.
  • Genre Savvy: Sometimes they seem to be aware that it's a reality show.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Popular Oop North, particularly in Liverpool, where Jenni "JWoww" Farley (and, to a lesser extent, Snooki) has a cult following, especially in Bootle.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: In season 5 Snooki had a bunny costume, she would frequently carry the head around with her, talked to it and gave it the name Lola.
  • Hollywood Pudgy: Snooki is not thin by any means, but despite rather generous padding, she can still look pretty good in a skimpy one-piece.
  • Ho Yay:
    • In season 1, Pauly D jokes with a jilted Snooki that the unreliability of men is why he dates women.
    • Pauly D and Vinny. A whole section of the Season 2 Reunion was devoted to their bromance.
      • In season 4 they take it Up to Eleven (calling each other affectionate names, acting like a married couple, pretending to have sex...), but don't take it seriously.
    • Snooki really loves JWoww's boobs. After seeing the girl naked, Snooki said if she were a guy she would have a boner.
  • Lowest Common Denominator
  • Memetic Mutation: COME AT ME, BRO.
    • WELL AT LEAST I'M STILL PRETTY, BITCH!
    • STAP IT RAHN!
  • Moral Event Horizon: Vinny seduces The Situation's sister just to get back at him. Right in front of him.
    • When the housemates go to Atlantic City, Snooki calls out Mike on his behavior as of the past few episodes during dinner, and ends the conversation by asking someone for a roll. Mike chimes in with "Don't worry, you got a couple." No one laughs. It doesn't help that minutes later we learn Snooki had an eating disorder in high school that she only recently came to terms with.
    • Ronnie stealing Vinny's flowers, dropping a few bucks on Vinny's bed, and giving them to Sammi while trying to pass them off as his own. This after Vinny had been stood up by the girl he bought the flowers for.
    • We can safely say the casts' behavior in Angelina's farewell episode irked a part of the fandom deeply. It got her a decent fanbase and support, at least.
    • Ronnie's abusive behavior towards Sammi. We saw hints of it on season 1, but on season 2 it was blatant.
  • No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: This show made New Jersey residents and Italian-American groups seethe. As of this writing, three sponsors (including Dell and Domino's Pizza) have pulled their advertising from the show. Hasn't hurt its popularity any.
    • Not sure if it counts, but the guidos in question are quite proud of their label.
    • The Governor of New Jersey asked them all to go home.
      • Taken Up to Eleven when said governor refused to give the (insanely rich) producers and executives of the show any tax breaks, something that the top one percent of wealthy Americans are entitled to. He hates the show that much.
    • The Situation made $5 million in 2010 because of his show contract and spokesman work for a snake oil bulking powder.
    • He has also been paid to stop wearing Abercrombie and Fitch clothes, so he's doing pretty well.
    • Would you have even known about this show if there weren't so many people trashing it and saying how terrible it was?
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: As of episode three of Season Two, it's safe to say Angelina is more likable than she was previously (still a bitch though), but it doesn't matter because she's not coming back for season three.
  • Romantic Plot Tumor: Even the cast had problems with Sammi and Ronnie's "relationship" in the first two seasons. It took valuable time away from other stupid things.
  • The Scrappy: Angelina.
    • At least in Season One, where her inability to get along with her housemates and attitude towards her job at the Shore Store result in her eviction from the home and subsequently the rest of the show. Her return in Season Two revealed she hadn't changed much since leaving Season One, but has become more likable after apologizing to JWoww and Snooki in the third episode for off-screen shit-talking. The apology seems to have gone over well, as Angelina can be seen hanging out with the girls in the fourth episode.
    • And it certainly helps that Sammi's Season Two Wallbanger ways of handling her "relationship" with Ronnie have turned her into The Scrappy of Season Two.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Snooki. Good Heavens, Snooki.
  • Straw Man Has a Point: In Angelina's episode in season 2 (in which she is Put on a Bus), she makes sure to call everyone out on how they're stupid, fake freaks of nature. The characters just ride it off.
  • Unfortunate Implications: Portraying all Italian-Americans as drunken, steroid-fueled party kids and Bottle Fairies... gee, who could possibly object to that?
  • Unpopular Popular Character: Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi and Jenni "JWoww" Farley.
  • Woobie: Snooki and Mike
  1. Take a drink.