Jersey Shore: Just Funny?

Accord­ing to recent sur­veys, Jer­sey Shore is one of the most pop­u­lar shows on tele­vi­sion, even among teenagers. Yet it deals con­stantly with “adult” sit­u­a­tions that most par­ents would not want their teenagers to be involved in: drink­ing, nasty back-​​biting and temper-​​tantrums, highly phys­i­cal rela­tion­ships with­out com­mit­ment, wild par­ties, etc.

What makes this TV show so enter­tain­ing and pop­u­lar? Let’s take a brief look at the Jer­sey Shore phe­nom­e­non and see if we can learn any­thing from it.

Real­ity television

Real­ity shows have become hugely pop­u­lar in the last fif­teen years. They seem to be a refresh­ing change from the canned laugh­ter and fake sit­u­a­tions of so many come­dies and dra­mas from the ear­lier days of tele­vi­sion. We get to see how real peo­ple react in real situations.

But are real­ity shows truly that real?

Well, yes, they really do film real peo­ple in real sit­u­a­tions. The actions and reac­tions we see are not purely a stage illusion.

But in some ways real­ity shows are not quite as real as they pre­tend to be. The pro­duc­ers pur­posely set up dra­matic sit­u­a­tions so as to gen­er­ate dra­matic reac­tions. The shows are a com­bi­na­tion of real­ity and planning.

Get­ting attention

And the shows tend to fea­ture a cer­tain type of per­son. They fea­ture peo­ple who love to be noticed by oth­ers. Usu­ally this type of per­son can han­dle the pres­sures of being in the spot­light, but he or she often tends to be very self-​​centered. Usu­ally this type of per­son­al­ity is referred to as nar­cis­sis­tic.

Not wel­come on real­ity shows

Many peo­ple do not sign up or qual­ify for real­ity shows because they do not like hav­ing their pri­vacy invaded. This is because in many of us would pre­fer not to parade our mis­takes and weak­nesses in front of others.

Does this mean that most of us are are just hid­ing our weak­nesses and not deal­ing with them?

This can be true, but usu­ally it is eas­ier to over­come our mis­takes and weak­nesses when we are not being con­stantly scru­ti­nized by every­one else. Com­mon sense tells  us that in order to over­come our flaws and mis­takes we need a respect­ful atmos­phere, not an atmos­phere where peo­ple are cel­e­brat­ing our mistakes.

When we mess up

It is usu­ally bet­ter for us to over­come our mis­takes with the help of peo­ple who gen­uinely care about us and who will respect our pri­vacy. This is where our rela­tion­ships with our par­ents, with Christ, and with friends who have good val­ues help so much.

As Catholics, besides the won­der­ful gift of prayer, where we talk to Jesus as our best friend, we also have the added gift of Confession.

Here we can be totally hon­est about our mis­takes and receive for­give­ness from Christ in a very per­sonal and mov­ing way: we hear Jesus speak to us in the human voice of the a priest who pro­nounces Christ’s words of for­give­ness after lis­ten­ing to our real sit­u­a­tion.

A priest, like our par­ents or peo­ple with good val­ues, can often give us valu­able advise and encour­age­ment in our effort to over­come our weak­nesses and live up to our great­est ideals.

A priest’s advise in Con­fes­sion is not, strictly speak­ing, exactly the same as Jesus telling us what to do (a priest can make mis­takes), but a priest’s train­ing and expe­ri­ence in help­ing peo­ple can often be a big help. And the abso­lu­tion a priest gives in Con­fes­sion is really and truly Jesus giv­ing us for­give­ness and a new chance.

Real­ity acting

But let’s get back to real­ity shows.

Beside fea­tur­ing a cer­tain type of per­son, real­ity shows tend to fea­ture a cer­tain type of act­ing. This type of act­ing is usu­ally called impro­vi­sa­tion. It is some­times used in tra­di­tional TV, the­ater, and movies, but it is one of the main fea­tures of real­ity TV.

Impro­vi­sa­tion can be some of the very best act­ing, because it tends to mir­ror real­ity more closely than just repeat­ing lines that some­one else has writ­ten. It is more of a gut reac­tion to a sit­u­a­tion rather than a strict fol­low­ing of a script.

But, it is still act­ing. As an actor, you are try­ing to get people’s atten­tion. You are play­ing a role. In real­ity shows the actors are play­ing a role. Just that they are play­ing it all the time.

Snooki and happiness

For exam­ple, Snooki, prob­a­bly the most famous mem­ber of the Jer­sey Shore cast, has a very inter­est­ing role. She is the unlikely hero. She is bla­tantly open and  hon­est about her feel­ings in every sit­u­a­tion. Her basic atti­tude prob­a­bly can be described in this way:  “I don’t care what you think. I am just going to have fun.”

Her hon­esty often gets her into very inter­est­ing sit­u­a­tions, but she knows that it is her job as a cast mem­ber to “stir things up,” to cre­ate dra­matic situations.

We admire her hon­esty and open­ness, but we won­der about the wis­dom of her deci­sions. Is she really build­ing a life of true hap­pi­ness? Or is she just liv­ing for the moment, pur­posely ignor­ing some of the destruc­tive results she is cre­at­ing for her life?

Hap­pi­ness and the future

We can­not help but admire her courage, but our admi­ra­tion is bitter-​​sweet. We some­times won­der about her future. It would seem that she may end up very lonely and depressed once the thrill of the par­ties and the power of the fame and money she is mak­ing begin to wear off.

Jer­sey Shore pro­motes a cer­tain type of hap­pi­ness. It is the hap­pi­ness of liv­ing just for the moment. It is the thrill of a quick relationships.

We all know that hap­pi­ness can be found in these things, but is it last­ing happiness?

Fire­works or a home

Per­haps not. Per­haps real hap­pi­ness is more like build­ing a house. We have to do it brick by brick. It takes patience. It takes putting aside some quick thrills for a while, delay­ing the rewards a bit.

Build­ing a longer hap­pi­ness is not as thrilling as a quick party. But it can stand the storms of life bet­ter. It is like the dif­fer­ence between the excite­ment of a fire­works dis­play and the warmth of a home that is built on love, patience, and respect. Both have their joys, but one lasts a lot longer.

Which hap­pi­ness will each of us choose? We answer that ques­tion every day.

.….….…..

Bible Blurbs

Then the scribes and phar­isees brought in a woman who had been caught in adul­tery and made her stand in the mid­dle .… But when they con­tin­ued ask­ing him, Jesus straight­ened up and said to them. “Let the one among you who is with­out sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” … Then Jesus said to the her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one con­demned you?” She replied, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “Nei­ther do I con­demn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”  (John 8: 3-​​10)

Cat­e­chism Clips

“Mass media can give rise to a cer­tain pas­siv­ity among users, mak­ing them less than vig­i­lant con­sumers of what is said or shown. Users should prac­tice mod­er­a­tion and dis­ci­pline in their approach to the mass media. They will want to form enlight­ened and cor­rect con­sciences the more eas­ily to resist unwhole­some influ­ences.” (Cat­e­chism of the Catholic Church, no. 2496)

 Pope Quotes

“While claim­ing to rep­re­sent real­ity, com­mu­ni­ca­tion media can tend to legit­imize or impose dis­torted mod­els of per­sonal, fam­ily, or social life.”   (Pope Bene­dict XVI, May 4, 2008)

“Should it not be a pri­or­ity to ensure that they remain at the ser­vice of the per­son and of the com­mon good, and that they fos­ter  … man’s inner growth”?   (Pope Bene­dict XVI, May 4, 2008)

Dis­cus­sion Zone

1. What per­son­al­ity traits do you admire some of the char­ac­ters on Jer­sey Shore? What per­son­al­ity traits do you not admire?
2. Do you think that show­ing young peo­ple doing these things is inter­est­ing? Does it help you deal with poten­tial prob­lems in your life as well?
3. Do you think that per­haps pro­grams like Jer­sey Shore feed on some of the unhealthy curios­ity in all of us? Do you think that they do more good than bad or more bad than good?