On a snowy winter day in December 2010, I discovered a television programme that would forever change the way that my peers evaluate me. When I logged onto the MTV internet video player, I never intended to find a television series that would become my primary tool of procrastination for my final semester of my bachelor's degree. Being the curious scholar that I was, I simply wanted to learn what all the fuss was about. That is how I became a fan of The Jersey Shore.
I am not proud of the hours I have spent (and will spend- one more season!) watching muscular orange people beat up beats. I completely admit that watching Ronnie and Sammy break up for the tenth time in three weeks hasn't helped me grow as a person. I know that watching a woman with breasts that defy gravity pee behind an unused bar counter isn't as sophisticated as an hour at the museum of natural history. Even so, I am surprised at the reaction I get when I tell my acquaintances that I enjoy watching The Jersey Shore.
The reactions I usually receive involve groans, the heels of palms being smacked against foreheads, 'Teea, why's?' or some combination of those elements. A CollegeHumor.com Venn diagram comparing babies, idiots, and stoners informs me that idiots like the Jersey Shore. I will forever be lumped in with dumb girls who like little dogs and hair bleach.
I must say that, for the record I do not believe that bleached blond women with teacup poodles are stupid, only that many of Edmonton's educated seem to automatically write off the intelligence of people who have these interests. Liking The Jersey Shore doesn't make a person more or less intelligent.
Don't get me wrong, I know that there are much better uses of my spare time. However, I choose to use my preciously few vacant hours to take a break from my life as an academic. I believe that is what most university students do. When I can't concentrate on writing my ancient civilizations paper, I don't want to watch a discovery channel programme on the engineering of the pyramids. After I memorize the designs of every flying buttress and every rose window in every French Gothic cathedral, I don't want to go to the art gallery to see sculptures that some painter left in a bar to melt in a fire. After I endure Cicero's thirteenth repetition of a mostly irrelevant point, I don't want to pick up a philosophy magazine and read about the trendiest theory on consciousness. I enjoy the content I am exposed to in all of my courses, but as Cicero and any good Roman would tell you, moderation is important for a well lived life.
If somebody actually spent all of their free time engaged in such worthy pursuits, I wouldn't fault them for calling me an idiot, but in my experience, this isn't what the average university student does with his spare time. At least, the diversions of my Jersey Shore hating friends aren't any more sophisticated. They include: drinking themselves stupid, watching fan renditions of death battles that match up unlikely video game characters, and listening to parodies of Rebecca Black's Friday. Their knowledge of which Teenaged Mutant Ninja turtle would triumph over the others won't expand their horizons any more than my knowledge of the pre-bar ritual of gym, tanning, and laundry has expanded mine. In fact, The Jersey Shore has taught me something practical here, namely how to be fresh and bring mad pick-up game, whereas their knowledge of which Teenaged Mutant ninja turtle would win in a fight is completely useless because turtles can't actually use nun-chucks.
The truth is that in my spare time, I'm looking for something more than a distraction from academia. When I have a dull and repetitive full time job, I will most likely turn to academic pass times to fill the new void in my life. Right now, I like watching eight oompa-loompas get drunk in public and bring strangers home because it reminds me that even thirty year olds who live with their parents and have no career prospects to speak of can enjoy their lives. Jersey shore reminds me that happiness is about perspective, and for somebody who is graduating University with a useless degree, an uncertain future, and no job offers, perspective is something that is sorely lacking. Until The Jersey Shore influences become a tanorexic binge drinker, I really don't believe that my peers can hold my love of the show against me.
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