Some people will “get crazy” when the second season of “Jersey Shore” premieres at 10 tonight, but not everyone GTLs like it’s their job.
Maddy Pryor, who lives at the Jersey Shore, said she “cannot stand” the show because she grew up living at the shore.
“It gives us a really bad reputation,” Pryor, a Penn State sophomore, said. “The people on the show definitely don’t help. I don’t know a single person who uses a Bumpit when they’re not making fun of the show.”
Pryor said the show gives people the wrong idea about the Jersey Shore.
“New Jersey as a whole gets the butt of the end of the jokes, but then people come down to our beaches and love it here,” she said.
Drew Michelini, another resident of the Jersey Shore, said the show is misleading.
“It makes it look dirty,” Michelini, a PSU sophomoe said. “It leads people to believe that everyone here is like that, but most of those people don’t even live in this area. The locals are nothing like that.”
Though Ryan DeMuth said he doesn’t live in the same area the show was filmed — Seaside Heights, N.J. — the two places look similar. He said the show exaggerates what the Jersey Shore is actually like.
“It’s an extreme show, so it makes everything look worse,” DeMuth, a PSU sophomore said.
And even University Park Undergraduate Association President Christian Ragland said the show is not an accurate representation of the shore.
“I definitely do not think that’s any representation of the Jersey Shore that I’ve grown up in for the past 21 years of my life,” Ragland, a PSU senior, said. “What I personally think is that what the show is representing is what tourists look at it like. Something that happens in the show really does not represent what happens in South Jersey, but that’s what the TV industry does to make money.”
Michelini, Pryor and Ragland all said they have enjoyed living at the Jersey Shore.
“I love being so close to the water,” Michelini said. “I love the ocean. [The Jersey Shore] is commercialized, but in a good way, and still trying to hang on to its beauty.”