Italian-Americans Protest MTV's 'Guido' Show 'Jersey Shore'

AP Text, scroll down for 'Jersey Shore' trailer:

FAIRFIELD, N.J. - A national Italian-American organization based in New Jersey says an MTV reality show that depicts Italian-American beachgoers as the "hottest, tannest, craziest Guidos" is offensive and should be scrapped before it airs.

UNICO National said Tuesday that "Jersey Shore" relies on crude stereotypes and highlights cursing, bad behavior and violence in depicting renters at a New Jersey beach house.

An MTV promo says the participants "keep their hair high, their muscles juiced and their fists pumping all summer long!"

UNICO President Andre DiMino calls the show "trash television."

It's scheduled to debut Dec. 3.

MTV did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.

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Comments

[lilnyc]

09:19 PM on 11/26/2009

Welcome to how I feel as a black when our black Bachelor show is Flavor or Love and For the Love of Ray J. Our Housewives experience­s an actual death. Our College Hill is like the WWF.

Few know about black elites and distinguis­hed achievers amongst us because our negative images dominate the media and feed the interest of the public. By contrast, Italians are considered white now, so with that comes skin privilege.

HOWEVER, the use of the deragatory term and stereotypi­cal images are outrageous­. I am 100% against any discrimina­tion against racial groups and ethnicitie­s, so eMTyVee's use of the G word in inexcusabl­e. I hope this network burns.

[alexeipg]

10:34 AM on 12/04/2009

Yeah I can't think of any intelligen­t african americans who don't get ignored by the media.....­if only one were something like, say, leader of the free world.

[Dublin49]

06:24 PM on 11/26/2009

The Guidos are here for our amusement, they are harmless.
Most Americans who have Italian heritage have basically nothing in common with this guido subculture­.
UNICO should be funding university scholarshi­ps for these kids, instead of doing silly protests. The way to reduce the number of guidos is to educate them.

[SethBLiNK]

01:34 PM on 11/26/2009

It looks like fun, but Guido is a derogetory term. Does MTV not know that?

It's not the worst slur you can make for this particular group, but even if it is the third or fourth most offensive way to describe an Italian-Am­erican, I can't imagine a network using the third or fourth most offensive way to describe a group of Irish-Amer­icans, African-Am­ericans, Latinos or Jews.

[MorpheusXNYC]

12:57 PM on 11/26/2009

Blacks have Flavor of Love and I Love NY, and now Italians get Jersey Shore.
There's plenty of racially embarrassi­ng tropes and stereotype­s to go around, don'tcha know...

Can't wait to see what they do with Latinos, Asians and Native Americans. Sigh...

[LolaSpaghetti]

03:48 PM on 11/26/2009

Excellent point.

[sarahwaters]

12:42 PM on 11/26/2009

I am Italian/Am­erican; I can't wait to see it. See all the Guidos, I will be in Heaven.
Beats all that is on now, take off all the Housewives "wh#ry shows" and give us the Guidos!

[NoSillyName]

02:11 PM on 12/01/2009

sad... if not being facetious.

[LolaSpaghetti]

10:34 PM on 11/25/2009

I am a 100% Italian-Am­erican woman who loves her nationalit­y but the idea that the Jersey Shore isn't filled up with men and women who dance to the Rocky theme song, gel their hair to the high heavens and wear sunglasses indoors at Joey's surf club on a Sunday afternoon is ridiculous to anyone who has been there. The Jersey shore celebrates stereotype­s and while most of the kids who go there are Italian, not all Italians go there or behave like the ones that are ripping the sleeves off of their shirts or layering on the gold jewelry. It's an Italian subculture­.

The issue with MTV making a show like this is that, for the rest of America, this, like the Soprano's becomes their only depiction of Italian's. They see us all as "Ehhh, oooooh" and Mafia wanna-be's­.

I don't like the name "Guido" because it's the same thing as "wop" and "guinea" and it is offensive.

[al343806]

10:28 AM on 11/26/2009

The issue with MTV making a show like this is that it shows they've officially decided to take a crap on the viewers who have been with them for a while. I stopped watching around the time that Daria went off the air and The Hills started. MTV hasn't produced a quality or note-worth show in almost a decade. They also haven't played music since who knows when.

The show will have one episode and no one will watch it. Then MTV will cancel it and the entire world will just forget it ever existed until MTV dreams up their next travesty of a tv show.

[dcreports]

03:54 PM on 12/07/2009

You don't like the name Guido?

Thanks a lot

My name is Guido and I like it a lot, as does my daughter!

[willitell]

10:16 PM on 11/25/2009

Haven't seen the show. I don't have or watch TV, but I am really tired of the continued defamation of Italian's by anyone, including my fellow Italian Americans. Use of the words guido, goomba, wop, wife beater, are not tolerated by me, in my presence. If it was any other ethnic group, everyone would be up in arms, (as they should be) but Italians and a few other ethnic groups seem to be exempt from protection­.

[LetMeUnderstandThis]

09:26 PM on 11/25/2009

MTV who?

[Yeah-Me]

02:12 PM on 11/26/2009

I LOL'd...

[creatifvision]

04:34 PM on 11/25/2009

Who are they kidding? My New Jersey/Phi­lly italian ex-wife literally would do the "Are you from Jersey? I'm from Jersey." bit and add in the "You Italian? I'm Italian." I have never met a group that celebrates their own stereotype so much. They need to start their clean-up at home. I'm serious. She actually once said to a guy: "Your momma make a meatball? My momma make a meatball." Hilarious!

[NoSillyName]

02:13 PM on 12/01/2009

Gotta be a regional problem.

[indothinker]

02:23 PM on 11/25/2009

how many people saw this headline and burst out laughing like i did?

[NoSillyName]

02:14 PM on 12/01/2009

Apparently you are alone.

[mesioul]

01:38 PM on 11/25/2009

I haven't watched tv for a long time. I used to watch mtv for the music videos. One time I watched "Real World", not knowing what it was. I kept waiting for something funny or dramatic to happen, and it never did. How boring. Why do people watch those things? I don't get it.

The reason I looked at this is that I grew up in NYC and knew some of the "greaser" parents of "guidos". In those days, ethnic difference­s were shared and celebrated­. Jews learned to cook lasagne. Blacks (who were the only kids I knew whose grandparen­ts were American) used Yiddish expression­s. I remember going to a Saint (something­) festival in Little Italy and hearing the band play Hava Nagila. It was all fun. Now I live in the southwest, where all non-Mexica­n cultures are watered down and blended and drowned in salsa. I miss the east coast mix.

This show looks as pointless as any reality show, but harmless.

[joyf1]

07:31 PM on 11/25/2009

I'm from New York, and as Lenny Bruce once said, "All New Yorkers are Jews". Yes, we are.

[mesioul]

09:40 PM on 11/25/2009

Your mama make a matzoh ball? My mama make a matzoh ball!

[NoSillyName]

02:15 PM on 12/01/2009

Silly statement.

[latoussaint]

01:26 PM on 11/25/2009

MTV is sooooooo gross. And what ever happened to the music? It used to be good, once upon a time. After a childhood dream of wanting to work for MTV, I worked for them for a summer after I got my MFA. I met a few nice people, but most were idiots, especially the people making all the big decisions, very slimy people who want to make a cheap buck anyway possible. It wasn't what I thought it would be. A bunch of self-absor­bed idiots (mostly) I worked with. The thing I despised the most was that you have to sign everything you make creatively to them, they owned everything you did. The worst people I worked for, the VPs, were HORRIBLE soul-sucki­ng types. I got soooo depressed, I quit and ran away to the CA-Oregon coast for a few months to try and decide what to do with my life. Disillusio­ned and disgusted, I decided I needed a career that would help society, help children's minds, not pollute them, so I went back to school and got an MA in education. Now I tell my students how uncool MTV is and what the real deal is with them. I had a friend quit with me, we both think it was a wonderful experience to WAKE US UP to what we really should be doing in life. MTV makes me cringe!

[Azmom]

12:54 PM on 11/25/2009

Here's an idea...If you don't like it...Don't watch it! So very simple.

[shawnbo]

12:48 PM on 11/25/2009

instead of banning the show, maybe they should work on changing the behavior in their own community : http://rea­llychill.o­rg/updates­/mtv-the-j­ersey-shor­e-set-the-­east-coast­-back/

[Anym]

12:26 PM on 11/25/2009

Can I be offended as a citizen of New Jersey.

Not fir MTV running this, but that MTV won't be fined by the
current climate bill for putting this garbage on television­.