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Jersey Shore + Japan = LOLk investment. From CNN:
MTV’s hit reality show “Jersey Shore” has become a certified hit in the United States by letting Americans admire (or delight in their disgust of) the bad taste bonanza of hair-gelled, fake-tanned youth who party on the Mid-Atlantic seashore. Great news, Japan: The show will start broadcasting on MTV Japan from March 21.
With the average Japanese cable TV viewer being totally ignorant of American geography, however, the name “Jersey Shore” needed an explanatory subtitle. So MTV Japan has decided on「MTV Jersey Shore〜マカロニ野郎のニュージャージー・ライフ〜」, translated by us as “MTV Jersey Shore — the New Jersey life of macaroni rascals.”
Amazing! In a weird way, this humorous bit of cultural insensitivity actually makes up for the whole Japanese-love-of-blackface thing. Kind of.
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Their second choice for a title was Super Fantastic Happy Funtime STDs.
SUPAH HAPPY FREAKY FRY!!!!!!!
those rascals sure do love their pickles
GODDAMMIT, dude. Almost just busted out laughing in class.
Yes. A thousand times, yes.
…except in all the music videos! DERP DERP
“There are still music videos on MTV?” – everyone
No, there aren’t.
http://www.kansascity.com/2010/09/21/2237996/left-for-dead-by-mtv-music-videos.html
they had to get back at us for Mickey Rooney somehow….
And for Japanese Sean Connery in You Only Live Twice
Oh my god. Look at his eyes. He’s trying so hard to be very slanty and yet his Scottish face is like “No.”
Seriously you guys, racist old movies are amazing.
Don’t forget the best (completely the worst) yellowface ever:
Snorki
In all fairness, those rascals do eat a lot of macaroni.
Yeah… I think they nailed it.
In Japan, rascals have “Toyota” tattooed along their sidemeat.
I just like to imagine them being made out of macaroni. That, or they’re the new Kraft Mac & Cheese mascots, like Cheese-a-saurus Rex.
Or like Fusilli Jerry.
I’m a calling the Anti-Defamation League! Let my people GO!
http://cbswnks.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/jersey-shore-halloween-costumes-main-e1282671637367.jpg?w=385&h=271
http://www.costumecraze.com/TV-Show-Character-Halloween-Costumes-Jersey-Shore-Costumes.html
jesus.
This makes me sad
Why is their skin tone so light? GTL, duh
“This (…) actually makes up for the whole Japanese-love-of-blackface thing. Kind of.”
Japan hears what you’re saying Gabe, and they are way ahead of you.
(i guess i need to pick my hotlinks better)
Holy. Shit. That is horrifying right there, I mean I have seen ridiculously orange-tan people before, but leave it to the Japanse to make that some nightmare-inducing fashion trend. Whoops, no sleep for me tonight!
(Mental note: cancel future trips to Japan)
It looks like she already got to the eye-bleach.
Is orangeface considered racist?
Ed Hardy is calling Ichi-Maru-Kyu as we speak. #Tokyojokes
Is this soft-launch for “Jersey Shore Season 4: Toyko”?
Please god no. That would be the worst nightmare in ever. The amount of them just barreling into situations, yelling in slow English at people, getting angrier and angrier at not being understood…oh god…
(By the way, great embarrassment/amusement/pain for others comes in watching Americans just barge up to Japanese, asking them questions in full, fast, loud English. I generally watched from an out of sight place, refusing to help.)
Outsourced tv show = time to whine about racism in the media
Jersey Shore tv show = racism is terrific ha ha ha
Videogumland = Land of The Hypocrites
PSYCHE! JUST KIDDIN’!!! LOL!
Christ, what an asshole
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or people in India?
downvote away! but i have been thinking this for a while. as i am not a well known commentator and mainly just a lurker i figured i would catch some flak, but it seems to be the case. i went to high school with hundreds of juggalo’s and jersey shore like folks and if you get to know some of them they aren’t human nightmares, just poor kids trying to fit into a subculture. everyone has a group to which they belong. they just choose to belong to groups that monsters may not understand/be a part of. i’ve noticed there exists a slightly elitist attitude here. meh.
We don’t hate poor people, we hate stupid people. I mean, most of us tried to fit in by hanging with a group in our teens, nothing wrong with that, but you have to grow an identity for yourself when you’re an adult. For a kid in rural America, it’s less bad if he hates Muslims, but his Teabagger father should know better. That’s the people who catch all the flack on Videogum, people who should know better, but don’t.
It now looks like I disagree with you, Anchor Management, but I don’t. Beat me by two minutes. And we totally agree.
I come from a lower-working class/poor family in the rural South, and I have to disagree. There’s an elitist attitude here, but it’s more to do with a rejection of willful ignorance than a rejection of the poor. After all, I’m poor, but I worked hard to get a good education, got a lot of student loans (for which I’m still paying–not that I mind), and worked full-time as an undergraduate and graduate student. Now I have two degrees and am applying for my PhD. Are the opportunities that were available to me available to everyone? No. But libraries are free. Student loans are available. “To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield.” That’s what helped to get me out of the trailer (yes, a literal trailer) and into the middle class. I had a brain, I used it. Snooki had some kind of stupid schtick, she used it. We both broke out. And yet I’m guessing there aren’t a ton of monsters around here that would make fun of me. Except when I really deserve it, of course.
Baby Friday, this is like saying you’re not a hypocrite because you carry a picture of yourself in your wallet. You just blew your own mind
No, Steve. *You* just blew my mind. I will treasure this comment forever.
I just realized, this means that I’m now an official v-gum Racist (c), Classist (TM) and Hypocrite (all rights reserved). Doesn’t that count as some kind of EGOT?
So lemme get this straight — if poor people just pick themselves up by the bootstraps, the world is their oyster and they can live the American Dream? There’s no such thing as systemic racism or class inequality and those who are exploited by media conglomerates deserve it because they aren’t savvy enough to say no? Rush Limbaugh, is that you?
No, of course not. I’m just saying that’s what happened with me. After all, it’s not about money. Snooki has more money than me. That’s not really the question. And if you think I didn’t suffer socially and academically because of my social class, then you are way, way off. And I think there’s more than one way to “make it” in this world–as evidenced by Snooki, or some professional athletes who have only physical prowess to make their way. I can think of other examples of success that don’t involve academics, if you want. But what I was commenting on is what I think videogum commentators are reacting to when they make fun of this kind of thing.
I do apologize — I didn’t make it to the end of your comment, when you talked about how Snooki used her fake tan to break out. I was too blinded by the rest of it — “libraries are free, student loans are available.” It sort of disregards the cultural values of different socioeconomic strata, dontcha think? I get what you’re saying, I think: “The way I broke out of a literal trailer into the middle-class approved profession of academia is more palatable to the monsters than using a fake tan to break free of the bonds of working-class oppression.” But I read it as, “Other people from my circumstances had the same resources available to them but did not choose to use them as I did, and hence, it’s defensible when the middle classes attack them for whoring for the dominant culture.”
And by the way, I grew up working-class and have an MA, too (something I’ve been loathe to bring up on Videogum, because barf).
I’m not denying the people on the Jersey Shore are laughable douchebags. I’m just saying that much more powerful forces make it possible for them to
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with pointing out that opportunities exist (like libraries and student loans), but I agree that it depends on more than that. But at the same time, I definitely had some hurdles to jump to get where I am (and I can still see hurdles in front of me). Sometimes I jumped by myself, sometimes I was lifted. But it wouldn’t have done me any good to do what my sister did and content herself with life as a second-class citizen simply because it was “too hard” to do otherwise. It depends a lot on a willingness to self-advocate.
The War on Racism and Classism will be fought AND won on the Videogumland commentator forums!!!!!!!!!!
But it’s not so much kids we’re mocking. It’s adults that live by creeds like “GTL” or those that cultishly follow a goofball band with lyrics like “Magnets, how do they work?” Or even grown men that devote their free time harassing college students because they’re gay. It’s mostly people that, in this massive world, have dedicated their lives to an insulated, ultra-specific way of life. Rich or poor has nothing to do with it (I though most ‘Jersey Shore wannabes” were rich – how else do you afford a damn summer vacation), we all try to fit in and get by however we can. Most of us don’t do it so rigidly.
Probably a lot of us live in large cities because we moved away from the small places we once lived side-by-side with the obnoxious, ignorant jerks. That doesn’t make us better, it makes us luckier, maybe, and relatively happier.
And anyway, you can live anywhere and learn not to be a chauvinist or a misogynist. My dad turned out pretty all right, and he grew up in Southeast Texas with bubbas and roughnecks. Trying to educate yourself, and be a better person, and have empathy–that’s universal.
Roughnecks! He must be from the county in which I currently reside.
I make fun of the people around here all the time and I can assure you that they make more money than I do. You can make a fortune in the dominant local industries because there is nothing to spend money on except housing and SUVs and most people from here are afraid to fly or leave the county at all so they don’t take expensive vacations.
Good on your dad. Empathy is a quality I see very lacking around here these days but it does exist. It’s just not expressed towards transplants from… yes, New Jersey.
I am most upset by your incorrect use of apostrophes because frankly, your argument is boring.
I grew up in a small town just outside of NYC and I went to high school with tons of “Jersey Shore types” and let me tell you- they were definitely not underprivileged. Definitely not poor. Definitely had way more money than me and had a way more elitist attitude than me. But Juggalos are a different story. You can’t really lump the juggalos and jersey shore peeps together.
Since when did it take money NOT to be a douchebag? Are you calling all poor people fuck knuckles? You must live in a big city to think that.
I wouldn’t mind Outsourced nearly as much if it had a title like “Our Punjabi Gang”.
Talk about explanatory Japanese subtitles: Remember that Julia Roberts/Richard Gere flick “Runaway Bride”? In Japan, it was named “Pretty Bride”. True story.
My favorite example of this is “the Karate Kid,” which is called “Best Kid” in Japan.
Macaroni Rascals is now the new name of my Jersey Shore cover band.
Vindaloo Call Center Scabs will be the new name of the Outsourced cover band and then Gabe and all his hypocritical acolytes in Videogumland will act like they’re all offended by this and stuff.
All I read was the word acolyte and I think it was directed in part at me, and I’m cool with that. Acolytes are rad.
Rad to tha hella?
I use rad mostly because of you I think, and while I do occasionally use hella, being a New Englander, my native preference is towards wicked.
MTV Jersey Shore: 炎色 ヘルペス
Orange… hairpiece? OH WAIT I GET IT NOW.
First Hiroshima/Nagasaki and now this? We must really hate the Japanese.
I can sort of forgive Japan’s love of blackface when they produce videos like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_a4M9clpQE. One of the best Japanese variety show videos for sure, mostly thanks to Japanese Bruuuce and Japanese Cyndi Lauper, who are killing it.
“With the average Japanese cable TV viewer being totally ignorant of American geography, however, the name “Jersey Shore” needed an explanatory subtitle: MTV Jersey Shore — the New Jersey life of macaroni rascals.”
So…since Japanese don’t know American geography, they put Jersey Shore in both the title and the subtitle? Mtv is a genius.