During the years of 2009 – 2012, if you were a person who watched a lot of tv and was a fan of reality tv you were probably aware of a show called “Jersey Shore”.  If you hadn’t seen it then you probably heard mention of the show considering that it had recently surfaced. Viewers are first introduced to 7 randoms that will come to know each other first as roommates then eventually as family. This would span for every summer for 3 years. Although hearing mention of the show around the time it came out to the public, I wasn’t really into the genre of reality tv and all the drama considering I was only nine years old. However, I came around to watching all 6 season of the show 6 years later from the time it stopped airing. What I had found to get to that point however was literally me watching a few episodes of the sequel to the franchise, dubbed “Jersey Shore: Family Vacation.”
The reason I bring this up is because, those said 7 roommates were not picked as randomly as it may have seemed. If they had something in common it was the fact that they were all italian or of italian descent. First off, we should ask ourselves as to why this is important, or at least in my case. For one, there goes a term for describing the types of personalities and conflicting characters that each cast member possesses. The term being “guido” or “guidette”. What’s funny about this word is that I had only come to hear it after watching the show.
Considering I had previously known nothing about the word, the only thing that was left for me to do was do some research on the word. I had come to learn that it was a term used mainly for people of italian descent. Through the show I had come to learn that these “guidos” are known for their 3 step daily routines; Gym, Tanning and Laundry. This was apparent due to it being the only 3 main things that all the guys in the show would do other than clubbing. Upon doing research on the word, I found no articles relating to the word when searching for databases on the word. When searching on websites on the internet I found varying details like the origin of the word being from Saturday Night Live television comic Guido Calabresi’s name or how it originated in Italy. However, these websites of course weren’t exactly reliable considering they home to blog posts or they were wikipedias. So no concrete answers for the origin of the word. The word obviously has made itself a name in the Italian community is something I can say though.
So obviously now it’s time for us to discuss what exactly a guido is or as urban dictionary would put it, “A sad pathetic excuse for a male; not necessarily of Italian descent, but most likely; usually native to the New York/New Jersey Tri-State Area”. Other notable qualities of a guido is a guy who spends more time on his hair than his girlfriend, goes out clubbing , or spends a lot of time in the gym. It basically comes down to someone who overly conducts themselves in a macho manner.
In conclusion I came to know the word through the sequel of a television show that aired from 2009 – 2012 named “Jersey Shore”. I had known nothing previously about the term having never heard it in the first place. I came to learn lots of things about the word, although nothing concrete considering it was on websites that were short of being reliable. All in all though I came to appreciate this show and reality tv a lot more considering it gave me a word that I never would have imagined talking about.
