During the years of 2009 – 2012, if you were a person who watched a lot of tv and was a fan of reality tv and was fond of MTV then you probably at least once came to hear of a show called “Jersey Shore”. The show had brought viewers a different look on the face of reality tv. Even though the show wasn’t popular at first it would come to take the world by storm. The premise of the show being 7 random people coming to be roomates in a rented shore house where they would drink, party, tan, and have a grand old time for the price of working at a shore store. This would go on for every summer from 2009 up until 2012 and each season bringing something new to the table, whether it be a new place like italy or miami, to all new cast members and new drama. 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 of the cast members possess. The term of course being “guido” or “guidette”. The funny thing about this word is that I had only come to hear it during my watching of the show. They would use the term to describe themselves almost as if in a nutshell, but one question that remained for me were of the origins of the word.
Considering I had previously known nothing about the word, the only thing that was left for me to do was to perform 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. Although I am not of Italian or of Italian descent, I can definitely see myself living by some of the habits that one partakes in being a guido. One of those being 2 of the tasks that the guidos of Jersey shore live by. Gym and laundry, although laundry seeming to be one of those things that are really supposed to come naturally. Of course I can’t talk about guido like routines without really discussing upon what a guido is.
So obviously now it’s time for us to discuss what exactly a guido is. A guido or as urban dictionary would put it, is a “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 all basically comes down to someone who overly conducts themselves in a macho manner. That to me was a mild form of the word, for I thought of it as being a douchebag, in which I was somewhat wrong. The treatment people get from these “guidos” can vary whether we’re talking about in the case of relationships or even in friendships. Altogether I was wrong in thinking that however for being a guido isn’t really in the treatment of a person but rather the way you conduct yourself. Something funny that came with learning the term was that I never acknowledged guidos as being their own category when I filter people, but now that I know what they are and what they look like I can pinpoint a guido when I see one. One thing I was able to see was a guidette, but I never knew there was a term for it too.
To summarize, I stumbled upon a show called Jersey Shore in which 7 roomates would bring so much drama and entertainment, overall taking MTV and bringing a new name to reality TV. This would go on for the summers of 2009 – 2012 and viewers would grow to know and love cast members Pauly Delvecchio or “Pauly D”, Deena Cortese, Nicole Polizzi or “Snooki”, Jenni Farley or “JWoww”, Mike Sorrentino or “The Situation”, Ronnie Ortiz Magro, Vinny Guadanino, Samantha Giancola or “Sammi Sweetheart”, and finally, the most despised Angelina Pivarnick. It would be because of this said show that I would come to also stumble upon the term. It can also be noted that due to the popularity and success of this show, other branches like Geordie Shore, Floribama Shore, and Acapulco Shore that take place in other places in the world have also appeared as an option on the screens of reality tv viewers. So until watching the show, I had known nothing previously about the term having never heard it in the first place. After doing my research I would come to learn about a lot of things surrounding the word, however, nothing concrete considering the information was found on websites that were nothing short of being unreliable. All in all though one thing that I know that was concrete was the love for reality tv that I was left with after completing all 6 seasons of the show. For it provided me with all of the drama and relatability that I so craved.
