Response Post: Jersey Shore, ironic and hypocritical

I agree with Elona’s post in which she proved that can be seen as a social benefit. All the points were proven with fair and intelligent answers. While reading her blog, it made me realize how ironic Jersey Shore really is however. I mean, I do believe that MTV realizes the irony and likes poke fun at it while the cast members may not fully be aware yet the degree to which these people rate on the hypocrisy scale is nauseating. As mentioned, “guidos” and “guidettes” are typically people of Italian decent now living in North America, (though not all the cast members are…Jwoww I’m talking to you). Historically, Italians are Catholics which many of the people on the show claim to be by way of their large crucifix chains and religious iconographic tattoos, yet they go prowling on a nightly basis for girls who are willing to sleep with them after knowing them for about an hour and intoxicated. Numerous times has one character, Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino taken girls back to the house and when they said they would not like to engage in any sexual activity he literally threw them out.

Finding someone of a similar background to be in a relationship (or lack of judging by their track record) is also important to these characters. “Snooki” often talks about how she would like to find an “Italian juicehead”. One would think this would be because she would share the same tradition and culture as someone raised in a similar way, yet what it mostly comes down to is looks and style.

Finally, the cast of the show like to engage in a tradition called “Sunday dinner” where, yep, you guessed it all of them come together, cook dinner and sit down to a nice "family dinner”. While they claim to be close and have dinner together on the most sacred of days the other days of the week the guys and more recently the girls of the show can be seen getting into physical altercations with one another, bad mouthing the members of the cast they don’t like and stealing one another’s sexual prospects.

I’m not Italian yet something tells me that these factors have nothing to do with having said cultural background. It’s a shame that the cast of the show associate themselves so closely with this heritage when the two have really nothing in common.

Jesus Christ: Super Star

     Today's class was particularly interesting to me because Professor Harris spoke to us about film and the different ways it can relate to religion. We then proceeded to fill out a shot-by-shot analysis of David Fincher's, Fight Club. As a cinema studies major I found this exercise very enjoyable as it was mixing SMC305H1l's material with many things I have learned in my intro to film class.

     The exercise and the entire topic surrounding film and religion got me thinking of just how many movies use religious ideas, iconography and even religious humor. There are  obvious films such as Mel Gibson's, The Passion of the Christ, which strives to be as historically accurate as possible. This movie tells the plight of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion and is a guaranteed tear jerker. Then there are movies such as Kevin Smith’s Dogma which has a much lighter and comedic air about it. The movie tells the story of two angels who have been expelled from heaven and wish to re-enter via a loophole they have discovered. A woman who is unknowingly the descendant of Christ must stop them. I know it doesn’t sound like a knee-slapper, but trust me, like any Kevin Smith film it’s very funny. The beauty of this film (besides the hilarious script), is the fact that while being so funny in no way does it demean religion. In fact, after watching this one would come to believe that Kevin Smith is a devout Christian with a great sense of humor. The amount of research and pure knowledge of the Christian religion required of a person to have written this film is not on the light side. Not bad for a guy who created the characters Jay and Silent Bob (who I actually quite like).

    

     Basically, films depicting religion come in many forms. They can be serious and precise to the biblical stories or they can revamp the tales and modernize them. Either way it’s entertaining to watch and viewers can learn about Christianity in whichever version.