2. Jersey Shore Is SUBculture, Geordie Shore Is POPULAR culture
Oh dear, the mark of an amateur is, indeed, failing at the pivotal moment, sigh! Im sorry but when it comes to moulding the Geordie culture, our Newcastle mob are woefully inadequate. Part of the thrill of Jersey Shore was the newness of it, the discovery of this hidden neo-Italian American, Guido lifestyle. One thing the Jersey folk knew how to do, and well, was to brand their Guido-ness. From their daily GTL mantra (Gym, Tan, Laundry) to their odd dance rituals of fist-pumping and beating up the beat. From blow-outs and poufs to gorilla juiceheads and grenades and from gender cliques the Meatballs and MVP, Jersey Shores cast offered a plethora of interesting new phrases, euphemisms and insults which made us cringe and crease ourselves at the same time. Sadly, this has never really been the case with the shows British drunker, more inappropriate cousin. Although, I think Vicky, at least, deserves special mention for her attempts to brand the Geordie. She is a smart girl who knows exactly what shes doing (she is apparently a university graduate) and has carefully crafted a working-class, Geordie-dun-good image for herself which she perfects by throwing out impressive vocabulary such as euphoric and ostentatious amongst her colourful expletives. After all, she was the one to introduce the phrase, tashing on (snogging basically) and found any excuse to use it throughout the first couple of series. She implanted phrases such as pet, alreet and gaan into her speech and even set about entangling herself in a Sam-Ron-esque romance in the first series, with hapless Neanderthal, Jay. She, at the very least, knows how to play the game and what the Jersey Shore audience in Britain want out of her show. I wouldnt be surprised if she sits with a pen, pad and a dictionary in her downtime and storyboards her narrative for each series. However, now in Series Five, even she seems to have become weary.