I do appreciate The Situation's branding skills, though

I have plenty of guilty pleasures, and I frankly don't feel guilty about them. At some point can't we all just admit that something brings us unabashed joy and comfort? Why can't I just dig Phil Collins, you know? Why do I have to defend that? And I love plenty of shitty, this-is-the-end-of-culture-seriously-Nero's-fiddling television. But I cannot get into Jersey Shore. I think it's because they're so self-aware: I like my human freakshows more deluded. But Jen loves it and it's on a lot (it's what she calls "fish tank" TV, she can just have it on while she's answering email and sewing costumes). So I know it well enough that I find this mashup deeply hilarious and strangely appropriate: the coming together of, arguably, the two most vacuous examples of low American culture, but from the exact opposite ends of the spectrum: The Jersey Circus.