While home for winter break from college, I have been able to watch a lot more television than usual. Most recently, I have been enthralled by MTV’s Jersey Shore. While the show portrays the lives of a group of friends living at the Jersey Shore (in Seaside Heights), it fools viewers because none of the cast actually live there. Instead, only one of the characters (Sammi “Sweetheartâ€) actually lives in New Jersey—the rest live in different areas of New York. It is also notable that three of the eight characters are from Staten Island, NY. Therefore, the show is called Jersey Shore, but really it is only representing the habits of one small group vacationing there.
Though the show simply shows their day-to-day routines, such as clubbing at Bamboo and working on the boardwalk, I feel like I can outright say that it makes fun of their antics. Since this misleads viewers, I decided to look into how Judaism would stand on this issue. Should someone knowledgeable (which you are now) about this deception inform others or keep it to themselves?
I decided to look to the Jewish philosopher Maimonides who stated that the Torah has three goals. These are “to abolish wrongdoing between people, to foster noble moral virtues within the hearts of people, and to communicate certain correct beliefs.†While I could really relate any of these goals to the Jersey Shore issue, I think the last one addresses it best. The Torah, the prayer book Judaism is based on, is meant to instill morals that communicate accuracy. From this, I would gather that Judaism would advise the individual to correct their friend rather than continue to let them live a misleading life. Further, the Torah blatantly instructs for one to “distance himself from a false matter.†This simple favor for your friend requires very little effort, since you already know the truth.
This then leads me to question the purpose of Jersey Shore—entertainment. If someone knowledgeable like you were to tell their friends that most of the characters do not actually live at the Jersey Shore, would they stop being entertained? I really don’t think so, considering Jersey Shore is really just a reality TV show portraying the Jersey Shore stereotype at its finest. Viewers can still be entertained by the Jersey-shore-like antics, even if the characters do not live there full-time. However, I think recognizing the truth about the cast’s background gives them a little bit more justice while judging their antics. Next time you are watching or discussing Jersey Shore with a group, please take the chance to correct this fallacy. I realize that this particular issue is not all that important, but Judaism’s view on deception is useful to apply to future issues.
