would you want to be famous?

[deadrats]

allow me to preface the question by sharing the following:

i'm from new jersey, born and raised and still living there. by now probably everyone has heard of the show "jersey shore".

when it first premiered i didn't see the show because i haven't watched mtv in years. within a few weeks it had become a cultural phenomenon and i couldn't stop hearing about it. i still didn't watch it because i kept hearing how stupid it is, how it made people from jersey look bad and so on and when south park parodied the show, i still resisted watching it. even when the characters of one of my favorite shows (supernatural) made a reference about "maybe we'll have a 'snookie' sighting" to which the other character replies "what's a 'snookie'"? to which the first says "i don't know", i refused to tune in to see what it was all about.

fast forward to this past weekend and i had nothing to watch and as i'm channel surfing i happen to land in the middle of a jersey shore marathon that mtv was running and i was just going to click through when i saw a chick brawl so i decided to stick it out for a few minutes to see what that was all about and that was the end of my weekend.

as i watched that episode i told myself i would change the channel when the commercial break came; it came and went and i was still glued to my tv. i told myself that i was going to change the channel as soon as that episode was done, that plan didn't work out too well, i think i spent the next 12 hours watching jersey shore reruns and when i woke up the next day i immediately tuned into the remainder of the marathon.

then i decided to learn everything i coulc about the show, how it's produced, anything i could find on the 'net and that got me thinking about the question "would i want to be famous" and would i want to be famous in the way that the cast of jersey shore is famous?

based on everything i could find, the cast was each paid 5 grand per episode in the first season, 10 grand per for the second season, the season in italy was supposedly 40 grand per and it's rumored that they demanded, and got, 100 grand per for the season currently being filmed in seaside heights.

to understand how ridiculous that dough is, consider that each season consists of 12 episodes and the cast spends 2 months (i think the first season was 6 weeks) living in a house on the boardwalk, with no tv, no cell phones, no internet and no radio (the cast members have claimed that this is why they go crazy and fight with each other) with cameras everywhere (the cast claims that they sometimes take 3 hour showers just to get away from it all); there's hundreds of people standing outside the house screaming all day long to try and get a look at them, and they have to work in the t-shirt shop under the house.

in terms of ratings, it's the highest rated show in mtv history, pulling in over 8 million viewers per episode, and people coming from all over the world to the boardwalk to catch a glimpse of the cast (many store owners in seaside heights say it's the best thing that ever happened to them, a Godsent and that it saved the numerous businesses on the boardwalk).

so, do guys think it would be something you would want, being on a reality show for the summer, making personal appearances (for stupid money) and being hounded by fans any place you go?

how long do you think you could take it before snapping and wanting to strangle someone? would you get tired of that life?

i personally think i would eat it up, i would love to be that famous, my only reservation would be that i would probably fall into a severe depression when it was invariably over.

[JimmyJoeBob]

Dead, put the rats down and backup slowly...........

[deadrats]

LOL, so i'm guessing your answer would be 'no'.

[yoda313]

I tried posting this earlier but I had an internet connection issue. So here it goes:

I don't think being on Jersey Shore is being "famous", more like "infamous" to me.

Reality shows may be more than "15 minutes of fame" but compared to REAL actors I guess its something. Is it something I'd want?

Not at that price.

If I could somehow cash in and not have my name out there in the world than hell yeah send me the check!

I don't think I'd like to have to constantly figure what the right thing is to say and what may offend some one or taken out of context. Granted I do that everyday as just being a good person but I don't have to worry about legal ramifications of slander or being banned from some show or network.

I don't think you could live a quote normal life after being famous. Except for the people that really do just get 15 minutes of fame like catching a shark or something you get on the news for a blip and then your forgotten. THat could work but real fame or infamy? I think I'll pass.

[deadrats]

@yoda

yeah, that dough is crazy, 100k per episode, 12 episodes per season and it only takes 30 days to shoot the season!!! that's sick money, 1.2 million for spending time at a beach house for a month, drinking, partying, chicks and 4 of them have already signed deals to have their own spin off reality series with mtv, not to mention all the endorsement deals they have worked out.

say what you want about the JS cast but they certainly managed to capture america's imagination and as a life long jersey-ite i think a lot of the animosity stems from jealousy, quite frankly i spent time in friend's beach homes and while not as extreme as these guys, it does come close to representing what a summer at a beach house down the shore is like, and i think for most people it's like "i had the same experience and i didn't get to be on tv or get rich from it, why should they"?

as i said, if it was offered to me the only thing that would make me think twice was the knowledge that i would probably fall into a severe depression when it finally came to an end; but if i knew that it would never end, i would totally jump at it.

[Joe The Dude]

Nope.
No reality shows for me, no matter the $.

[MeDiCo_BrUjO]

If you are going to give me one million dollars, you are more than welcome to make a show from me and make me look like an ass.

[deadrats]

that's pretty much how i feel, for a million bucks to spend 30 days in a house on the boardwalk at the beach, drinking, partying, getting laid and becoming famous from it, i would be willing to take one for the team and "suffer" for the artistic venture known as reality tv.

[intracube]

No way would I want to appear on a reality show.

I haven't actually heard of Jersey Shore. It is on MTV UK (I just checked), but I hardly watch the channel.

From your description, it sounds a bit like 'The Only Way Is Essex'. Although I would hope it's significantly less sh*t:

[deadrats]

jersey shore wishes it was as classy as that english program, though in all fairness that english program is boring as shit, i don't know how anyone can watch that week after week.