Do not be alarmed if every store around Syracuse University is out of hair gel. After a weekend full of fraternities coincidently hosting ‘Jersey Shore’-themed parties, it is safe to say that many students gelled up for a night full of fist-pumping and hair poofs, as Syracuse transformed into Seaside Heights, N.J.

‘Jersey Shore’ is one of MTV’s latest reality television offerings, placing eight young adults in the same house while constantly filming their everyday experiences. As the name suggests, the show takes place in a beach house on the shore of New Jersey.

Accompanying the show’s popularity is bold backlash from the Italian-American community. Groups such as the New Jersey Italian American Legislative Caucus argue that ‘Jersey Shore’ is a negative portrayal filled with stereotypes of their culture.

As the latest television phenomenon closed out its first season last week, SU students decided to keep its spirit alive. Mimicking the characters on the show and celebrating their actions, the fraternities Zeta Beta Tau, Alpha Epsilon Pi, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Sigma Alpha Mu and Sigma Alpha Epsilon decided to host theme parties based on the popular reality program.

‘On what other show are you going to see a girl get punched in the face?’ said sophomore broadcast journalism major and AEPi brother Jake Levy.

Fellow sophomore broadcast journalism major and AEPi brother Greg Shillinglaw agrees. ‘I think it says something about the show, though, that everybody wants to have a ‘Jersey Shore’-themed party. If you think about it, people watch this show to mock these people.’

Shillinglaw said that the fraternity had originally come up with the idea for the theme party at the beginning of Winter Break and had cast member Paul DelVecchio, better known as ‘Pauly D.,’ slated to disc jockey the party. As the show’s popularity and DelVecchio’s notoriety rose, DelVecchio’s fee reached atmospheric heights and the fraternity was not able to have him come.

Preparing for a ‘Jersey Shore’ party is a simple affair, said freshman sport management major Michael Botwinick. ‘It’s very easy to dress up like that: You put a lot of gel in your hair and you wear a studded medallion shirt or something. It’s funny.’

Members of AEPi decorated their house to accurately portray the beach environment with beach balls, a lifeguard stand and the characters’ names adorned around the party room.

While imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, exceptions were made during the parties this weekend. ‘They look like tools, but they’re having a great time, and so everyone in Syracuse is going to get to do that for a weekend,’ Levy said.

Dressing up is only half the fun, though. Frank Cannon, a junior computer engineering major and disc jockey for the ‘Jersey Shore’ party held at SigEp, said that many students imitated the personalities and traits of the cast members. ‘It was ridiculous how people just completely got into character,’ Cannon said. ‘Everybody was fist-pumping. It was funny to watch.’

Of the entire cast, most males seemed drawn to emulate the style of ‘Pauly D.,’ Botwinick said. ‘There were way too many Pauly D. blowouts, way too many.’ The character gained a reputation among students for spiking his hair in a style called ‘the blowout,’ in which he gelled his hair to stand up in every conceivable direction.

Cannon said female partiers opted to sport ‘poofs’ in their hair, la cast member Nicole ‘Snookie’ Polizzi.

While the show is undoubtedly popular to the college-age demographic, five ‘Jersey Shore’ parties on the same weekend seems more than just a coincidence. In an effort to add variety to festivities, Phi Kappa Psi changed the theme of its party Friday night at the last minute.

‘We considered it – alot of people were really adamant about it, but clearly so was everyone else,’ said junior advertising and marketing major and Phi Psi brother Justin Perelli. ‘But we ended up throwing a rave to give people on campus another option.’

Opposition to the trend was also met on personal levels, as some students found the portrayals of Italian-Americans to be inaccurate. Botwinick, a New Jersey native, believes that the characters on ‘Jersey Shore’ were an exception to the rest of the population. ‘There are normal people that live in New Jersey, believe it or not,’ Botwinick said.

Regardless of the social stereotypes and outrageous hairstyles, the themes were chosen to provide a fun experience while commenting on a current cultural phenomenon.

‘Usually with theme parties, most people don’t dress up,’ Abelson said. ‘But this time people really wanted to do this and have fun with it.’

ansteinb@syr.edu

Asst. Feature Editor Talia Pollock contributed reporting to this article.

Published on January 24, 2010 at 12:00 pm