Two Jersey Boys Watch Jersey Shore

Joel Stein gets together with the bard of the Garden State, Kevin Smith, to assess the merits of MTV reality show Jersey Shore

Illustration: John Ueland for TIME; Smith: Michael Buckner / Getty

I deeply love New Jersey, though not enough to live there. So when I heard that MTV's reality show Jersey Shore has been portraying my home state as a pit of testosterone, salaciousness and vulgarity, I was furious to think that it might be an inaccurate presentation of New Jersey's testosterone, salaciousness and vulgarity.

To check, I asked director Kevin Smith, New Jersey's great chronicler in films such as Clerks and Mallrats , to watch the show and comment on its inaccuracies. Smith, who lives three miles from my house in Los Angeles, does not watch any reality shows...

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