'Jersey Shore' goes to Italy: The inevitable wisecracks

Yesterday, MTV announced that Snooki, The Situation, and friends would be shooting the fourth season of "Jersey Shore" in Italy. The news alarmed Italian-American interest groups, with Unico, the largest, telling TMZ that the stunt will hurt all Americans: "[The cast's] outrageous, reprehensible behavior will make us look like buffoons and bimbos." (Watch a report about the relocating.) Smirky cultural commentators, however, have welcomed the news. Here, a sampling of the snark:

The right leadership

"Italy is the country of Silvio Berlusconi, allegedly the only prime minister with a more smush-tastic personal life than the entire 'Jersey Shore' cast put together," says Darren Franich in Entertainment Weekly. "If he hooked up with one of the cast members, it would be the 15th craziest thing he has been accused of doing as prime minister."

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Lost in translation

"Gym, tan, and laundry" will sound a "whole lot sexier" in Italian, says Yvonne Villarreal in the Los Angeles Times. "Let's practice it now: Palestra, abbronzatura, and lavanderia."

Stone cold fox

"We'd love to see.. how The Situation's abs stack up... [to] Michelangelo's statue of David," says Sara Hammel in People.

Culture... or lack thereof

MTV says "the cast is headed to the birthplace of the culture they love and live by," notes Nadeska Alexis in BlackBook. But "last time we checked... grotesque use of hair gel, bejeweled attire, and a propensity to throw punches at your roommates and strangers does not make up the core of Italian culture."

(Un)natural disasters

"What? Mount Vesuvius didn't cause enough damage?" asks Peter Gicas at E! Online.

Ciao!

"How do you say 'deported, never to return again' in Italian?" asks Tim Surette at TV.com.