Explained in One Paragraph: The ‘Jersey Shore’ Franchise

If you’re a human fumbling along in the lower trenches of the internet, then you’re probably aware that “Jersey Shore Family Vacation” premiered this month on MTV, touted as a reunion of the now decade-old reality TV franchise. But what made the original so beloved or repugnant (depending on your tolerance for watermelon-tequila cocktails and self-aggrandizing catchphrases)?

Well, in short, 2009 was a simpler time: We were coming off the TMI voyeurism of The Real World, but hadn’t yet descended into full-on Housewives mania. And somehow, the idea of sticking eight overly tanned, self-described “guidos” in a house in Seaside Heights, New Jersey, seemed less like a recipe for disaster and more like an anthropological counterpoint to the polite hipster renaissance that was otherwise taking over. (Love you, Wilco.) But what ultimately took the series from curiosity to hit was the startling humanity exhibited. The guidos (and -ettes) looked out for one another: They sat down for family dinner every Sunday; when Snooki was punched in the face by a barrel-chested gym teacher, the entire cast came to her defense; when Vinny went to Sicily to visit his extended family, the others went with him. Yes, they were orange gym rats who spent 45 minutes gelling their hair and penning one terribly worded letter. But really, they were all of us.

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