Like any other New Jerseyan, I have had to go through my
life listening to the endless amount of New Jersey jokes. It doesn’t matter if
you are watching TV, at a comedy show or on vacation, a New Jersey joke comes up at some point. Now, if you go to college in any state or country other than New Jersey, you can definitely count on being heckled for being from New Jersey. Although countless New Jersey stereotypes exist, the following are the most common stereotypical questions that other students have asked me and my other friends who are from Jersey.
1. "New Jerseyans are just a bunch of fist pumping Italians, right?"
The reality television show, "Jersey Shore," gives the state of New Jersey a bad rep. Even before the show aired in 2009, New Jerseyans were stereotyped as a state full of Italians; but after that, the joke just snowballed until the world started to view New Jerseyans as fist-pumping, crass, loud and abrasive Italian Americans with “Gym, Tan, Laundry (G.T.L.)” as their personal philosophies. In reality, New Jersey is as much of a melting pot as New York City.
2. "Oh, you're from New Jersey? Are you friends with Snooki, Pauly D, JWoww, or The Situation from the "Jersey Shore" cast?
I’m assuming that the people who ask this question just get enjoyment out of making fun of New Jersey, but I’ll state the obvious. New Jersey is one of the most densely populated states in the country, and out of the millions of people that live in New Jersey, I am not buddy-buddy with anyone a part of the "Jersey Shore" cast. Asking someone from New Jersey if they are friends with Snooki is like asking someone from Massachusetts if they chill by the pool with Mark Wahlberg (I have nothing against Marky Mark, by the way). As a side note, none of the "Jersey Shore" cast members that are listed above are even from New Jersey. Pauly D is from Rhode Island, and the other three are from New York.
3. "Which exit on the Jersey Turnpike do you take to get to your house?"
The Jersey Turnpike is the highway that most out-of-staters take to travel through New Jersey. Unfortunately, it travels through the areas that give New Jersey a bad reputation. As a result, the turnpike has been called “the gates of hell.” Because the majority of out-of-staters only take the Jersey Turnpike when they travel through New Jersey, they think that all New Jerseyans live off of one of its exits in some God-forsaken wasteland. I can tell you for a fact that not everyone lives off of or close to the Jersey Turnpike (I don’t).
4. "How do you like living in the armpit of America?"
If you have never been to New Jersey or you have only had the “pleasure” of passing through on the Jersey Turnpike, then you probably picture New Jersey as a post-apocalyptic, smelly, polluted wasteland where plants are unable to grow and animals are unable to thrive. Do you know why many people think exactly this? It’s because that is all you see from across the Hudson River in New York City, out the windows of the Newark airport, and on either side of the New Jersey Turnpike. If you get off of the New Jersey Turnpike and travel farther and farther away from New York City, Newark, Jersey City, Rutherford and Camden you will find yourself in a nice suburban areas where the grass is green, the birds are chirping and the water is clean. As you travel further away from the New York City/Newark area, the landscape looks more and more like a fly-over state. If you don’t believe me, look up some pictures of Bergen and Hunterdon County, New Jersey. I promise that you will see exactly what I am talking about.
5. "If you are from Jersey, why don't you have a Jersey accent?"
This one always makes me laugh. I cannot tell you how many times someone has asked me why I do not have a New Jersey accent. What the majority of people do not know is that there is no such thing as a New Jersey accent. If people say they are from New Jersey, and they pronounce “coffee” as “cawfee,” or dog as “dawg,” they are usually from North Jersey and belong in one of three categories:
- They live in North Jersey and are originally from Long Island, Staten Island, Brooklyn or another New York City borough.
- One or both of their parents are from Long Island, Staten Island, Brooklyn or another New York City borough.
- They woke up one day and decided that it would be cute to talk that way.
People also think that a South Jersey accent exists. Similarly to the North Jersey accent, this also does not exist. The southern New Jerseyans, who sound like they have an accent, really have adopted a Philadelphia accent. Oh, and one more thing, no one (and I mean no one) pronounces “New Jersey” as “New Joisey.” I don’t know how that became a thing, but I have never heard anyone pronounce New Jersey that way.
