Once again New Jersey was the butt of Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update jokes.
They made jokes regarding anything from the supposed smell of New Jersey to how our woman are ugly to our supposed lack of intelligence. They had on “former Governor Spitzer” and “Governor Paterson”. “Paterson” made the comment that having sex with a prostitute without a condom was like driving through New Jersey in a convertible. They also made comments on how our women look, which is ironic because the call-girl that Spitzer was involved with was from New Jersey and he was willing to spend all that money on her.
Basically it’s sort of funny – Saturday Night Live and these late night talk show hosts and all these other people deserve our pity – not our outrage. They are so lame, they are recycling the same jokes from the 70’s. The thing that has changed regarding the weekend Update episode this time, versus others – this time people were actually booing the New Jersey jokes.
There was one joke that I agree with that “Paterson” told – filling in the tunnels. I’m all for it – 89% of New York’s new growth will draw workers from New Jersey – so let’s see how much that arrogant city can survive without the workers to fill their skyscrapers. I can guarantee you, if we filled in the tunnels, those businesses would come to where the workers are if the workers could no longer get to their jobs in the city.
So let’s go! Let’s fill in the tunnels, cut the bridges, eliminate this 2nd rail tunnel to no where – and then let’s see Manhattan on it’s hands and knees begging for forgiveness from New Jersey.
BTW – You also have to realize that New York, for all it’s outward appearance of being self assured is actually very insecure. New York is like the bully who doesn’t like itself – so it has to make fun of others and pick on them. It’s like New Yorkers making fun of the supposed New Jersey accent – when it’s really a New York accent – particularly Staten Island, Brooklyn and Long Island. But hey, they need something to make themselves feel good and superior. Hell, they try to claim they are the sports capital of America – if not in their arrogant way – the world. Let’s make a list here…
New York Teams
Mets
Yankees
Rangers
Knicks
Islanders (who are most likely moving to Kansas City)
(nothern) New Jersey Teams
Giants (New Jersey team who plays in East Rutherford – Corporate headquarters – Meadowlands)
Jets (New Jersey team who plays in East Rutherford – corporate headquarters – Florham Park NJ)
Red Bulls (Play in East Rutherford – new stadium being built in Harrison, across the river from Newark)
Devils
Nets (who are not going to be moving to Brooklyn, but most likely to Newark)
NJ Ironmen – MLIS (major League Indoor Soccer) Playing in Prudential Center
So while New York has two baseball teams, two hockey teams and a basketball team, northern New Jersey has two NFL teams, a hockey team, a basketball team, a major league soccer team and a major league indoor soccer team. So contrary what New York would like to think, northern New Jersey is the sports capital.
Let’s admit it though – it must be very hard to be New York having to constantly convince the world that you are the “THE thing to see” and live in the shadow of New Jersey – I mean just look at their slogan – “I Love NY”. Only a state/city with severe self esteem issues would constantly be asking for everyone to tell them that they “love” them all the time. Believe me – I’ve been to New York many times. I’ve shown many people around New York – only about 5% of the the city is forth seeing – it’s interesting how that part is the stuff that only anyone ever knows about. Yankee Stadium is in a crime invested Bronx. Shea Stadium, which has been replaced by the new corporately named stadium CitiField is in the middle of no where right next to LaGuardia Airport in Queens, yet it’s the Prudential Center in Newark that gets bad-mouthed. Of course we all know why the Prudential center gets bad-mouthed – New York doesn’t want people to realize how much better it is than their antiquated Madison Square Garden. They don’t want people to know how much better it is to see a show or sporting event in New Jersey than it is in New York. It’s like the Wizard of Oz telling Dorothy – “Don’t look behind the curtain”. Well New York doesn’t want people to look behind the curtain and see how much better New Jersey is - so the only thing left for them to do and to make them feel good about themselves – is to constantly make fun of New Jersey and New Jerseyans.
New Jersey is the cheap joke, because so many people know nothing about New Jersey. They fly into Newark and think they have seen New Jersey. Small minded people – you have to feel sorry for them.
So stand up with pride New Jerseyans – we don’t suffer from the self esteem issues that plague New York. We know who we are. We don’t need to constantly be begging for people to say they love us. We know what we have, we know we have the 1.1 million acre Pine Barrens, we know that New Jersey was the crossroads of the American Revolution, we know that most modern day conveniences from the lighbulb to the barcode were invented in New Jersey, we know we have 127 miles of beautiful beaches that New Yorkers seem to have no problem flocking to in the summer, we know we have the mountains of the northwest and of course we have the gambling capital of the East Coast – Atlantic City, with hotels and restaurants that rival anything found anywhere in Manhattan. We also know that that icon they try to arrogantly flaunt as their own, even though it was a gift to AMERICA, not New York, is actually standing in New JERSEY waters. Yes believe it or not – the Statue of Liberty stands in New Jersey waters just a few feet off our coast in Jersey City, NOT New York City.
Isn’t it funny how Saturday Night Live was making fun of our intelligence, when Carl Sagan came from New Jersey, Thomas Edison’s laboratory was in New Jersey and Einstein lived in Princeton?
Mr. Rosetta:
I agree wholeheartedly with you. As a life-long New Jerseyan and loyalist, the ways in we get dumped on annoy the hell out of me. I get tired of going to other states and hearing stupid New Jersey jokes from people who jump on “poor comedy bandwagons.”
If I may, this is a Facebook post of mine from last Memorial Day weekend which, I feel, demonstrates my love for the state:
We’re New Jerseyans — and We’ve Got Our Shore
Outside my window right now is a downright “New Jersey Miracle.”
Sunshine — and plenty of it.
The weather reports (at least some of the early ones I saw) had predicted possible rain and thunderstorms for this Memorial Day weekend, thereby (pun intended) raining on the Garden State’s official “First NJ Shore Weekend of the Summer” parade, but they had to know it wouldn’t go down.
Unless you are a New Jerseyan, have lived here, or are friends with a resident loyalist like me, you may not relate to this post. You see, when you’re from New Jersey, you get kicked — a lot. You get wisecracks from comedians — amateur and pro — who aren’t as funny as they think, and stomped on by folks from other states who, lots of times, have no idea what you’re like or all about.
Well, I’ll tell you what, whoever you are: I respect you. I respect your opinion, your comedic efforts, where you’re from — whether it be the plains, mountains, southeast, out west, wherever — everything about you. And, you know what, you can tell whatever Turnpike joke you wish, or spew venom about New Jersey traffic and smog, and I do care…but I don’t.
Because today, this weekend, this summer, and for as long as I’m here, I, and the rest of my NJ compatriots, have the Jersey shore. All 127 miles of it on the Atlantic, and rougly 60 more along the Delaware Bay.
We have other things as well. More farmland and mountains than you’d believe; the largest parcel of open land east of the Mississippi in the Pine Barrens; the oldest log cabin home in the western hemisphere, and the oldest road in the country; the glitz of Atlantic City, home of the first boardwalk; the nation’s oldest seashore resort in Cape May; Revolutionary and Civil War history, and more.
Yeah, I know, you probably have a lot of this as well, but you may not have the beach. If, however,you’re fortunate like me, you know it’s the place where you can walk for miles and not even know it. The place to head in the summer for amusements, swimming, sailing, surfing, the best dining — and maybe for falling in love.
But most of all, the beach is that special spot, in any season, where you can go for contemplation.
This is my 16,934th day on earth, and the shore was here long before me, and it will be here long after I’m gone. Life goes on with its ups and downs, and the waves keep crashing at the shoreline.
So this day — this blue sky, a few puffy white clouds, 83 degree, sunny day — is truly a Jersey shore day, and the sand is beckoning.
It’s good to know I have it near me…
Looks like you are wrong Nets are moving to Brooklyn. And did you pull that stat about the 89% of the workforce coming from NJ. That couldnt be more incorrect.
Just because they have overcome ONE lawsuit – doesn’t mean they are moving to Brooklyn. They need to get the financing in place by December 31st supposedly and until they actually dig a shovel into the ground – and I don’t mean a gold plated symbolic shovel – I;ll believe it when I see it.
You are right about the 89% of New York’s workforce coming from New Jersey. It should be 89% of the NEW GROWTH coming from New Jersey. It was a quote from Jeffrey M. Zupan, a senior fellow at the Regional Plan Association, a nonprofit advocacy group that focuses on open space, economic policy, transportation and housing which appeared in the Star Ledger and which you can read on our messageboard at – .Does NJ Need Another Rail Tunnel to New York
Here is the full quote…
I will correct the statement. The point still stands though, we don’t need the tunnel Manhattan does. While it creates temporary construction jobs for New Jersey, it is estimated to create 44,000 high paying permanent jobs in Manhattan. New Jersey should worry about attracting businesses to New Jersey’s cities and build our transportation networks to get OUR residents to OUR cities and stop catering to New York and Philadelphia.
Steve, I meant to thank you for sharing that. I had thought I had posted a response to you, but I guess I hadn’t. I’ve been to 40 states and lived in six of them, believe I have heard all the ignorant comments about New Jersey. Sometimes they are just ridiculous and it’s hard not to laugh, like when I lived in Oregon for two years and being asked if New Jersey has any trees. People truly have no idea what NJ has and it is because the media has worked very hard to paint New Jersey as the crappiest place in the nation. Well I can tell you – I’ve been all over the country, more places than probably 95% of Americans, and I CHOOSE to live in New Jersey. I know the REAL New Jersey and I LOVE it.
I totally agree with you.
Well, all I can say is, jokes are good and we need them to help us release the stress from whole day work. But everything has limitation. When it is already crossing the line, then it’s a different thing. It should not be tolerated.
oh yeah that’s absolutely true..