Fred Armisen - time to ante up

In comedy, there are always safe bets.  Sometimes a comedian tries new material, and it bombs. For instance, talking about someone's race or a "too soon" joke may be risky.   But cracking on New Jersey?  It's an old forumla that continues to work well for Saturday Night Live:

I have written about these instances before. Read instance 1 and instance 2.  

It seems to me that the "safe comedic bet" continues to be the North Jersey Gateway Region Italian-American.  

Similar to how West Virginia gets stereotyped for being full of rednecks, New Jersey gets busted on for being mafiosos and guidos, not to mention some of the physical attributes like the turnpike and its environs. And in New Jersey: the Movie, we try to show that New Jersey is NOT just the opening scene of the Sopranos! 

However, I have friends that do embrace this stereotype.  They went to a high school packed with guidos and say simply, "That was MY New Jersey."  And they're damn proud Tony Soprano wandered around here. 

But for many New Jerseyans, that New Jersey is as foreign as Armisen's hometown on Long Island.

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Why is this relevant?  Well, The Real Housewives of New Jersey is going to be premiering on Bravo next month.  And with surnames like: Guidice, Laurita, & Manzo  - it will further cement this New Jersey stereotype to North America:

What is strange is that all the other housewives series were named after the county (Orange County) or the city (Atlanta, New York City).  

So why does Bravo lump a state together for the first time?  Why is ALL of New Jersey in the title when the series maybe should be called, "The Real Housewives of Bergen County?" 

Nothing against Bergen County, but even Bruce Willis and Jon Stewart acknowledged its uniqueness.  

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I think we need an apology for all of this.  Not so far as, Be Nice to New Jersey week; but something else.

Here is my proposition:

I have no doubt that Fred Armisen is the brains behind these writings on SNL.   He grew up somewhat locally and appeared in all 3 of the linked SNL skits above.  And I'm pretty sure you will see NJ parodied again on SNL  . . . once the housewives show hits the airwaves (and no doubt Armisen will be involved).  

So, I want Fred Armisen to ante up.  I would like to see him do some sort of apology to New Jersey on SNL.  For a state that has (rightly or wrongly) provided him with this bounty of jokes, it is the least he could do . . . seriously, Fred.

SNL busts on New Jersey . . . again

I have written on this blog how Saturday Night Live has busted on New Jersey before, and we even use a clip of Tina Fey from 2003 swiping a low blow at Atlantic City in our film.

But yesterday, during the last episode of 2008 for SNL, Fred Armisen, dressed up as New York Governor, David Patterson, swiped at New Jersey a couple times:

Now I don't know if this was as low as the previous times, because Paterson is legally blind, a fact SNL exploited during Amy Poehler's farewell:

Does this mean that SNL was actually defending New Jersey, citing that because Paterson is blind - he doesn't really know about the state?

Probably not, as you can see in rough clips from our film below, the only thing that seems to unite New Jerseyans is the disdain Philadelphians and New Yorkers seem to share of us:

Is it any coincidence that Fey is from a Philadelphia suburb and that Armisen is from Long Island? Hmmmmmm . . .

Well, we do give it back to our neighbors for 3 months in the summer time down the shore. I guess it's a symbiotic relationship . . . I guess.

Anyway, you can see more of what New Yorkers and Pennsylvanians think of New Jersey in our film . . . and it looks like the next showing will be in the New Brunswick area - as the voting above indicates!