The millions of soccer moms who may have previously been unaware about the smushing that occurred on MTV Thursdays at 10pm were introduced this morning to the cast of Jersey Shore on NBC’s Today show.

It went pretty much how you’d expect – the cast members were themselves, and Meredith Vieira conducted the anthropological exploration as a curious outsider.

Dave Itzkoff of the New York Times reports that MTV emailed out a press release at 1:33 am Friday night announcing that the full cast Jersey Shore will be returning for a second season. The second season is planned to air this summer, but the press release warns that the cast will “escape the cold Northeast and find themselves in a new destination.” This does raise the question of why the show should even be called Jersey Shore any more.

If past episodes have been about adventures in love, this episode was about adventures in war.

War between hippos and elephants and grenades and Snookis. War between Ronnie and random guys at the bar. War between Ronnie and Sweetheart (who acted enormously unsweetened this week). And of course, there were Situations.

New Jersey is not happy with its portrayal on MTV’s popular new reality show Jersey Shore, and its lawmakers are stepping up to take action.

Seriously, there are lawmakers in New Jersey who have the time to focus on this show. Here’s their beef.

Unless you live in a lead-encased cave, you’ve heard all about the punch that decked Snooki, the tiniest cast member of MTV’s controversial new reality show, Jersey Shore. After showing the punch in previews for episode 3, MTV high-mindedly redacted the blow from the actual episode, and ran a PSA-style disclaimer at the end of the show.

“Violence against women in any form is a crime,” the message began, followed by information about getting help for domestic abuse. Scenes from the next episode followed, including this example of MTV’s new commitment to preventing violence against women:

Ronald Russo* from the Bronx is a simple man who lives by one rule. Literally, he has only one rule. “You don’t fall in love at the Jersey Shore,” he says in what looks like an audition tape.

But do you know what happened last night on Jersey Shore? Ronnie broke his rule. And he cried uncontrollably.