For those who have erroneously questioned whether these Jersey Shore stars actually do anything, in part because of their obvious poor work ethic in their appointed summer job at the t-shirt store – you were proved wrong on New Years Eve. Pauly D showed just why people call him “DJ Pauly D” – bringing the house down at Karma as only he could. But the true star of the episode was The Situation – and his various anti-climactic situations with females.

Thanks to MTV’s Jersey Shore, the humble little town of Seaside Heights, New Jersey, is now the center of the pop-culture universe. The show has been the subject of protest, controversy, mockery, and obsessive recaps by Steve Krakauer. The town is getting a priceless amount of free advertising, albeit to drunken, promiscuous, brawl-prone twenty-somethings.

What was the the town like in the time of this year’s other pop-culture phenom, Mad Men? Mediaite has the goods on “Jersey Shore: 1960.”

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.

One of the best reactions I’ve seen to MTV’s apocalyptic case study in guidodom known as Jersey Shore came from a high school friend of mine on Facebook: “Jersey Shore is bs. They are all from NY.”

No one wants to be associated with this – including the state of New Jersey as a whole. But it happened, and two hours of reality TV later, we now live in a world where this exists. Let’s spend an inordinate amount of time reliving the experience.