Jersey Circus

Jersey Circus

August 10, 2010, panel
Website jerseycircus.blogspot.com
Current status / schedule Active
Launch date August 7, 2010
End date Present
Genre(s) Comedy/Parody

Jersey Circus is a webcomic by a team of seven writers, six of whom are from Pennsylvania, launched in August 2010. It is a mashup of images from the long-running The Family Circus newspaper comic strip and dialogue from the popular MTV television series Jersey Shore.[1][2] The comic's title is a combination of the names of its parody targets.[2]

The creators of Jersey Circus state that their mission is to reconcile their "guilty delight in Jersey Shore, a bastion of trash" with their "eye-rolling fondness for the Family Circus."[3][4] Critically well-received and the focus of intense media scrutiny when it launched, the site stressed that it was a parody, not connected to either the comic strip or the television series in any way.

Contents

Art

The parody comics, like The Family Circus originals from which they are created, are a single circular panel with a line of Jersey Shore dialogue below the artwork plus occasional additional dialogue in the panel itself.[1][5] The art in Jersey Circus is taken from several different decades of the 50-year history of The Family Circus. The meme was reversed in an August 10, 2010, panel where the image was a photograph of a Jersey Shore cast member and the dialogue was lifted intact from a Family Circus panel.[6]

Critical reaction

Noting that "Family Circus is ripe for parody on the Internet," Megan Friedman of Time, said "There's something about the innocence of the comic's kids that just needs a little dark humor thrown in. Enter Jersey Circus, which gives little Jeffy some Jersey Shore flair."[1] Sarah Walker of VH1's Best Week Ever said that while it's "not the most original idea" that Jersey Circus "is still great".[2] Josh Jackson of Paste magazine noted the parody's broad appeal and that readers "don’t have to be a [Jersey Shore] fan" to "appreciate the discordant humor".[7] Mike Pomeranz, a researcher for Comedy Central's Tosh.0, is "not sure why it takes a team of seven writers to create these things" but describes the webcomic as "pretty fun".[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c Friedman, Megan (August 30, 2010). "Jersey Circus Gives Family Values Some GTL". Time. http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/08/30/jersey-circus-gives-family-values-some-gtl/. Retrieved August 31, 2010. 
  2. ^ a b c Walker, Sarah (August 30, 2010). "Jersey Shore Makes Family Circus More Circus-y". Best Week Ever (VH1). http://www.bestweekever.tv/2010-08-30/jersey-circus/. Retrieved August 31, 2010. 
  3. ^ Hartmann, Margaret (August 27, 2010). "What Happens When Family Circus Goes To Jersey Shore". Jezebel. http://jezebel.com/5623951/what-happens-when-family-circus-goes-to-jersey-shore. Retrieved August 31, 2010. 
  4. ^ "Our Mission". Jersey Circus. http://jerseycircus.blogspot.com/. Retrieved August 31, 2010. 
  5. ^ a b Pomeranz, Mike (August 30, 2010). "Family Circus Gone Guido". Tosh.0 (Comedy Central). http://www.comedycentral.com/tosh.0/2010/08/30/family-circus-gone-guido/. Retrieved August 31, 2010. 
  6. ^ "Act Proper". Jersey Circus. August 10, 2010. http://jerseycircus.blogspot.com/2010/08/act-proper.html. Retrieved August 31, 2010. 
  7. ^ Jackson, Josh (August 27, 2010). "Jersey Shore Meets Family Circus in Jersey Circus". Paste. http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/awesome_of_the_day/2010/08/jersey-shore-meets-family-circus-in-jersey-circus.html. Retrieved August 31, 2010. 

See also

External links