O Canada, for shame: Canucks hope to cash in on Jersey Shore phenom

Lest anyone think that boozing, fighting, tanning and generally trashy behavior is native only to Americans, Canada (late to the party, as usual) has concocted their answer to the Jersey Shore. And it's called, ingeniously, Lake Shore. Clever, eh? The yet-to-be picked up by a network reality show will feature young, fame-hungry Canucks partying, brawling and engaging in creepy yet somehow captivating sexual encounters...essentially emulating their Jersey predecessors in every possible way. But wait! There is one big difference between them. While the Jersey Shore cast took every possible opportunity to mention their Italian roots (even the ones who don't actually possess any--the adopted Snooki's roots are apparently in Chile or somewhere else far from the Amalfi Coast) the would-be stars of Lake Shore are being publicized as an international house of mancakes (and ladycakes.)

So much so, in fact, that it borders on flat-out racism. The cast is set to include, among others, "The Pole", "The Albanian", "The Jew" and a Vietnamese nicknamed, subtly, "Annie Mei." The Pole was quick to point out that she discriminates without discrimination: "I'm not racist. I hate everybody equally. Especially Jewish people." Yikes, wonder what The Jew thinks about all that.

It all sort of makes you wistful for The Situation, whose biggest crime is hating on ugly chicks. Lake Shore has undeniably picked the prime time to rear its gelled head, however. Jersey Shore Season 2 has just drawn to a close and we're going to need something to take its place while the guidos are on hiatus, doing whatever it is that they all do when they're not suckling at the poisonous teat of MTV. We're not above it. And while America would like to be able to smirk and say "Blame Canada!" it seems that, alas, we started it.