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MTV's latest reality series, Jersey Shore, has some people—such as really humorless Italian-Americans—pretty pissed, as you may have heard. Before the show even debuted, Unico National, the same group that repeatedly criticized HBO over The Sopranos, issued a statement to the media lambasting the program. It's since lined up support from several other Italian-American community groups and convinced at least two advertisers—Domino's and American Family Insurance—to stop advertising on the show.

The cast of the show is rising to its defense. Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, for one, says that what many people don't realize is that calling someone "guido" is actually a compliment. ("These days in New York and New Jersey a "guido" is a good-looking Italian male that likes to have fun and a "guidette" is a good-looking Italian girl.") Who knew?

Such eloquent explanations have done little to quell the controversy, for whatever reason. In today's Post, it was TV critic Linda Stasi's turn to open fire, describing Jersey Shore as the "most hateful, anti-Italian-American show ever allowed on legitimate TV," responsible for "furthering the popular TV notion that Italian-Americans are gel-haired, thuggish, ignoramuses." (Stasi's argument that die-hard Italian-Americans from Jersey aren't thuggish ignoramuses may have been undercut a bit by the news today that MTV has been besieged with death threats over the show, and the network is now "in the process of hiring more security in bodyguards.")

Stasi does on to tear into Tony Di Santo, the MTV exec who oversees programming on the network, for giving the show the green light, accusing him of betraying his people and suggesting he even consider change his last name.

There are few occasions when Spencer Pratt actually says something sensible, but this might be one of them:

Linda Stasi you should change your name to Linda Boring if you can't be entertained by young Italian-Americans enjoying youth and partying!

'Shore' fire [NYP]
Jersey Shore star talks about MTV's controversial series [EW]
MTV Staff Getting Death Threats Over 'Jersey Shore' [Fox News]
Previously: Confessions of a Real New Jersey Guido [Cityfile]