Back when we first reported on Party Down South—the latest argument for eugenics from the producers of Jersey Shore to be set among the earthy, down-home douches of the American South—we cynically branded it a “redneck reality show” that would be based on the exploitation of people with funny accents getting liquored up and occasionally banging or punching each other. How wrong we were! “It’s not ‘Redneck Jersey Shore,’ ” a source close to the show tells The Hollywood Reporter. “We’re looking to have viewers laughing with the cast, not at them. We want a cast of funny people with stories to tell.” Ah, so it’s like A Prairie Home Companion, only with slightly more vomiting.
In keeping with that “no, we’re laughing with you” philosophy, the show has just been picked up by Comedy Central, which will add Party Down South to the very short roster of actual reality shows it’s aired, like the similarly sympathetic I’m With Busey. According to the network, Comedy Central executives “realized that Jersey is only a couple of edits away from being a flat-out comedy” anyway, which suggests we may be watching it wrong, because we thought it already was. (It is, right?) Anyway, if you’re worrying that translating Jersey into a self-aware satire will somehow compromise the integrity of watching people debase themselves for fleeting fame, you can stop: The producers have plenty of other, ostensibly non-mocking variations on their ’roided-out cash cow in the works, including shows like the Boston-based Wicked Summer and the L.A.-set Persian Version that—along with the recently announced K-Town—will help us find that rainbow connection, then fuck it.