‘Jersey Shore: Family Vacation’: Is Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino the Modern Day Jim Halpert From ‘The Office’?
The Office was a mock documentary series that focused on the fictional employees of Dunder Mifflin. Meanwhile, Jersey Shore was a reality TV show about eight guidos who spent the summer in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. These two series might seem drastically different. But they’re more similar than you think, thanks to Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino — AKA the modern day Jim Halpert (John Krasinski).
‘The Office’ and ‘Jersey Shore’ are both shows about family
Actor Rainn Wilson played Dwight Schrute on The Office. Recently, he was a guest on Brian Baumgartner’s podcast The Office Deep Dive. In Wilson’s opinion, The Office remains a beloved series because it’s about “unlikely families.”
“[The Office] is the most unlikely family, and you love to be with that family,” Wilson says. Ironically, that’s what the cast of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation is — an unlikely family.
Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino breaks the fourth wall a lot just like Jim Halpert
Jim Halpert has been breaking the fourth wall since 2005. Krasinski started doing so because showrunner Greg Daniels wanted him to.
“I remember talking to Greg in the first week about how he saw Jim as the window for the audience into this office that everyone could watch [through],” he told Daily Actor. “But, they needed someone to tell them that it was OK to laugh at everything [and] see everything as a little bit ridiculous. To me, that was so much fun to play.”
Now, more than 10 years later, Sorrentino is doing the same thing for Jersey Shore: Family Vacation fans. During a phone conversation with Jenni “JWoww” Farley, Showbiz Cheat Sheet asked her about the similarities between her show and The Office.
“I love the fact that they always break the fourth wall,” Farley told us. “They always look at the camera, and that’s what Jersey Shore started doing years later.” Whether it’s to celebrate the arrival of food or to address the “besmudgery” of his roommates, Sorrentino has become known for making Jim Halpert eyes at the camera.
Mike ‘The Situation’ and Lauren Sorrentino’s relationship took a while to blossom like Jim Halpert and Pam Beesley’s
The Office fans are familiar with Jim Halpert and Pam Beesley’s (Jenna Fischer) will-they-won’t-they relationship. For nearly four seasons, the show kept audiences guessing about the fate of their unrequited love.
The same can be said for Mike and Lauren’s relationship. Fans didn’t get to see “The Situation” in a relationship during the early days of Jersey Shore, but his love for Lauren became a focus in Jersey Shore: Family Vacation.
After learning more about their on-again-off-again romance throughout college and the original Jersey Shore, many fans instantly wanted to see more from the couple. Like Jim and Pam’s relationship, Jersey Shore: Family Vacation fans got to see Mike and Lauren’s engagement and wedding ceremony. Now that the couple has welcomed their son Romeo Reign into the world, fans hope future episodes will feature his birth story.
The ‘Jersey Shore’ cast brings comfort to viewers like the cast of ‘The Office’ does
The Office nor the original Jersey Shore are on television anymore. Still, that doesn’t mean their fandoms have gone away.
Many people still turn to The Office or old episodes of Jersey Shore for comfort. “There’s something happening right now where everybody is so fragmented and so divided,” Office editor Jen Celotta explained on Baumgartner’s other podcast, An Oral History of The Office.
Jersey Shore fans share a similar sentiment. “Jersey Shore was my show as a teen,” a fan said on Reddit. “It was something I looked forward to when I had a rough week in high school.” Watching the show allowed this fan to “forget about everything.”
