CLASS CLOWN: “Jersey Shore” star Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi blows kisses at her speaking appearance this week at Rutgers, which paid her $32,000. (Saed Hindash/The Star-Ledger)
The pen is not mightier than the fist pump.
“Jersey Shore” hairspray junkie Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi proved that in the Garden State, it’s bet ter to be a drunken guidette than a Nobel Prize winner when she was paid $32,000 Thursday to speak at Rutgers University — $2,000 more than acclaimed writer Toni Morrison will get for this year’s commencement address.
The bouffanted beach bimbo’s fee came out of student- activity funds for her appearance at two Q&A shows at which she dropped meat balls of wisdom, such as “When you’re tan, you feel better about your self,” and “Study hard, but party harder.”
Meanwhile, Morrison will get only $30,000 to talk before some 50,000 people at the state school’s graduation this year.
When asked about the situation by The Post, Pulitzer winner Morrison, 80, dismissed Snooki’s higher fee, saying, “I don’t know her . . . and I don’t care.”
The “Song of Solomon” author also pointedly noted that she usually gets double her $30,000 Rutgers fee for appearances, but “I have some nostalgia about Rutgers because I used to teach there so, in effect, I cut my fee in half.”
Snooki appeared at two free shows Thursday night at the Livingston campus. Comedian Adam Ace acted as moderator while Snooki regaled the crowed with tales, including how she was cast on “Jersey Shore” after competing in a best-guidette contest at a bar.
Wearing a gold headband, she teased and styled one woman’s hair in her famous “poof,” saying, “The poof is its own living style.”
Later, when a man came onstage and did a wild dance, she exclaimed, “What the f–k!”
Snooki’s hefty fee was initially kept hush-hush by the student organization that hired her. When the price was revealed yesterday, some students fumed.
“I shouldn’t have to pay her out of my pocket to put on a show for a bunch of easily led automatons who think this is entertaining,” said economics major Pauline Bak, 19. “It’s embarrassing.”
Rutgers brass rushed to defend the decision to hire Snooki, saying no taxpayer money was involved and she was brought in only as an entertainment act. Also, not all the money will go to Snooki — some will go to Ace and to booking fees.
Videos of Snooki’s act showed the crowd cheering and laughing. But yesterday, few of the students who attended the show wanted to admit they had a good time.
“My friend thought we would be able to drink at the show because Snooki was there, but when we had to watch this sober it felt like we got conned,” said Nicole Reich, 21.
Mara Gahrmann, 18, claimed her friends dragged her there and said, “I don’t care at all about Snooki.
“We get such great talent here all the time like, Spike Lee and Toni Morrison,” Gahrmann said. “Snooki just talked about bronzer and hooking up on TV. And then we watched a girl get her hair done in a Snooki poof.
“It wasn’t exactly riveting.”
Last night. the boardwalk bubblehead seemed to be taking the criticism in stride, tweeting: “So much talk about me today Jeeze, keep it comin!”
Additional reporting by Frank Rosario