MAMA MIA: Vinny Guadagnino and mom Paola star in a talk show set in their Staten Island kitchen. (
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In case you thought minstrel shows died with Al Jolson, think again.
MTV, the network that was once devoted to music and then became devoted to ethnic stereotyping by bringing the world “Jersey Shore,” is once again trying to bring back that old black cafone magic by bringing back yet another alum from that show.
MTV just can’t get past the past.
This time it’s “The Show With Vinny,” featuring Vinny Guadagnino, who brings the famous and infamous — like Lil Wayne, Mark Walhberg, and Internet sensation Jenna Marbles — to his mother’s home in Staten Island.
Why? Let’s be brutally honest here.
It’s so the famous can visit the wildlife in its natural habitat.
Think of it as a safari to Staten Island in which rich people go to observe the exotic game, photographing themselves living on the wild side.
Mama Paola, the guiding force in Vinny’s family, acts like she was raised during the Roosevelt administration. ((She posed for a publicity photo for the show wielding a loaf of Italian bread like a bat with a giant bouffant that went out with Nixon.)
All Paola seems to do is cook and say things like, “He likes the sawsij-and-peppas.”
To which someone else replies, “How about the rice bawls?” Riveting.
Vinny’s sisters are mostly there as background for people like Uncle Nino, a man who is constantly walking around with his shirt unbuttoned, being loud and crude.
Thanks to MTV, such behavior has tragically become America’s concept of Italians. Hey kids, feed the animals so we can hear them roar, and watch them mate.
That said, Vinny (who likes to add “right now” after most sentences) can be a pretty engaging guy. Which means there’s no reason on earth we need to see him in the house with his family as though this were “My Favorite Year 2.”
When Vinny is one-on-one with his guests, as he says at the opening, he isn’t Jay Leno.
But he is pretty funny. I like him. He doesn’t need his family to sell a show.
For example, when he asks Lil Wayne what his most important tattoo is, and Wayne talks about his late stepfather, it’s touching and sweet, as well as interesting.
Internet sensation Jenna Marbles — whose YouTube channel features self-made videos like “How To Trick People Into Thinking You’re Good Looking” — is a huge bore at the dinner table.
But things pick up and get hot again when Vinny and Jenna go into his “man cave” in the garage or the basement or someplace.
After some chit-chat about her incredible success, he starts, as he would say, “hitting on her right now,” by telling her he had a 3.9 GPA.
After she gets naughty, he then clumsily tries to make out with her. It’s ridiculously silly.
Yes, when Vinny’s alone with his guests, it is really fun. I like him.
And to say that, I’m shocked right now.