Getting parodied on SNL is a sign that you have arrived. MTV's recently concluded The Jersey Shore has been a guilty pleasure to many (myself included). The Twittersphere is alighted by their every appearance -- usually embarrassing -- in the tabloids. And in the coming days, as Fashion Week unfolds, there will be further buffoonery as the cast takes their place in the tents and at the after parties.

We know, of course, how this all ends. It will be cruel. In another couple of months -- a year at most -- the cast of Jersey Shore will no longer be amusing. The blush will be off the rose. Their "appearance fees" will drop dramatically until, finally, there is no longer a felt need to "party" with the cast. In five years time there will be a "Where Are They Now?" piece -- on Access Hollywood, or in a magazine -- and we'll all have a chuckle about that moment in time.

But what about the present? The Italian-American organization UNICO National believes the premise of the show traffics in negative stereotypes. "We find this program alarming in that it attempts to make a direct connection between 'guido culture' and Italian-American identity," National Italian American Foundation President Joseph Del Raso told The Daily News. I found myself asking: Does this show stereotype Italian-Americans? No intelligent adult would see the representations depicted on the show as anything other than a light-hearted reality program/ comedy. But what about the use of the word "guido" on the show? "It depends on who's saying it," Roberto Galante told The News. "If an Italian is calling another Italian it, then, no, it's a joke."

I don't know if I'd feel the same way about the use of the N-word (even ending with an 'a'). If you recall, Viacom -- which owns MTV and VH1 -- also gave the racially loaded Flavor Flav his own cringe-inducing show. There was, predictably, a media debate. But that debate was background noise to the show's producers because all they care about is ratings. "The show's first-season finale in March drew nearly six million viewers, making it the highest-rated show in the cable channel's history," wrote The New York Times. My take on Flavor of Love at the time before it ran its pop-cultural course was that, yes, he was -- and is -- a terrible role model, but he is also clearly not representative of all African-Americans. And neither are the Jersey Shore cast representative of all Italian-Americans.

Of course, Flavor of Love went off the air years ago, and now Flava Flav is more of a distant memory than a cultural zeitgeist. And regardless of the appearances, the controversy, or the parody videos, so too will go the residents of The Jersey Shore someday.