Yesterday I suggested that MTV should follow mega-hit reality show Jersey Shore with a show documenting the truculent Boston-area folks known affectionately as Massholes . Last night’s 30 Rock should provide the network with extra assurance that Massholes are the next “it” subculture. Liz Lemon and crew moved TGS to Boston for an episode—mostly so that Jack Donaghy could pursue his married high-school sweetheart, Nancy Donovan (played with a brutally thick Beantown accent by Julianne Moore). They find their new office teeming with sports-lovin’, ill-tempered Massholes.
Liz enters the office to find Kenneth the page getting the snot kicked out of him by several burly guys. “These gentlemen are the writers for Bruins Beat , whose office we’ll be sharing,” Kenneth informs her. “They are all named Sean, they are mean, and I hate it here.”
There are a few other great Masshole jabs (Jack to Nancy: “Your neighbors named their daughter ‘Belichick’!”) and some wonderfully specific local detail (references to Chet and Nat, Marina Bay and Kelly’s Roast Beef). When Nancy tells Jack that her husband has left her, she says, “He wants to go to New Orleans and get on that b.s. Saints bandwagon…sniff…go Pats!” You see, even in a time of grave crisis, a true Massholina remembers where her loyalty lies: with Tom Brady. Hopefully Nancy’s character is a recurring one, so we can get a small weekly dose of Masshole flavor to tide us over til production starts on Corporation Beach .
