I’ve never exactly gotten the allure of The Three Stooges. Sure I chuckled here or there, but why they were considered comedic geniuses was always lost on me. The Marx Brothers, sure, but The Three Stooges? Not so much.

Despite my lack of understanding of their popularity, there is no doubting that they have a huge cult following to this day. The Farrelly Brothers – best known for crude humor films such as Dumb & Dumber – have been trying to put together a new movie of the Stooges since 1996, and it finally took form when they locked in Chris Diamantopoulos as Moe, Sean Hayes (Will & Grace) as Larry and Will Sasso (Mad TV)as Curly.  The film is now set for an April 4, 2012 release.

The first image I saw of the actors in make-up was fairly impressive, and while I was sure the humor still wouldn’t be my cup of tea, it gave me some hope for a decent movie for those craving it.

… then the trailer hit.

What you see below is the first official trailer for the film, and I do have to applaud the three main leads because it really looks like they captured the essences of the originals, but jokes about the iPhone, nuns in super-sexy swimsuits and … worse of all … an appearance by Snooki of Jersey Shore fame just made my blood run cold.  The first two could almost be forgiven, but why in the world would they include any references to this talentless pop culture icon?  Simple: they think it can lure in “the kids.”  Instead what they’ve done is slapped the long time fans in the face and made a horribly dated reference that will make this movie play badly in five to ten years when someone watches at home.  ”Who’s Snooki?  I don’t get this!”  I have seen this happen time and time again in comedies that make timely references, and what you may have enjoyed at the moment plays badly years later, but who cares so long as you fill theater seats, right?

See for yourself and fear it.

I thought when I came to England I would see all sorts of great British shows I haven’t seen yet, and instead I’m finding a wasteland of reality shows. Case in point: Geordie Shore.

I had heard of this copy of the American Jersey Shore trash, but guess what? It’s worse. How is that possible? Easy, you add in unbleeped cursing and nudity.

Yep, nudity. In the five or so minutes of I’ve been watching this – mostly out of shock – I’ve already seen one of the main girls flash her breasts out a group of guys, and, no, they weren’t blurred out.

While I don’t really care about nudity being shown, considering the target crowd for this shore and I’m just … wow.  Really?  And what makes it even better?  Now there’s a Toys R’ Us commercial on during this.  It’s 11:41 PM here on a Monday night and I’m seeing breasts and commercials for toys … just who is this show targeting?!?

Oh, okay, now they’re in a strip club …

To the people of England, I apologize on the behalf of the United States.  This may be the worst thing we have ever done to you.

And just as I finish this post, the preview for the next episode shows one of the girls taking off her bikini top and shaking her breasts … really, I’m sorry.  So, so sorry.