# What's up with New Jersey? Why is it the butt of so many jokes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 21, 2006, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-new-jersey-why-is-it-the-butt-of-so-many-jokes/381237 "2006-11-21T02:24:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Merhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Merhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merhouse)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2006, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-new-jersey-why-is-it-the-butt-of-so-many-jokes/381237/81 "2006-11-22T23:41:26Z")
[QUOTE=Nothing Special] Big problem is that the 2 main thoroughfares in the state, I-95 and the Jersey Turnpike, run through much of the worst industrial sections that New Jersey has to offer. Many people never see anything other than this. [/QUOTE] Bingo has been called, and though you’re not the only one who’s said this, yours was the easiest to quote 😉 I grew up on (in?) LawnGuyland, always thought NJ was a hell hole. Then I moved there and found out you don’t get to see the nice parts easily, because, well, then it would become just like the places you tried to get away from in the first place 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-new-jersey-why-is-it-the-butt-of-so-many-jokes/381237/82 "2006-11-23T02:30:53Z")
[QUOTE=Loach] Hunderton County is a horrible horrible place. Ugly and full of nasty people. There is disease and pestilence and frogs raining from the skys. There is no need to go there. Don’t even think of building a new house there, it’s all full. In fact lets just take it off the map, nothing to see here move along. I didn’t even mention the C.H.U.D.s [/QUOTE] Hey, at least the C.H.U.D.'s can **spell** [Hunterdon County](http://www.co.hunterdon.nj.us/). 😉 I used to take the West Hunterdon Bus Company ride from Port Authority to Doyelstown, PA. In 1981, it cost me $ 4.50 one way. You could not do that ride for gas OR tolls for four fiddy and there I was, using it to get back home many a-weekend. It was a beautiful ride and though a lot of that farmland has become ticky-tacky townhouse bundles and McMansions, there is still a lot to enjoy on that ride. Agreed- NJ is very lovely in many areas. I’m above the northern border, and crossing into it near Greenwood Lake, or driving out near Dover or Summit or Franklin Lakes, gosh, it’s gorgeous. Cape May doesn’t suck either. 😃 Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-new-jersey-why-is-it-the-butt-of-so-many-jokes/381237/83 "2006-11-23T05:02:19Z")
[QUOTE=Loach] It’s not near the Turnpike. It’s off Rt29 not too far from where the Trenton Thunder play. [Lower Trenton Toll Supported Bridge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_Trenton_Bridge) [/QUOTE] It’s best viewed from the US1 bridge, and the Trenton Makes was free when I lived in Levittown. (15 yrs ago) Trenton Thunder games are great-a wonderful ballpark, I’d add. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tartuffe52](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc29f/32.png) [@Tartuffe52](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tartuffe52)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-new-jersey-why-is-it-the-butt-of-so-many-jokes/381237/84 "2006-11-23T05:39:26Z")
[QUOTE=SmackFu] I once lived in NJ, and now live in Connecticut. It shows me how arbitrary these things are. Connecticut’s cities are just as bad as New Jersey’s. Route 1 in CT has just as many strip malls as Route 24 or 46 in NJ, and just as much stupid traffic. I-95 has just as much commuter traffic as I-80. On the other side, NJ has lots of rich areas out in Morris and Sussex, and just as much empty farmland. Yet Connecticut has a great reputation, and NJ is horrible. [/QUOTE] I once spent a summer in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey and thought it lovely. There was a forest and a stream that actually had fish in it. I think that it takes a bad rap because Connecticut is too hard to say properly…and the spelling is a nightmare. LOL ---
**Author:** ![catsnharps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@catsnharps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catsnharps)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2016, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-new-jersey-why-is-it-the-butt-of-so-many-jokes/381237/85 "2016-06-19T22:47:52Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > Pre-industrial Bayonne was actually sort of a nice old town to be from. A couple of my minor cultural heroes came from there: Dave Harris, saxophonist with the [Raymond Scott Quintette](http://nfo.net/usa/rayscott.jpg), and Al Protzman, television’s first [technical director](http://www.mediacollege.com/employment/television/td.html). aL Al Protzman was my father. I’d love to get in touch with whoever originally posted this. Yes, he was TV’s first technical director with NBC. He also was a cameran at one time. In the30’s he was head sound man for Fox Films.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2016, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-new-jersey-why-is-it-the-butt-of-so-many-jokes/381237/86 "2016-06-19T22:55:08Z")
> [@catsnharps](#): > > aL > > Al Protzman was my father. I’d love to get in touch with whoever originally posted this. Yes, he was TV’s first technical director with NBC. He also was a cameran at one time. In the30’s he was head sound man for Fox Films.🙂 Just click on **Beware of Doug** ’s name and you can PM him. He was active on the board as of this morning. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2016, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-new-jersey-why-is-it-the-butt-of-so-many-jokes/381237/87 "2016-06-19T23:27:53Z")
There’s nothing wrong with Jersey other than the Northeast corridor smells really bad, its major cities are hellholes, most of its drivers are clueless and dangerous, and my brother-in-law and his wretched family live there. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2016, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-new-jersey-why-is-it-the-butt-of-so-many-jokes/381237/88 "2016-06-19T23:46:23Z")
Hellholes? Boston? New York? Philadelphia? Bit of an overstatement, isn’t it? Given the contributions they’ve made to culture and society? Given the vibrant social and cultural lives that they offer now? ---
**Author:** ![Jrubas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/278dde/32.png) [@Jrubas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jrubas)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-new-jersey-why-is-it-the-butt-of-so-many-jokes/381237/89 "2016-06-20T00:26:15Z")
Staten Island also has a bad reputation if I’m not mistaken. I tend to think of it as having been called New York’s trashcan or something. I can’t quite remember. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-new-jersey-why-is-it-the-butt-of-so-many-jokes/381237/90 "2016-06-20T00:31:37Z")
> [@Jrubas](#): > > Staten Island also has a bad reputation if I’m not mistaken. I tend to think of it as having been called New York’s trashcan or something. I can’t quite remember. That would probably have been due to the Fresh Kills Landfill — [https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/344039858\_1280x720.jpg](https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/344039858_1280x720.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-new-jersey-why-is-it-the-butt-of-so-many-jokes/381237/91 "2016-06-20T01:40:56Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Hellholes? Boston? New York? Philadelphia? Bit of an overstatement, isn’t it? Given the contributions they’ve made to culture and society? Given the vibrant social and cultural lives that they offer now? i was referring to _the Northeast corridor of New Jersey_ smelling bad\* and Jersey having hellholes for major cities. Sorry for the confusion. 🙂 \*fond (?) memories of driving the N.J. Turnpike and being gassed by the overhwelming industrial stench, with overtones of sewage and dead fish. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-new-jersey-why-is-it-the-butt-of-so-many-jokes/381237/92 "2016-06-20T10:00:50Z")
New Jersey mobbed up? Compared to New York City it’s a piker. Even in _The Sopranos_ the NYC Mafia guys referred sneeringly to their neighbours as ‘the farmers’. The NJ mob was always minor league compared to the Five Families in NYC and The Outfit in Chicago. It’s odd that the state should have such a reputation but I guess that’s the power of television. ---
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-new-jersey-why-is-it-the-butt-of-so-many-jokes/381237/93 "2016-06-20T18:58:44Z")
Nitpick but I’m not so sure about the pirates luring ships onto “rocky shoals”. I can’t think of any such shoals along the NJ coast. Sandy shoals? Sure, but the Garden State isn’t known for rocks along the coastal areas. Certainly not Ocean County. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-new-jersey-why-is-it-the-butt-of-so-many-jokes/381237/94 "2016-06-20T23:52:56Z")
I’m from Philly and my wife paretly grew up in southern Jersey. Her town of about 7000 is the county seat of a very rural county, SW (look at a map if you don’t believe it) of Philly. They grow tomatoes (wonderful tomatoes), asparagus, watermelons and other produce there. Oh, and mosquitos, zillions of mosquitos. Not to mention biting flies. Up to Trenton and Princeton, it remains quite rural. For all that, Jersey remains a running joke in our house. Because I can! But it is not serious. For a lot of my life, Jersey (never pronounced Joisy, at least in the south of the state) was the road between Philly and NY. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-new-jersey-why-is-it-the-butt-of-so-many-jokes/381237/95 "2016-06-21T00:35:11Z")
There’s a lot of really nice places in New Jersey. But as it happens, two of the worst areas of the state are in the northeast corner of the state (right next to New York City) and the southwest corner of the state (right next to Philadelphia). So millions of people in these two cities judge the entire state by the bad areas they see right across the river. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-new-jersey-why-is-it-the-butt-of-so-many-jokes/381237/96 "2016-06-21T01:02:00Z")
If you’re just driving through NJ, you most likely are driving down the whole Turnpike, most of which looks and smells terrible. If you’re taking the Amtrak, you see pretty much the same. And when you’re landing at Newark Airport, you basically fly over the same areas most of the time. I think that’s pretty much the source of most outsiders’ perception of the state. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-new-jersey-why-is-it-the-butt-of-so-many-jokes/381237/97 "2016-06-21T13:32:04Z")
Where is the place where all the poor individuals who cross the mob end up with concrete feet in a lake or a river? Is that New Jersey? ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-new-jersey-why-is-it-the-butt-of-so-many-jokes/381237/98 "2016-06-21T14:57:23Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > … > > I must be a patriotic American: the first things that come to mind when I think of New Jersey are Molly Pitcher the warrior woman of the Revolution, and Washington crossing the Delaware. Also, Princeton is where Albert Einstein lived at the end of his life. I guess I have NJ filed in my brain under American history and science… Good for you. /not snark Isn’t Menlo Park in Jersey? Written from a fashionable chic East Village coffee shop, where we can’t abide Bridge-and-Tunnel people. ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-new-jersey-why-is-it-the-butt-of-so-many-jokes/381237/99 "2016-06-21T15:01:40Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > See I never understood that. I know a lot of people who live in JC and Hoboken who almost never go to Manhattan and it’s right there. Granted, if I just want to grab a drink or a bite to eat, I’d much rather get something local. But it’s mind boggling to me to live 15 minutes from NYC and never take advantage of it. The other person as they clarified was talking about living in Manhattan v Hoboken or JC, but we live on the Jersey side and fairly seldom go to the City. I used to commute daily, now go to Brooklyn sometimes for a part time business effort, but pleasure trips to Manhattan not very often. The view of Manhattan from Hoboken is really nice though! And Hoboken is a terrific place in pretty much the same way as various nice parts of the City, and indeed it’s closer to key parts of Manhattan than most of Brooklyn or Queens. And then it’s got the additional advantage of a small town aspect, not just close knit neighborhood aspect (that’s beneath the surface to a lot of the young people who come and go, they never really see it). And it’s a not terrific place in mainly the same way as the City: it’s now very expensive; we were fortunate enough to move in and buy before that. But it’s also just age/generation. My kids go to Manhattan all the time. And we’re not to the point of being too physically immobile, I sometimes walk for miles in the City when I do go. But we’re just more at the stage to mainly enjoy being home or eating out at familiar local places. It’s not as if we’re ‘clubbing’ anywhere and I’m from NY originally (for generations actually), so have ‘seen the sights’. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-new-jersey-why-is-it-the-butt-of-so-many-jokes/381237/100 "2016-06-21T18:17:01Z")
[Concrete Road](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sH3M8IHizY) > [@](#): > > Concrete road take me home > To the place I belong > Jersey City, Bayonne mama, > Take me home > Concrete road [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-new-jersey-why-is-it-the-butt-of-so-many-jokes/381237.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-new-jersey-why-is-it-the-butt-of-so-many-jokes/381237.md?page=6)