I'm not American - r/ExplainTheJoke

64

u/Berner_Dad 23h ago

Yes, it is just pointing out a regional term where shore is used vs beach.

23

u/jitterscaffeine 23h ago

I believe the arrows are pointing at New Jersey, correct? In reference to the Jersey Shore tv show?

23

u/BobBartBarker 23h ago

Naw, not the show. We just always called it the shore. Way before MTV.

'Going down the shore' is 'I'm going to the beach.'

I can't account for North Jersey but Philly and South Jersey are total shore ppl.

-dude born in Philly but lived in South Jersey for a long time.

6

u/CriticalHit_20 22h ago

Fun fact! It's actually illegal for New Jerseyans to call it a "beach" in public due to it sounding like profanity because of their accent. Unless you're a new New Jerseyan, of course.

2

u/mormagils 20h ago

North Jersey person here fully agrees. NJ has a shore and other states have a beach. It's always been that way.

2

u/qwerty-smith 19h ago

What are you gonna do down there?

3

u/Toothless-In-Wapping 15h ago

I don’t know, go to the arcade play some video games, maybe buy a Def Leapord T-shirt.

2

u/qwerty-smith 2h ago

Don't forget your Motley Crew T-shirt. You know all proceeds go to get their lead singer out of jail.

1

u/Toothless-In-Wapping 2h ago

Oh, cool.

1

u/woundg 13h ago

Metallica carnival mirrors can go for $30 now. I could have made $100s.

1

u/SnooDrawings1480 21h ago

Grew up in jersey across the river from NYC.... it's shore

3

u/BusySpecialist1968 21h ago

Those Jersey Shore idiots were shoobies, not locals. Nobody claims those losers.

18

u/sunrise_review 23h ago

Not Pictured - PNW where people go to the coast.

9

u/lobstah4 22h ago

Maine as well.

2

u/jawshoeaw 16h ago

Or confusingly “ocean beaches”

1

u/Ok_External_2945 36m ago

We go to the ocean.

And have places called Ocean Shores and Westport.

8

u/banjrman 22h ago

Yes, it's New Jersey (and Eastern PA) vernacular to say, "We're going down the shore this weekend" to mean going to one of the Jersey beaches.

And that wasn't a typo. Proper regional grammar is "going down the shore" -- not "going down TO the shore."

That's how we can tell the locals from the tourists :D

3

u/Stormblessed_92 22h ago

South MS here we also call it the coast

1

u/Chon-Laney 20h ago

Mississippi Gulf Coast Coliseum!

2

u/yesbutnoexceptyes 22h ago

When did NY annex NJ? Or was it the other way around?

3

u/Funky0ne 19h ago

Those boundary lines are not representing states

2

u/GrunkleDan 20h ago

It's where you drive your Bitchin' Camaro down to

2

u/Ok-Acanthaceae-5327 17h ago

You trying to to hit the Wawa before we go down the shore for wooder ice?

3

u/gavinjobtitle 23h ago

New jersey calls it's beaches 'shores" (really it calls multiple beaches together that) other places also do that or calls them other things, but thanks to tv that specific one sticks in people's mind and it seems like everyone calls it one thing then one tiny place is different.

1

u/Nervous-Road6611 22h ago

The arrows are specifically pointing to the Jersey Shore. Although there are, in fact, numerous places in America where the word "shore" is used (I grew up in Maryland, where people regularly said they were "going down to the shore"), none of them other than Jersey Shore was turned into a very memorable TV show.

1

u/Obi-Wan-Nikobiii 21h ago

And here i am calling it the seaside

1

u/Josephschmoseph234 21h ago

We call it the new jersey shore.

1

u/Dry_Jury2858 21h ago

What's a beach? Dude from NJ

1

u/Spear_Ritual 19h ago

Beach is a shore but not every shore is a beach?

1

u/Sensitive_Progress26 18h ago

English tends to have lots of synonyms. BTW: In North Carolina it’s called the Outer BANKS.

1

u/Schrojo18 18h ago

Ignoring the above, I would suggest a beach can be the shores but the shore isn't necessarily the beach. Eg if there is a cliff it could be at the shore but there would be no beach.

1

u/AaronBBG_ 17h ago

Jersey Shore was a popular show in the early 2000s. This arrow and New Jersey saying shore.

1

u/TresLechesTheZombie 16h ago

I think it's more like shore just refers to a coastline but the beach implies a larger flat area (typically sandy).

1

u/Gravbar 16h ago

I think it's a joke about the Jersey shore being called shore

1

u/NotMyGovernor 12h ago

If you're from philly you'll know

1

u/RasTabouli 2h ago

In Maryland, you go to the shore.

1

u/Atlantic_King 2h ago

I grew up at the Jersey shore. The area of towns and communities near the ocean is called the shore. The strip of land with sand next to the ocean is the beach. No one I know ever called a beach the shore.