Yidio Exclusive: We Interview an Actual Geordie About the Upcoming UK 'Jersey Shore' Spinoff 'Geordie Shore'

Sometimes life works in funny ways. When I heard about the upcoming UK spinoff of "Jersey Shore," called “Geordie Shore,” I immediately thought about my friend “Geordie Richard Sharp,” a fellow member of the Facebook group “Richard Sharps of the World.” Yes, I’m serious, it exists.

I used to call him “British Richard Sharp,” until I discovered that the rather erudite and sometimes cantankerous red-headed young fellow much prefers to be known as “Geordie Richard Sharp,” a name that denotes his local geographical heritage.

I asked my overseas counterpart to provide his take on the new “Geordie Shore” and what it means to be a “Geordie," and boy did he ever deliver.

Yidio Richard Sharp: Have you heard about this new show “Geordie Shore”?
Geordie Richard Sharp: Oh dear, the rumours WERE true. Apparently it's being shot in Jesmond, which is a fairly up-market place full of painfully middle class people and students from Newcastle and Northumbria Universities. This lot look more like the type to be from Byker, except they've got enough money to look that painfully scummy.

YRS: As an actual Geordie yourself, what do you think of the show?
GRS: I hate these things. There's one on ITV here called "The Only Way Is Essex" which is like those "The Hills" and things, but in Essex. The thing about the U.S. versions of these shows is that I almost expect that sort of thing from U.S. MTV culture (no offence intended) in that that is the America Europe sees.

Here though, I've occasionally come across these people and all I want to do is put them to a wall and massacre them all, watching with glee (no) as they bleed to death in the road. (Ed. Note: He's kidding.)

YRS: So you don’t recommend watching the show?
GRS: I'm sorry if you ever have to watch "Geordie Shore," mainly because Newcastle isn't on a shore, it's on the river Tyne and incorrect geography annoys me, but also because it looks like it's going to be a painful experience.

YRS: What exactly is a Geordie anyway?
GRS: Being a Geordie is different things to different people. It's not about being from Newcastle, though that helps. The late Sir Bobby Robson once said that if you were to cut his skin, he would "bleed black and white" (the colours of Newcastle United FC) and that being a Geordie in terms of football support wasn't just turning up to the game, but "it's the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city" and this from a man who was actually born in County Durham although brought up an avid Newcastle fan.

It does go beyond the football team of course, it's the music, the food, the smells and the people of the place that make you fall in love with the North East as a wider area, but the City of Newcastle-upon-Tyne is a very special place to me, it pulses through my veins like the Tyne washes of the silt of industry on the banks of Blaydon and Wallsend, it pumps in my heart like the beats of Maximo Park and it and it is forever in my imagination in dreams of going home as that great arching wonder of the Tyne Bridge settles slowly into view every time I arrive on the rails.

As we say up here, "it's a canny Toon", but I don't think the parasites of "Geordie Shore" quite understand any of that.

See what's got "Geordie Richard Sharp" all fired up.

Watch the trailer for the "Jersey Shore" spinoff "Geordie Shore":