Jersey Shore and Snooki

Feeling drowsy on Monday? How about a little fist pump action?

The NY Times has an interesting profile of Snooki from MTV's "Jersey Shore." Well, perhaps "interesting" isn't the best descriptive adjective.

A Jezebel writer calls it possibly the cruelest profile she's seen in the Times' Style section "in quite some time." Why? Consider passages like this:

But trying to hold a conversation with Snooki is a little like getting down on your hands and knees with a child. You have to come down to her level, and sometimes you almost think you need to bribe her with a piece of candy to coax her to be more responsive. She is really only responsive to her own immediate needs and desires. She is not self-centered, but she is used to acting out and getting away with it.

The writer also mentions how Snooki has only read two books in her life: "Twilight" and "Dear John."

"Jersey Shore" doesn't top my hierarchy of MTV obsessions -- it's not "Teen Mom," after all -- but I don't hate it entirely.

And Snooki? Sure, she's one of the many people in pop culture whose celebrity status can't be attributed to an enviable skill or groundbreaking performance.

But I remember a scene from last season's "Jersey Shore" finale, when Snooki wandered the boardwalk aimlessly in search of a date and ultimately started a dance party outside by herself.

I remember the moment so well because it added a basic humanness to somebody often reduced to a caricature. Even with her exaggerated pouf and revealing clothes, she wasn't immune to the awkward dating dance that plagues the rest of us.

Or something like that.