Apr 15, 2011 07:56 GMT  ·  By
No one should pay Snooki to be Snooki when MTV is already doing it, Anderson Cooper says
   No one should pay Snooki to be Snooki when MTV is already doing it, Anderson Cooper says

There are many critics and viewers out there who don’t like MTV’s hit reality show “Jersey Shore” and who consider it a complete waste of time and money. There are also those who pay big bucks for its stars to do public appearances – to them, Anderson Cooper has a few words to say.

Most recently, Snooki was paid $32,000 to appear at Rutgers University to speak about what it was like being Snooki, in what was one of the most controversial decisions as of late.

But even if she hadn’t been asked to come to Rutgers, she still makes more money than some Americans make in a year, Cooper says in his most recent RidicuList, as the video below will confirm.

The CNN star understands the appeal of Snooki & Co. – after all, he’s a self-declared fan of tacky reality shows, so there’s no need to hate on her – but there’s a line between paying her to be on a show and throwing money at her to “show up and throw up.”

That line has been crossed, he says.

“I’m telling you, Snooki is one impossibly lucky, unusually spunky, freakishly tan, beer guzzling, juicehead hugging, muscle loving, Botero body, pint-sized money-making machine,” he says.

Her fee to appear at Rutgers is $2,000 bigger than what Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison gets to speak at commencement next month at the same university. Somehow, that’s not fair, Cooper seems to say.

“So what, a girl’s got to eat. Wait, the salt on the margarita glass is technically food, correct? Anyway, far from me to be criticizing Snooki for making a living. What’s she gonna do? Party all the time? Oh, it turns out she gets paid for that too!” Anderson says.

Club owners are literally throwing money at Snooki to get her to show up for a few hours at their venues – and, with her, bring media attention.

“$25,000 to show up and hopefully throw up, because frankly if you go to a club to see Snooki, that’s really all you want to see,” he says.

He then proceeds to showing footage of Snooki in clubs, free of charge, he underlines. No one should pay money to see that.

Similarly, no one should pay her more than a Nobel prize-winning author to hear her speak – and Cooper shows footage from “Jersey Shore” in which Snooki proves she’s far from a wordsmith.

“All right, I’m not saying it isn’t downright captivating and I’m not saying she isn’t worth every penny, all I’m saying is you really don’t have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to get your Snooki on, you just need basic cable,” Cooper explains.

“Just turn on MTV, watch The Jersey Shore, any episode will do because frankly they’re all the same... cause anyone who’s paying Snooki to be Snooki, I welcome you to Club Ridiculist,” the journalist adds.

Watch the video below.