You know, in a world where we assume almost nothing is surprising anymore, a story comes along that just…blows that right up.
On one side of this friendship, you have one of the biggest modern-day scammers out there.
On other side is The Situation.
How did this even happen?
Meet The Situation
For those of us who grew up in the ’00s (aka, for those of us who are old), Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino was a pop culture icon.
He and his friends all starred in the reality TV guilty pleasure, Jersey Shore.
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GTL!!!
He rose to fame with phrases like, “CABS ARE HERE!” and “GTL,” which was a daily routine of gym, tanning, and laundry.
Yes, I remembered all of this off of the top of my head. I’m old.
This isn’t his first brush with the law
In 2014, he was arrested over an assault resulting from a fight in a New Jersey tanning salon.
That is the most Jersey Shore thing to ever get arrested over, for the record.
He was charged with tax fraud in 2014
It took until 2017 for any charges to stick against Mike and his brother, Marc, whose shared company didn’t pay over $8 million in taxes.
He was sentenced to 8 months in prison in October of 2018.
Meet Billy
I probably don’t have to explain to you who Billy McFarland is — after all, both Netflix and Hulu have documentaries about him.
Suffice it to say, Billy McFarland is a giant scam artist.
Billy started Fyre Fest
Known as one of the greatest parties to never happen (seriously, Netflix named their documentary that), Fyre Festival was originally pitched to be a music festival that would take place on a private island.
Fyre Festival didn’t happen
After a series of incidents that are too insane to be real, thousands of concert-goers found themselves stranded on an island with only recycled hurricane shelters to sleep in.
Yes, really.
So, Billy went to jail
He defrauded so many people that it almost defies logic.
Needless to say, prison wound up being in the cards for Billy. He’s currently serving six years for the scam of the century.
And thus, our friends meet
By happenstance, both wound up serving time at the same prison.
While appearing on The Jenny McCarthy Show, Mike’s Jersey Shore friends, Pauly “DJ Pauly D” DelVecchio and Vinny Guadagnino, spilled the tea on the new bros.
Mike is keeping some truly great company
Vinny spilled: “He is in there with the guy from the Fyre Festival.
And he’s in there with the guy that leaked Jennifer Lawrence’s nudes, that hacked her phone.”
With friends like those…
They all play games together, apparently
Pauly revealed what the new friends get up to together:
“They play Scrabble together!”
This is a “situation” that not even Orange is the New Black could pull off with any sort of realism.
Don’t worry, Mike is having a good time in prison
Scrabble, being friends with scam artists and phone hackers — what else could a guy want?
Other than, like, standards for himself in relationships and maybe better money management skills.
Anyway, according to Pauly, “He’s happy.”
And he gets to see his wife a lot
“He’s in such good spirits because he sees Lauren once a day, and he has so much to come home to…so he just wants to get it over with and do his time.”
Lauren Pesce is Mike’s wife.
So yeah, that’s the situation on the Situation
And on his new friend. Who knows if that friendship will last, but let’s all hope that nothing comes of it.
That is one reality show that should never see the light of day.
Watch Pauly and Vinny give out details
Check out the full video of the two discussing Mike with Jenny McCarthy.
I feel like it has to be seen to be believed.
Also, I had no idea known anti-vaxxer Jenny McCarthy had her own show! Hard pass.
