MTV needs a new tribe to study. Lucky for them, there's a group of
feisty young people just a few hundred miles north on the Atlantic
coast. They're called Massholes. Though there is some disagreement
about what, exactly, constitutes a Masshole, there are several
characteristics present in all definitions. A Masshole is a resident of
Massachusetts—though sometimes Rhode Island, New Hampshire, or
Maine—who possesses a nearly carnal love for the Red Sox, Patriots,
Celtics, and Bruins; operates motor vehicles in an aggressive fashion;
drinks Sam Adams; and overuses the adjective wicked.
-- snip --
It's true that Massholes are a more diverse subculture than Guidos, but
that would only make a series about them more compelling. There are two
main Masshole strands: Kennedy-lite types, often from the North Shore
or Boston's wealthy Metro West area, who go to small New England
liberal arts colleges (Bowdoin, Colby, Dartmouth) and wear lots of
khaki; and more blue-collar types, often from South Boston or one of
the commonwealth's harder-knock-cities (Everett, New Bedford), who
share a hairdo: a weathered Sox cap in the warmer months, a
fleece-lined Pats hat in the winter. These two sorts of Massholes will
probably not get along particularly well. The latter will find the
former condescending, just like in that scene in Good Will Hunting in which Matt Damon's character gets in a fight with that snotty dude at the Harvard bar. Except in Massholes,
the warring factions will mend their ways by the end of the each
episode, hard feelings salved by a quick trip to the nearest beach bar,
where they will find common cause, chanting "Yankees suck" as they
watch the latest from the Fens on NESN.
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