MTV has announced it will put Snooki in a ball and drop her from on high on New Year's Eve in Times Square as a highlight of its 2010 "MTV New Year's Bash."

Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi will be joined by "Jersey Shore" compadres Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino and Paul "DJ Pauly D" DelVecchio, and the evening will -- despite a ban on public drinking at the gathering -- include an attempt to set a Guinness World Record in, um, group fist pumping.

MTV refers to "a ball" that will drop in Times Square, but doesn't narrow it down to the ball -- the one now made of illuminated Waterford Crystal, with a diameter of 12 feet, that has been dropping in one form or another for more than 100 years. Maybe they'll just cram her into this little one. Or she could buy two, and wear them as earrings.

Letting our imagination go wild, we couldn't help but recall a recent "CSI" rerun in which the killer turns out to be a bird of prey that dropped a small tortoise from the air, hoping to crack it open on the head of an ascetic it believes to be a rock.

Bald guys in Times Square, please make sure your New Year's Eve getup includes a hat.

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-- Christie D'Zurilla

Photo: Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi of "Jersey Shore" arrives at the MTV European Music Awards 2010 in Madrid on Nov. 7. Credit: Dave Fisher Associated Press