It was the closest I'd ever seen Gov. Chris Christie come to looking embarrassed.

Yesterday's mini-town hall on the Manasquan beach was his first public appearance since he lost his cool while being heckled on the Seaside Heights Boardwalk two weeks ago.

The governor stood in the boardwalk pavilion and told how his wife Mary Pat suggested a cool down after the incident, so the family went out of state for the remainder of their vacation.

A bit later, when he was heckled again, this time from someone floating by on the Jamaica II fishing boat, Christie laughed it off, then piled on the charm with another reference to the incident and a few remarks about how much more relaxed he was now.



But it was clear the Seaside Heights incident had left a mark. Here's why.



When I saw the video of the incident, four words immediately came to mind: "Come at me, bro."



That was the now famous phrase shouted by Ronnie Magro-Ortiz of MTV's Jersey Shore reality show as he taunted a heckler on the same boardwalk before beating him silly in the show's first season.



The visual similarities in the two videos is striking. Christie's "you're a real big shot..keep walking away" taunt was one step short of Ronnie's "Come at me, bro," a phrase that now emblazons t-shirts sold and worn up and down the boardwalk.

It was inescapable what had just happened.



In the mind's eye, Christie had suddenly become a character in the same trashy drama, played out on the very same stage, we've all been forced to endure for a few years now, and which he himself has condemned. You almost expected the camera to cut to a shot of Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, eyes bulging as he answers the duck phone, blurting "The Governor did WHAT?"

(Want to see what I mean? Play both these videos below at the same time)

Taking on teachers unions and returning fire from aggro questioners at his town hall meetings is one thing. But that's not what this looked like. It looked like he had become a character in MTV's Jersey Shore. And those videos will sit on the internet (and as potential fodder in opponents' political ads) forever.