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Who is Tommy 'Cheeseballs' Perna? Fans hail 'OG Jersey Shore guy' and hope 'he's found real love'

Tommy appeared on an episode of MTV's 'True Life'titled 'I Have A Summer Share' which inspired Jersey Shore

Tommy 'Cheeseballs' Perna, who appeared in the 'I Have A Summer Share' episode of MTV's 'True Life' in 2003, is back in the spotlight after debuting his first video on TikTok. In 'True Life' Perna played a construction worker from Elmwood Park who was looking for 'love and cheeseballs' at the Jersey Shore.
 
'True Life' is a documentary television show that ran on MTV from March 31, 1998, until June 21, 2017. Each episode focused on a different theme, such as heroin addiction in "Fatal Dose," the opening episode. 

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A four-part docu-series titled 'True Life Presents: Quarantine Stories' also premiered on August 5, 2020. It included the story of two friends jazzing up their platonic relationship with sex, and the pressures faced by a same-sex couple during the pandemic.

Who is Tommy 'Cheeseballs' Perna?

Tommy 'Cheeseballs' Perna starred in an episode of 'True Life' titled 'I Have A Summer Share'. The show 'Jersey Shore' originally stemmed from this episode. It aired first on November 20, 2003 during the fourth season of 'True Life' and was episode 30.

Perna, a bald construction worker looking for love on the shore, was featured in the episode. Anyone who has seen 'Jersey Shore' knows Ronnie Magro-Ortiz's advice not to look for love at the beach and he is correct. Tommy's honest attempts to court ladies all fail and at the end of the summer he goes back to his regular work and his normal loveless life. Despite this, Tommy Cheeseballs was memorable enough to inspire a multi-season reality show as well as intermittent phony death announcements.

Like 'Confirmed proof of Bigfoot'

Fans took to Twitter on Tuesday, June 1, when they got to know Perna was finally back. "If you don’t know who Tommy Cheeseballs is? That’s fine. We’re old and he’s from a past era. But please respect our excitement, I feel like I just got confirmed proof of Big Foot or found the Holy Grail or something," a fan explained. "Tommy Cheeseballs being back is the most exciting thing to happen on the internet in forever. It feels like order has been restored. I'm so happy. I hope we hire him to just sit around and be Tommy Cheeseballs," said another.

"Finding Tommy Cheeseballs again made it all worth it. The last 10+ years of internet life. It’s a grind. It’s toxic. It can take its toll. But being one of the Internet 1.0 OGs who can truly understand and enjoy the reemergence of Tommy...it was all worth it," a third social media user chipped in.

'He crawled so that Jersey Shore could walk'

"I feel like not enough people are appreciating the fact that Tommy Cheeseballs is BACK. The biggest legend in the history of legends. This man crawled so the Jersey Shore cast could walk. Not only is he back but he’s exactly the same as we remembered him. He’s perfect. A KING," said a fan. "Just when i thought the internet had finally run it's course TOMMY CHEESEBALLS, the greatest documentary character of all time, appears. Really hope he's found real love since True Life," said another. "Tommy cheeseballs was the OG Jersey shore guy. “Will I ever meet the girl of my dreams at the club at the Jersey shore? I don’t know but I’m not gonna stop trying," read another tweet..