Editing Ocean City, New Jersey (section)

==Culture==
Julia Lawlor of ''[[The New York Times]]'' wrote in 2004 that [[Christianity|Christian]] heritage influenced Ocean City's conservative laws; prior to 1986, shops were not allowed to conduct business on Sundays. The Sunday business closures were heavily enforced, with a grocer being arrested for selling a cantaloupe.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://magazine.atavist.com/who-killed-the-fudge-king-jersey-shore-harry-anglemyer/ |title=Who Killed the Fudge King? |last=Donaghy |first=Tom |date=September 2023 |website=The Atavist Magazine |publisher=[[Atavist]] |access-date=October 8, 2023}}</ref> In 2004 there were 15 churches.<ref name=NYT2004/>

In 2011, the city played the backdrop to an episode of ''[[It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]'' titled "The Gang Goes to the Jersey Shore". The city was never name dropped and only serves to portray a generic shore town as the episode features many stereotypes about the Jersey Shore and its culture, most of which negative. At the time of airing the episode caused backlash with many members of the community, citing the episode's raunchy nature in contrast to the family-friendly image Ocean City claims to have.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://patch.com/new-jersey/oceancity/was-its-always-sunny-too-adult-for-the-family-resort|title=Was 'It's Always Sunny' Too Adult for the 'Family Resort?'|date=September 24, 2011|access-date=February 25, 2021|archive-date=November 14, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201114202641/https://patch.com/new-jersey/oceancity/was-its-always-sunny-too-adult-for-the-family-resort|url-status=live}}</ref>