Same here. Apparently it's a UK thing. In Southern California it would be "Valley Girl" (as memorialized by Frank Zappa). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-LArv-sEQU

Also, it seems that some group successfully petitioned the Oxford University Press to remove "Essex Girl" from at least one of their dictionaries 'after a campaign group called the Essex Girls Liberation Front said using the expression was “very offensive”.' https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/dec/05/essex-girl-r...

It was removed from the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, but is still in the real deal, the Oxford English Dictionary.

These things seem to wax and wane. When I was young, jokes about people from New Jersey or Poland were quite common but I haven't heard either in a long time. I'm sure this is quite regional but I'm in the same region as I was when I was a child so it's interesting to see how much those have faded.

A long time ago I encountered a group of jokes based on a Poland stereotype (I haven't seen any in decades), where they would represent an 'unlucky' people. My favorite was: Q: "Who won the man-of-the-year award in Poland last year?" A: "No one" :-(

Lots of joke types have national variations.

For instance the butt of the "stupid nationality" jokes will vary by country but otherwise be the exact same joke.

When browsing Tik Tok, one gets the impression that not much has changed since Zappa released the song in ‘82.

I (having grown up in Essex, and moved to California) describe my home area as "The Jersey Shore of England". There's precedent in that one of the closest equivalent TV programs is named "The Only Way Is Essex".

They were a thing a few decades ago not really now. I mostly associate them with the 80s

That was a rubbish aside note. Without it the article is quite decent.