not long ago I had a conversation with a friend about Jackass. she was pretty harsh on the series, which is fair enough cause they are idiots, and you basically need to switch off your brain completely when watching them (alternatively, watching them lowers your IQ with about 30%, as someone once said). however, she started arguing about the pointlessness of ever watching the show by mentioning the recent death of Ryan Dunn. in her own words, “one of the idiots that died in a car crash cause he was a complete moron and speeded, and he also killed one of his friend”.
I’ve heard that argument at least a dozen times now. ok, yeah, he was definitely a cunt for killing his friend, not that it was on purpose, but it was his fault nonetheless. also, connecting his death to his involvement in Jackass is the same as saying that playing violent video games makes you go on a killing spree. being an idiot doesn’t know occupation. there are hundreds of people dying on the road every day, and none of them has ever been involved with, watched or even just heard of Jackass. those are people of all ages, races, sexes, jobs; people who fell asleep behind the wheel and people who were late for work so didn’t notice the red lights.
and here’s the other thing. I personally don’t know what happened to Dunn after the cancellation of the show. I think he got married, he probably kept on doing stuff connected to skating, or maybe he didn’t. It doesn’t matter anymore. what matters is that the rest of the crew are safe and sound (to my knowledge). Knoxville and several others tried as actors (he kind of succeeded, but not really, though he actually starred in several films with potential); Steve-O and Chris Pontius went to make Wild Boyz, and explored the fucking world; Tremaine kept producing shows; Margera and the CKY crew went on doing whatever they did before Jackass, being full-time annoying dickhead neighbours of hell, etc. Spike Jonze is Spike fucking Jonze (and was also fucking Sofia Coppola in the mean time, this is however over now, also none of our concern).
my point is that you can’t blame the failure of one individual on the whole group. this is ignorant.
I just wish people could leave him fucking alone to rest in peace. he is not coming back to apologise, and of course what he did is beyond any apology. don’t get me wrong, I do not advocate for driving like an asshole and endangering other people’s lives. but what he did or didn’t do in his free time outside his engagements with Jackass, has nothing to do with the show or anyone of the crew.
PS. dear BBC, Michael Jackson’s doctor on front page of your website? who actually gives a shit about this story, really?
PS2. this post was created a couple of months ago when the verdict of MJ’s doctor was on front page. probably of some importance, I don’t care, really.
