Everybody has their guilty pleasures when it comes to their entertainment. As a person that watched every single season of Flavor of Love this summer (and loved every second of it) and the entire discography of Three 6 Mafia on my computer, I can’t preach from atop the ivory tower when it comes to enjoying something just because it’s a lot of fun. Everybody has that stupid little TV show, band, or movie that really lifts the spirits, one dead brain cell at a time. All throughout my adolescence the king of guilty pleasures is, and always will be Johnny Knoxville and his merry gang of idiots.
Want to feel old? Remember seeing Jackass on MTV? That began ten years ago and the last episode aired 8 years again. Ever since then, their legacy has been felt far and wide, from their countless spinoffs and imposters to phrases like “getting Party Boy-ed” still in wide use today. Jackass was a cultural phenomenon in the early 2000’s and I can say I got a kick, and still do get a kick from watching every nut-busting stunt, and every puke filled gross-out.
To say I’m excited about this movie is an understatement. A perpetual sucker for 3-D movies, adding that extra dimension may mean I’ll be getting a lot of wangs sticking out towards me, vomit flying right by me and massive crashes happening all around me. And I will be giggling like a schoolgirl on Nox the whole way through. The trailer shows the staples expected of every jackass movie. April and Phil Margera are getting harassed by a massive gorilla. Steve-O gets a real shitty stunt, as he is launched into the air inside a full port-a-potty. As a snowboard and general winter nut, seeing them on a ski hill getting launched out of a pine tree gets me incredibly excited about what else can be done on those slopes, and I cannot wait to see what else there is.
Trying to rationalize why Jackass is appealing is no easy task, especially to anyone who doesn’t see the humour (read: 90% of all girls). It basically boils down to a childhood fascination of cartoon characters. The whole gang is one big, real-life Looney Toons cartoon; their stunts are outlandish situations where zany props and all logic are thrown out the window. I’ve seen extend-o-gloves punch out Bam Margera, Johnny Knoxville has ridden a cartoon rocket over a lake, the crew has fashioned rocket skates out of bottle rockets and ridden them down a road. These boys stole the entire Acme product catalogue from Wile E. Coyote and ordered one of everything. It’s that childish joy that comes from having a bad idea that could have a shred of looking cool that comes back. It’s not that they get hurt, it’s that they think of these stunts that keeps me wanting more. But how far can one go until the joke becomes unfunny? These guys are pushing past their thirty, with Johnny Knoxville hitting the big 4-0 next year. Even Bam, the baby of the group is now 31, a far cry from the indestructible youth that started off this movie. Once the movie switches from ingenuity to desperation, when the scenarios are no longer about the way-cool or way-stupid idea and more about the injury report at the end does the movie stop. 3D is the biggest gimmick of the last few years, does that mean they’re scraping the bottom of the cartoon barrel?
At the end of the second Jackass movie, we have Bam praying that there won’t be a third. I’m praying that they can recapture all the juvenile mischief of the first two movies. I have to see this one while its in theatres, but I can’t shake the nagging feeling that this movie will fall flat at the end. Go see this movie, which comes out on October 15th, but drop your expectations to as low as possible, check your brain with the ticket taker, and enjoy the (possibly literal) 3D shitstorm that you’ll encounter. These guys can’t keep this pace up forever.
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