The Villain of Jackass
- Fred
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Back in the year 2000, Darren Aronofsky directed the psychological drama Requiem for a Dream. It was an excellent movie, but it was dark and it was depressing.
Very, very depressing.
After viewing the movie, I saw an interview with Aronofsky and he claimed that Requiem wasn't a drama at all, it was a horror movie. He explained that the invisible villain was "addiction." As scary as any creature stalking its prey, the worst monster is the one you can't see, but you can feel its presence in every frame.
Which brings us to Jackass 5.
Ryan Dunn really was the boy next door. Born in Medina, Ohio, he literally lived one city over from where I grew up in Brunswick.
Ryan Dunn was one of the core Jackass members who died in 2011 after the filming of Jackass 3. Ryan Dunn did NOT go quietly into the night. According to AI: Jackass star Ryan Dunn died at age 34 in a single-vehicle car crash on June 20, 2011, in West Goshen Township, Pennsylvania. Dunn was driving his Porsche 911 GT3 at speeds estimated between 130 and 140 mph when it veered off the road and burst into flames. Both Dunn and his passenger, Zachary Hartwell, died from blunt force and thermal trauma. Toxicology reports revealed Dunn had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.196%. The accident (itself) occurred on Route 322 in Chester County around 3 a.m.. Dunn's Porsche struck a guardrail, flew over a ravine, and crashed into a wooded area, where it immediately ignited. Due to the intensity of the fire, the vehicle was destroyed, and Dunn had to be identified by his tattoos."
His death effectively ended Jackass.
Listen, discussing the Tao of Jackass is like doing a dissertation on the Three Stooges. Jackass is about boys being stupid for laughs. It is that simple.
But I'll tell you what, it is much easier to take that groin shot when you're a bit more, uh, what's the kind word to use? Lubricated. Liquid Courage helps you face your fears when you have a bull charging at you.
If you take a peak behind the curtain, Jackass wasn't about a group of guys, it was about FOUR groups of guys:
The "Creators" - Spike Jonze, Jeff Tremaine, and Johnny Knoxville. Johnny Knoxville was the star, but he was also the leader and the go-between between the guys in front of the camera, and the guys behind the camera.
The "Wildboyz" - When Jackass, the series, ended, Steve-O and Chris Pontius kept the fun moving, taking their style of comedy to all corners of the globe.
The "CKY Guys" - Before Jackass the series, there was a group that made skateboard videos and supported the band CKY. After Jackass, That collection mostly starred Bam Margera and Ryan Dunn. After the series, Bam had about a dozen reality shows.
The Supporting Cast - Sorry to pull a Gilligan's Island, but everyone else fell into the "and the rest" category.
After Ryan Dunn died, nearly every member of Jackass had admitted to certain excesses in their personal lives. Steve-O has publicly stated that Johnny Knoxville "saved his life."
The biggest challenge for the Jackass Team in Jackass 4 was to do their stunts sober. Bam Margera did not like that, not one bit, and was quickly fired at the beginning of the production.
And this is where things get real "shades of gray."
In defense of the Creators, I don't think they wanted any more of their friends to die. In defense of Bam Margera, the Jackass guys were either stuntmen, or comedians, depending on your interpretation of what they do. No one was more affected by Dunn's death than Margera himself.
Was Bam Margera a surgeon? No.
Was Bam Margera a dentist? No.
Was Bam Margera a policeman? No.
There are certain professions in life where you can't be drunk, like the aforementioned surgeon. If you're a guy who skateboards into glass as a gag, I think it would be preferrable to have a bit of a buzz.
Bam had a legitimate Libertarian argument against the drug testing for Jackass 4. What he did in his own time was his own business. And I can't beat this into the ground enough, why did the Jackass production team care if anyone was drinking?
Your counter argument is that the movie couldn't secure insurance without drug testing? I don't believe that for a second. Jackass 5 cost about $10 million to make and pulled down about $16 million, a very modest profit. Many big budget movie franchises make certain demands of their actors that make $10-20 million in quarter-of-a-billion dollar productions. Bam made the most money in his career on Jackass 3, not with a straight salary, but because the stars of the movie had back-end deals.
But the Jackass Franchise will be a pillar of the Paramount+/Warner Bros streaming APP for 50 years. Jackass 5 put a nice bow on everything, but even as everyone put smiles on their faces on the red carpet, Bam Margera was a wet blanket on social media, screaming to anyone who would listen that he never wanted to see Johnny Knoxville or Jeff Tremaine ever again, even as Knoxville was caught being super-nice to Bam's Parents.
As the Jackass guys ride into the sunset, I strangely don't feel like taking anyone's side.
I don't think of Johnny Knoxville as the villain, I don't think of Bam Margera as the villain, and I don't think of Jeff Tremaine as the villain.
The Villain in the Jackass Story is Addiction.
Editor's Note:
We do not have a graphics department at Beacon of Speech. If you scroll through our archives, you'll notice probably about 1 in 4 articles use AI Images. So for this article, we were going to use the Jackass 5 Promo Poster. As a lark, we ran the terms: Despair at the Edge of Addiction, Abstract through the AI Image Generator.
We loved the result.