A show about jackasses

There are other shows besides Beavis and Butt-head and Jersey Shore that are worth mentioning on MTV. For this post, I will talk about one show from the early 2000s, after MTV started its 'shift' but before MTV became crap: Jackass.

Jackass is, like Beavis and Butt-head, not suited for everybody. Actually, Jackass is more likely to horrify you if you cannot stand the idea of people filming themselves do stunts where they will more than likely, if not inevitably (and in some cases that's the point) get hurt. The show fortunately tells you that "Neither you nor your dumb little buddies should attempt anything you see on this show."

The show came to be through a combination of the efforts of skateboarder/stuntsman Bam Margera and his "Camp Kill Yourself" (CKY) series, as well as Johnny Knoxville, a writer for the skateboarding magazine Big Brother (not to be confused with the reality series). Knoxville had an article idea that involved him as a self-defense human test subject, including testing a bullet-proof vest. The video of this last test was humorous enough that more masochistic films were made. Coincidentially, this kind of stuff was what Bam Margera's crew was doing in his CKY films, of which he was doing his first. Together, Jackass was created.

And so we have a show about these guys doing ridiculously stupid stuff like prodding people with a pingas-shaped iron brand (I never thought I'd say those words together. And yes, that spelling is intentional. This link will explain why.) or using a car to pull a tooth out. Yeah, there are too many examples for me to list. Again, the funny thing is that it's been a while since I've seen Jackass, and for some reason none come off the top of my head; these examples came from the TVTropes page.

There is also a movie based on Jackass. Actually, there are three movies. And the third one is in 3D for some reason. I've never seen these movies, but from what I can tell, they have the craziest and most painful stunts ever done by the crew.

Jackass is so horrifying to some that senator Joe Lieberman not only made MTV stop airing reruns temporarily, he also practically prevented a "Too Hot for TV" video release. So if you like Jackass and live in Connecticut, don't vote for Lieberman. If you're a moral guardian and live in Connecticut, maybe you should vote for him. If you don't live in Connecticut, and I know that most of this blog's current audience lives in Florida, then you can't really do anything about that.

-Erich