Oh HAHAHA Aw-F***! OMG Eww Gross!
Okay well, where the hell do we start with this? I guess in light of the extreme courage/stupidity that went into the making of this movie and I suppose in solidarity with the cast members who risked their lives for my shits and giggles the least I can do is put aside all notions of snobbery and be honest about how I reacted to this movie. I laughed hard and loud. I was grossed out and had to shield my eyes from the screen. I groaned and gasped so routinely and unexpectedly that I sometimes surprised myself by how loud I was being (everyone else in the theater was loud too, so it was okay.) I had been grinning so much that my mouth actually hurt when I left the theater. If it wasn’t for several scenes so disgusting I couldn’t possibly recommend watching them to anyone, I would enthusiastically suggest this movie to anybody I wouldn’t ask for a job or go on a date with.
“Jackass 3D,” is a documentary about a bunch of idiots named Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Bam Margera, Ryan Dunn, Jason ‘Wee Man’ Acuna, Preston Lacy, Chris Pontius, Ehren McGhehey, and Dave England. It is directed by Jeff Tremaine. ‘Jackass’ started as a TV show on MTV in 2000. The pilot episode featured Knoxville being tasered, maced, and then donning a bulletproof vest and shooting himself in the chest. Ten years later, he and his friends (now in their thirties) are still doing really dumb and dangerous things, except now they have a huge budget and the best cameras available.
One of the main reasons why comedy isn’t as respected as drama is because it is very hard to do comedy on a pedestal. Laughing at somebody is much easier if you feel superior to them. Now this doesn’t mean you have to be stupid to be a good clown, but the best and smartest clowns are masters of perfecting that paradoxical act of being smart and creative while at the same time looking really stupid. In other words some of the best comedy plays as a “joke on accident.” The teller never gives away the fact that they know they are manipulating the audience into laughter. This allows the joke to be unique and creative while preserving the audience’s sense of superiority. And hilarity ensues.
I remarked earlier that I laughed often and hard at a vast majority of the movie. Let us pretend for a moment that the makers didn’t fall assbackward into accidentally telling good jokes over and over again. (And at the same time let us also pretend that I am not a bonehead who will laugh at anything). Now that were pretending, perhaps a closer look at ‘Jackass’ is called for. Warning: the following will not be funny.
The most effective thing about ‘Jackass’ (and where it succeeds where so many other action/comedies fail) is the extreme Clarity and Brevity of what is happening on the screen. The pranks and stunts are explained thoroughly and never hang around long enough for the laughs to die down. Plenty of action movies nowadays involve stunts and spectacles that are full of huge special effects but are not effective because they are hard to follow and understand. Other times producers and directors keep in long scenes simply because they spent so much money on them even when they don't work. Here, when a stunt is to be performed a brief title or a sentence of explanation will describe what exactly will happen (Knoxville in roller skates in the path of stampeding Buffalo) and what is at stake (Knoxville’s health, well-being, and dignity). Reveals that develop levels to a particular joke (like the jet plane or the little person fight) come quickly, unexpectedly, but still logically. The fact that it is a documentary keeps everything in suspense. We understand what is about to happen but not how it will turn out. All of this is achieved in merely seconds. And as soon as people are done getting hurt, or saying or doing something funny or off-the-wall, the movie goes straight into something else. No time is wasted. Perhaps the main reason “Jackass” doesn’t have the usual problems of special effects driven action scenes is because the stuntmen getting hurt are in charge of the movie. They want to get the most out of their bruises and that means making it clear how they got them. Incidentally that also makes it funnier.
Because this is a documentary, it would be weird to applaud the acting of “Jackass.” But again another reason why plenty of action/comedies are ineffective is because the acting isn’t realistic. A huge explosion should really freak somebody out but usually doesn’t. Here, the cast gets scared on a regular basis. A good example is when Dave England tries to pin a tail on a real donkey. He gets kicked in the shin, tries again, and actually starts shaking as he inches his way up. The guy is terrified. And when a cast member in “Jackass” gets hurt, they really get hurt. One stunt involved an NFL kicker named Josh Brown kicking a football in the face of Preston Lacy. He kicks the ball and it hits Preston right in the face. Preston then drops to the ground and writhes in very real pain. In this way, “Jackass” is an incredibly cathartic experience. Because the terror and pain is so real, the audience vicariously feels it. Like I said, the entire theater was groaning and gasping the entire time. Now usually this wouldn’t be funny because it is mean to laugh at somebody who just got hurt. But the ingenious thing about Jackass is that it provides a laugh track composed of all the other cast members who aren’t taking part in the stunt. As soon as somebody gets it really good, Johnny Knoxville will lead a hearty group laugh. The fact that every cast member takes their turn laughing at all the other stunts makes it okay for the audience to join in. The guilt we would usually feel is erased by the knowledge that each cast member is complicit in delighting in all the other cast member’s pain. So in a way they deserve it. This is comedic misdirection in the classic sense. A situation that would normally be frightening or scary is made okay by the fact that the stuntman, though injured, is not “seriously” injured, emphasis on the word “seriously.” We have anticipated real terror. Everything has turned out fine. The subsequent relief gives us visceral pleasure causing us to laugh loudly.
Of course, some of the stuff that goes on here really is freak show, disgusting stuff. (There is a running gag that involves a cameraman named Lance throwing up in the midst of several stunt.) I sort of suggest seeing this on DVD and fast-forwarding the parts where it is obvious things will get really bad. I had to cover my eyes during some scenes, like the ‘cup of sweat’ gag. But there is quite a lot to admire here and if I were in charge of an action/comedy I would look to this movie for tips. It is physical comedy at its most effective. Now, imagine if you had an actual story behind some of this stuff. Wouldn't that be powerful indeed.
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