Media Meditation #3 People Doing Stupid Shit...in 3D!!!

So I did it. I broke down and bought myself a ticket to see Jackass 3D. Being a product of the 90's, I grew up watching the series Jackass on MTV. A TV series that featured stunts, pranks, and all around crude slap-stick comedy. I ate that shit up.

It probably began when I was a freshman in high school. I was a drummer in an em0-punk-rock band that played only covers. In between playing songs we would hang out and do stupid and dangerous things, partly influenced by the CKY videos we were watching. Created by professional skateboarder Bam Margera and Brandon Dicamillo, they were a mix between skateboarding and bored kids with video cameras doing dangerous things and hurting each other. I don't know exactly why these videos had such a draw. It was funny to watch others with nothing to better to do than cause a stir, document their dangerous exploits. I felt as though I could relate to these guys somehow, and often picked up the video camera myself to document dumb ideas that I had. (I once videotaped me and my friends jumping out the second story window onto a trampoline when my parents weren't home. Needless to say they were not amused when they found the tape still in the camera.)

Now for your amusement I have a compilation video of the best of the CKY 3, because it was the only one that would upload, brought to you by yournamissatan courtesy of Youtube.

These guys are idiots, and many of them struck it big when they were drafted onto the series of Jackass titles that followed. The Jackass franchise has been wildly successful with numerous spin-off series like Wildboys, and Viva La Bam, and 3 motion pictures of the same name. They have the art of toilet humor to a science. They know exactly what their audience wants, and what they are going to expect. With a modest production budget of $20 million, Jackass 3D raked in an estimated $50 million its first weekend. Pretty good for a bunch of Jackasses. I thought the movie was hilarious. Every stunt was produced masterfully to look good in 3D. The only problem I had was getting to the theater five minutes before the movie started on opening weekend. The 3D experience is seriously stiffed when you have your head cranked back at a sharp angle. Note to self: Don't pay for first row tickets for a 3D movie.