[HN Gopher] Johnny Knoxville's Last Rodeo
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Johnny Knoxville's Last Rodeo
Author : spunker540
Score : 48 points
Date : 2021-06-15 20:07 UTC (2 hours ago)
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(TXT) w3m dump (www.gq.com)
| WalterBright wrote:
| I never could watch Jackass and people hurting themselves.
| e40 wrote:
| _Bad Grandpa_ was truly amazing, and I could never watch
| Jackass, either. _Bad Grandpa_ is definitely low-brow humor,
| but it is very well done.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| Truly a masterpiece.
| axegon_ wrote:
| To be honest I always associate Knoxville and Jackass with the
| happiest period of my life - one specific winter in my early
| teenage years - my parents were working around the clock and were
| never home so my best friend was skipping his volleyball
| practices and was coming ofer to our place and we'd watch jackass
| all day long. Just recently it struck me that Knoxville was
| younger than I am now.
| pram wrote:
| The catheter thing: I remember watching him be interviewed, and
| they brought up that event and the catheter. He literally took
| the bag of piss that was strapped to his leg and started
| squirting it around in response. Yeah, he's the real deal lol
| crispyporkbites wrote:
| Johnny Knoxville was 29 when Jackass 1 came out- wow!
| ilaksh wrote:
| $500 for vomit-colored plaid pajama pants? Lol.
|
| Also, he is 50. Not like he's elderly and dying. For his own sake
| I think everyone hopes he will never do more stunts of course.
| But not sure how realistic that is.
| spunker540 wrote:
| Jackass hinted at the direction culture was taking with no-names
| getting famous over short shocking clips, but they also managed
| to stay relevant and draw huge crowds post-YouTube.
|
| In reality I don't think it was ever solely about the stunts, but
| the personalities and the jokes and the pranks. A random YouTuber
| doing the same stunts won't compare without humor and
| personality.
| alfiedotwtf wrote:
| > Jackass hinted at the direction culture was taking with no-
| names getting famous over short shocking clips
|
| That was done years earlier with America's Funniest Home Video
| Show
| RandallBrown wrote:
| Did anyone on the videos in that show get famous?
| libertine wrote:
| Others tried to mimic what they did by being more bold, or
| gross, or edgy... but I don't think it was about the stunts.
| Somehow they made you feel like you were part of the group.
|
| I don't know if it was the way they filmed it, or the fact that
| they were so casual and normal around the cameras, even the
| setups for the scenes were kind of goofy and "home video"
| style.
| smcl wrote:
| > Somehow they made you feel like you were part of the group
|
| This is a great point, so maybe they were _also_ among the
| first to attract the sort of parasocial relationships that
| also emerged with the rise of social media.
| handrous wrote:
| > This is a great point, so maybe they were also among the
| first to attract the sort of parasocial relationships that
| also emerged with the rise of social media.
|
| Maybe I'm misreading the situation, but I'm pretty sure
| political AM radio show hosts beat them to that. Casual,
| conversational, "unlike those morons, you and I both
| know..." style, tons of in-jokes. Extensive call-in
| segments.
| smoldesu wrote:
| I don't really buy this whole "parasocial relationship"
| theory. If there's any science on it, I'd love to see it,
| but people have had obsessions for ages: that doesn't
| necessarily excuse them or make them healthy, but also
| don't see how the information age changes that in any way.
| at_ wrote:
| Totally agree - just watched a bit on Youtube out of
| nostalgia, and was taken aback by the charm of it for sure.
| There's a restraint that I don't think I appreciated when I
| was watching it as a young teenager - it's defined as much by
| the the places that it doesn't go (that other shows did, as
| you say) than the places that it does
| aaronax wrote:
| Indeed, even with edgy "out there" content it is important
| to have "restraint" like you said...someone with a vision
| of what the product will be.
|
| This can also be seen in the Trailer Park Boys TV show.
| Seasons 1-7 under the direction of Mike Clattenburg do have
| a lot of swearing and dirty jokes, but it is always
| genuinely good humor, or serving plot and character
| development maybe. I'm sure I don't describe it well, but
| "I know it when I see it."[0] The following seasons with
| other directing/production have lost that tact and
| restraint; like they just call someone 5-6 dirty words in a
| row, funny only for the shock value of the words. Not
| funny.
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_know_it_when_I_see_it
| post_break wrote:
| It also helped seeing the movies with the same group of
| friends, or talking about the show at school with the same
| friends. Did you watch viva la bam last night? Or wildboyz?
| Just hearing the name Johnny Knoxville makes me feel
| nostalgic for skateboarding with friends.
| tmountain wrote:
| Jackass came out of CKY (Camp Kill Yourself) which started
| off as a bunch of friends who rode skateboards making
| homemade skate videos with a bunch of bloopers/excerpts.
|
| They quickly realized that people liked the filler as much as
| the actual content and capitalized on that interest with
| Jackass.
|
| It felt authentic because it was. The people making the
| videos had a genuine connection / were actually friends, and
| were really just doing it for fun in the beginning and that
| makes it feel different than a lot of the manufactured
| content that people are exposed to today.
| sergiomattei wrote:
| This is it. I'm a huge fan of Impractical Jokers for this
| same reason: they really make you feel you're part of them,
| they let you into the inside jokes, etc.
|
| It's really just a group of people making funny content.
| They feel genuine and that draws people in.
| steveklabnik wrote:
| Don't forget (as the article mentions) Big Brother. In some
| ways, it was very similar, but also, very different, being
| a print magazine. Video really changed things.
| throwkeep wrote:
| That's a vital aspect. Kenny vs Spenny is an example of
| this too, I think. You wouldn't be able to capture that
| authenticity with a top down approach.
| axaxs wrote:
| yeah I remember the CKY guys had similar premise. But they
| were more 'dark' or extreme or something. Definitely not as
| entertaining as Jackass, and never really got as popular
| either, probably for that reason.
| actusual wrote:
| My favorite jackass prank was the Valentine's day card pasted to
| the hotel wall. The gag was simple, but incredibly well executed.
| The Valentine's day card was supposed to be written to Jackass
| stars from someone staying in the hotel, and the hand written
| scrawl would get progressively smaller as the "writer" ran out of
| room on the card, which caused the reader to lean in closer and
| closer to finish reading it. Then WHAM a giant boxing glove would
| fly out of the card, punching the reader in the face.
|
| Long live Johnny Knoxville, American hero.
| jonplackett wrote:
| Hadn't seen that before!
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PocAbbm9GnA
| paulpauper wrote:
| Jackass thrived in an era when TV networks had the power to
| decide what was cool and who was famous. By 2008, thanks in part
| due to smart phones, all of that began to change in favor of
| decentralized, a la carte entertainment such as youtube, live
| streaming, twitter, vine, etc. This meant faster careers and more
| lucrative payoffs, but also much more competition. AFIK, none of
| the Jackass stuntmen made much money, rather Viacom did, but
| YouTube and Instagram stars of today are reaping tons of ad and
| product placement revenue.
| CharlesW wrote:
| > _Jackass thrived in an era when TV networks had the power to
| decide what was cool and who was famous._
|
| Most TV network content fails. TV networks (just like digital
| networks) can guarantee some level of distribution and
| marketing support, but they could no more guarantee the kind of
| virality that Jackass experienced anymore than YouTube can.
| snake_plissken wrote:
| Some of the stuff on Jackass was truly avant garde at the time. I
| specifically remember the coffin falling out of the hearse skit.
| So simple yet so brilliant.
| rhodozelia wrote:
| Tom green was even ahead of them. Who can forget the air
| brushed lesbians on his dads car, his dad deciding to take the
| bus to his government job, and then Tom trying to pick his dad
| up at the bus stop in the car.
| smoldesu wrote:
| > Jackass revealed that the very nature of fame was changing in
| early-aughts America--that you could become famous by doing
| whatever it took to hold an audience's attention.
|
| Another good example of this is Mystery Science Theater 3000.
| They've had the reaction video patented and perfected since the
| 1990s, and it still feels like nobody can quite hold a candle to
| how well-presented MST3K is. They also have a great (official!)
| YouTube channel[0] that uploads their best episodes. Go check it
| out if you've never heard of them, or just want to come back for
| the laughs.
|
| [0] https://www.youtube.com/user/mst3kofficial
| WalterBright wrote:
| The Air Force would show movies to the GIs in WW2. My dad said
| the best part of the movies were the snarky comments by other
| GIs during the show.
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