When Andy Warhol made his prophetic comment about fame, he
could not possibly have anticipated the lengths some would go to get their 15
minutes. Consider Johnny Knoxville and his posse of merry pranksters. These are
America's funniest home videos, a generous and representative sampling of
segments from the notorious MTV series Jackass, which capture men
behaving very badly and very stupidly. Knoxville and company are mostly content
to do injury to themselves and each other (their poor and battered groins alone
must be eligible for combat pay). Other segments have a demented Candid
Camera quality. In one, Chris Pontius dons a werewolf suit and runs amok
through London. In another, two hockey players continue their "fight" inside a
store. Throwaway bits, such as the popping of a blackhead, cleanse the palate
between stunts. As one observer notes: "You'd have to be an idiot to try this."
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