In this new clip from Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, Johnny Knoxville shows off impressive flexibility by climbing into a trick bed that folds him into full pike position over and over. No way I could bend in half that easily. You think he’s been doing yoga? It makes you wonder if he could self-fellate. And if he can self-fellate, shouldn’t that be one of the gags (heh, ‘gags’, get it?) in Bad Grandpa? “Grandpa! Stop blowing yourself, this is a nice French restaurant!”
Yes, I enjoyed this, and I’m not ashamed.
The other day, a commenter asked why I can enjoy this and not viral marketing stunts like the Carrie prank from the other day. Well, for one, I do draw a distinction between something like this, where the prank itself is the product, and the Carrie stunt, where the prank is supposed to promote a product. But the main reason why is the prank itself. Here, the main spectacle is the slapstick visual of Knoxville getting bent in half over and over. It’s like a Three Stooges gag. The people’s reactions to it are just the icing on the cake. The Carrie prank, and pranks like it, the whole thing is just a not-particularly funny movie stunt applied to real life. The only goal is “Haha, we got you! We made you think it was real!” Yeah, so?
There’s nothing particularly visually interesting about it, or the people’s reactions, it’s just screwing with people for the sake of screwing with them – though it’s actually worse, because they’re screwing with them for the sake of selling them something. Not to mention the whole lead up to it was weird, histrionic theater acting injected into real life. And, ugh, between reality shows and Maury, the last thing we need is more theatrical histrionics infecting people’s reality. It’s like those Improv Everywhere stunts where they just start dancing around people who are trying to shop for groceries. Leave me alone, man, I don’t want to join your drama club, I just want some potatoes.
Sorry, I should’ve left it at the blowjob joke.