Back when Jackass 2 came out, I distinctly remember saying I could watch a whole movie of just the bit where Johnny Knoxville and Spike Jonze dress in old people make-up (that bit was in 2 and 3, wasn’t it?). Well now Paramount has decided to put my mouth where their money is (?) with Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, an entire movie of Johnny Knoxville in character as “bad grandpa” Irving Zisman. This time shot Borat-style, with guerilla-shot clips of non-actors’ reactions to old man Knoxville incorporated into a fictional storyline. They spice up Knoxville’s grandpa with the always popular little-kid-told-what-to-say-in-an-earpiece gag. It’s hard to argue with the idea, though I do kind of miss Spike Jonze, who was basically a combination of those bits. On a scale of 1-10, how ashamed should I be that I’m almost certainly going to see this?
Okay, so the premise isn’t exactly cutting edge, but if I’m being honest, I laughed my ass off at the stripper scene. If paying a little boy to dress up like a slutty little girl while you wear a fake mustache and soil your adult diapers is wrong, I don’t want to be right. Oh, “Cherry Pie.” It’s like Mencken always said, “No one ever went broke trying to write the cheesiest song ever.”
I’m excited for more of these “Jackass Presents” titles. “Jackass Presents: Masterpiece Theater.” “Jackass Presents: Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment.” “Jackass Presents: The Toothlessest Stripper.”
Opens October 25th.
[See also: The 10 Most Pretentious Critical Reactions to Jackass 3D]
