It’s not easy to do comedy. Not only do you have to finely toe the line between respectful or risk offending people when it comes to certain topics, you also have to make people laugh, which is something we could all do with these days. So it’s somewhat of a surprise that the comedy that can consistently deliver laughs in 2020 isn’t stand-up or witty TV shows, but rather it’s Johnny Knoxville and his pals doing stupid stuff on Jackass.
Speaking of comedy, the GOAT team talk to the duo behind the Inspired Unemployed on ‘It’s Been A Big Day For…’ below:
On the surface, there’s nothing really revolutionary or anything remotely approaching smart about the comedy of Jackass. It’s literally just Johnny Knoxville and his mates being absolute, well, jackasses to each other and seeing how much dumb stuff they can physically do over the course of a two-hour movie.
And boy is the stuff dumb because it all revolves around juvenile humour and involves a disgusting amount of bodily fluids from time to time. Sometimes animals are brought in because, well, why not.
There’s no substance or any real thought put into the stunts or comedy in Jackass, yet they still make us laugh (and gag) until our sides hurt. Why is that? How come something as dumb as getting hit repeatedly in the nuts or a stunt titled ‘Poo Cocktail Supreme‘ so damn funny?
Perhaps this is due to the primal nature of Jackass‘ stunts and how it appeals to the caveman side of humans – it doesn’t take much brain power to process what’s going on and people doing stupid things outside of what we consider to be the norm that results in injuries just amuses us.
It certainly explains why shows like Australia’s Funniest Home Videos lasted for so many years.
Or maybe it’s because Jackass has no real agenda behind it other than to do dumb shit. Tensions have been high these last few years and political comedy has become the well in which a lot of comedians drink from.
But there’s none of that in Jackass. They aren’t targeting anyone or any group, and there’s definitely no politics or any intentionally offensive angle. In fact, the only people Johnny Knoxville and his crew are really hurting are literally just themselves.
And boy have they hurt themselves in the pursuit of comedy on Jackass because the list of injuries racked up by Knoxville and his mates makes you wonder how they are still walking around after all this time.
So Jackass may not be the most sophisticated brand of comedy but it continues to be entertaining in 2020 because it’s got no agenda other than to amuse and entertain in the most primal, attention-seeking way. And you know, sometimes we could all do with laughing at something as simple as someone farting onto someone else’s face.
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