The Geniuses From Jackass
The Primal Urge
What are we, deep down? What do we crave? What transcends culture and era? Surely, there is a list, although probably not as long a list as we might like to think. I'm not talking about food, shelter, or oxygen. We all obviously need those things. I'm talking about those things that a given culture will reflect back to itself, because of the deep resonance an idea may have to a large group of people. I call these things Primal Urges. They can unite us in a way that other things simply cannot. You might be able to share them with a grandparent, or a complete stranger. They resonate.
A great place to look for our most primal urges might be in advertising. Is faith the primal urge that defines us? For some, most definitely. But I don't see appeals to our Faith Urge in advertising nearly as much as I do another Primal Urge.
You probably think I'm talking about sex, and usually I am. But not this time. I would submit that sex is not the most primal of our urges, the thing that unites us at a basic level more than anything else. Sex may permeate advertising, but we probably don't discuss it much with our parents or strangers, and it certainly doesn't elicit a visceral reaction that we feel like we can share openly with many other people, unless we are Pee Wee Herman.
I'm talking about humor. Specifically, I'm talking about slapstick.
We are Slapstick Nation.
What is slapstick humor? More than anything, it's physical. Somebody falls down, somebody gets hit, somebody gets hurt, though hopefully not seriously. But there's the catch: Slapstick is funniest if there is the implication that somebody is getting hurt at least a moderate amount. And, we have to believe that the person getting hurt knew they were going to be hurt, either as a part of their character or in the undertaking of whatever stunt they were doing.
Any Three's Company or Three Stooges stunt will illustrate the point. Never mind whether you think those particular examples are funny--we'll deal with that in a moment. When Jack Tripper gets hit in the face with his kitchen's swinging door, he has to appear to really get hit, and not just a little bit. It doesn't work if the door barely misses his nose, or if it only bumps his arm a bit. He has to get smacked, full-on.
Our most basic Primal Urge is to laugh at violence happening to people, but only when we understand that we are supposed to laugh. That last point is important. It's the difference between openly laughing at a co-worker's OSHA claim-inspiring episode, which only a very sick person would do, and laughing when we see Lucille Ball get covered in chocolate and pulled into a conveyor belt. One is perhaps mildly funny after the fact, if you didn't like the person and they weren't hurt too badly. The other is a classic laugh riot. This is also why people who laugh at those Funniest Home Videos, where an unsuspecting kid gets nailed with a ball, are truly sick. (Yeah, that includes me sometimes, too. What can I say? Did you hear that ball hit that kid's head? Wham!)
You doubt this? Hey, all you need to do is look at the recent spate of Super Bowl commercials from Sunday night. Cedric the Entertainer gets a bikini wax. (Yeah, I know, it wasn't funny, but they wanted it to be.) A guy flies into space off a ramp on a motorcycle that's too souped-up. A guy flies into the back of a 7-up truck. And it's funny because we know the guy's not really hurt, and because the guy hits the truck so damned hard. (Never underestimate the importance of sound of impact and it's relation to humor quality...) Why is that funny? I'm not at all sure. All I know is that the Three Stooges are still on MasterCard commercials, and Jackass is a hit show on MTV.
Ah, Jackass. I've only seen Jackass a handful of times, and I haven't seen the movie. But I'm here today to tell you that I think Jackass is one of the most brilliant shows on television today. Why? Because Jackass understands our Primal Urge to laugh at people having violence willingly done to them.
What's not funny about guys getting in a shopping cart and getting pushed as fast as they can into a curb so they can see who can fly the farthest into a thornbush? What's not funny about a guy on a platform, pushed around by a guy on a bike, who decides to jump up and grap an overhanging tree branch as he rolls under it? I mean, that's what you do, right? How do you not see that branch coming at you and think, "Hey, why don't I just jump up and grab that thing?" When he comes up about two feet short, hits his head on the branch, and falls on the guy behind him on the bike like a sack of concrete, I promise you you'll be laughing hard.
That is, unless you have some kind of moral hangup. Look, nobody's asking you to have lightbulbs dropped on your head from six stories up. You're not the one who has to get strapped in a chair on a lake dock, and have the chair propelled several yards into the air by giant rubber bands as you fly into the lake. Of course you act with repulsion when you see these things. Of course you shake your head at how insanely stupid these guys are. And then you get over it, sit back, and enjoy that somebody somewhere is brilliant enough and brave enough to go through with it.
Now, it's true that some kids have unfortunately died for trying to emulate the Jackass stunts. It's too bad. But you know what? They said the same things about Beavis and Butt-head, about David Letterman throwing things off the building, and about the Three Stooges. Sometimes, the most immature humor is meant only for the most mature of crowds. Funny how that works.
As for Slapstick's universal appeal, maybe it's a gender thing. I sure haven't met many women who were big Three Stooges or Jackass fans. I know I'm much more likely to laugh at a guy getting hit in the face with a door then my wife is. Maybe there's something about the way men are wired that makes them want to laugh at these absurdities, while women just roll their eyes and marvel at what children we are. What would Jackass For Women be like? I'll tell you: Trading Spaces. That's really what Jackass and Trading Spaces both are: Sexless pornography for men and women.
Now, that's not to say everything on Jackass works, or is in good taste. Hey, if you're gonna be on the edge, you're going to fall off every now and then. Some of the stuff is just gross, some, like immersing yourself in a vat of pinching crabs while wearing only a thong is just pointless. But you endure that and move on. Geniuses need space to fail, too. And for every failed stunt, you get brilliance like a group trip to the sperm bank to see who is the most virile. Not necessarily funny, and a bit odd to watch, but I'm still glad somebody came up with that idea.
Jackass is just our Primal Slapstick Urge unhinged, bored and hopped up on Red Bull with plenty of videotape around. It found an audience because deep down, it speaks to us all. I'm pretty sure my dad has never seen Jackass, but I'll bet he would laugh his ass off at least a couple times during a typical show.
And unlike something to do with those other Primal Urges, sex and faith, I would be completely, absolutely comfortable sharing that experience with him. Gosh, it's making me a little misty-eyed just thinking about it: Me, my dad and Linus, bonding with laughter as we watch Johnny Knoxville's bare chest get shot with paintballs from 10 feet away.
Meanwhile, Lily, Jane and my mom can roll their eyes and wonder how the kitchen might look if it was a different color.
1:26:17 PM 
|
|
