Ryan Dunn, a Pied Piper of Today’s American Youth, is Gone
Anyone who regularly peruses sites like Youtube, ebaumsworld, Break, and other video sharing sites will know quite well that one of the favorite pastimes of today’s youth in America is to film themselves doing really stupid shit. What you must realize is, such inspiration was not born out of thin air. Most credit lies squarely on the shoulders of the show Jackass, one of MTV’s crowning jewels. MTV is no longer a music television station. It is now a reality TV channel that specializes in the lifestyles and behavior of really stupid Americans. The Real World, 16 and Pregnant, Jersey Shore, and, of course, Jackass – it’s like the Discovery Channel for retards.
Jackass starred Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O, Ryan Dunn, and others. Ryan Dunn was a lesser known personality on the show, but he had his stand-out moments, most notably, putting a toy car up his ass and getting an X-ray, much to the surprise of the doctor and his female assistant. I just watched the video on Youtube and one of the viewers commented “He lived and died with car parts in his ass”. Not the nicest thing to say, perhaps, but I thought it was clever.
Ryan Dunn died of a car accident after driving his Porsche 911 off the road while having a blood alcohol level of 0.196 (more than twice the normal limit). Also killed in the accident was Zachary Hartwell, a production assistant on Jackass Two. Investigations show that he was driving between 132 to 140 miles per hour in a 55 limit zone.
When a person dies, it’s sad, regardless of whether or not they were responsible for their own death. In this case, there’s a greater responsibility. When a person is surrounded by friends who constantly dare that person to be stupid, is it really so surprising when that person dies as a result of their own stupidity? Being dared to do stupid acts was his bread and butter. It paid for the Porsche 911 he was driving. The actors on Jackass are guys who think it’s funny and cool to do things which put themselves at risk for great bodily harm and injury, and they have conveyed this message to the youth of America. Was there any other inevitability than the untimely death of one of them? The only thing they didn’t forsee was that one of their deaths would not be filmed during one of their stunts.
One of the Pied Pipers of the Jackass show is gone. Where will the children who follow him go from here?
Bobo_Vision
