How I got my Jackass back

When I was twenty-two I had what can only be described as a nervous breakdown. Everything that could go wrong had gone wrong. I had been arrested and was facing court, I had lost my job and my license, and the people I thought were my friends turned out to be my enemies. Life was looking bleak. I was suicidal and desperately lonely. I had been through it all before. My high school years were a mess and I couldn’t remember the last time I was truly happy. Basically, everything was fucking shithouse.

Then, with my darkest hour upon me, a miracle emerged before me in the form of a hired video cassette. I was at a friend’s house and his sister dropped by with some movies from the local rental. I had never heard of any of them and since we decided to get stoned, I didn’t really care which one we watched. At first I thought Jackass: The Movie was some stupid action film – the kind which I hated. However, all that changed in the opening credits.

I saw a group of grown men – a motley bunch consisting of a midget, an extremely fat man, an almost nude man and several other ragamuffin type characters – riding down a hill in an over-sized shopping cart, punching each other whilst bricks exploded around them as they hurtled down the road. Then they crashed! It was fucking insane! I couldn’t stop laughing! I swear it had nothing to do with the dope…

From the first scene of the rent-a-car crash-up derby to the butt x-ray, I was completely enthralled. There is nothing funnier than watching someone stick a toy car up their ass. Memories of a time long ago before my life became so complicated came rushing back. This was me! I used to do this stuff! Of course I was younger and had no inhibitions and life was all about the next laugh. It was all about who could play the best prank, which one could be more disgusting?

I could see myself kicking my cousin into a filthy pond and laughing my ass off at his shocked face when he emerged. I remembered my friend and me covering doorknobs at school with goop and watching for people’s reactions as they placed their hands on them. We would laugh loudly from our hiding places! It was all about living in the moment – we never cared about the consequences.

That’s what “Jackass” meant to me. It made me laugh at a time when I hadn’t laughed in a very long time. From that day on I felt freer and less worried about the future. I began to take my life one day at a time AND to my parents chagrin, I started playing pranks again. Only this time my pranks were BIGGER and BETTER!

I suppose I would have gotten out of my melancholy funk eventually – Jackass just helped me out sooner. So - thank you Johnny, Bam, Steve-o, Chris, Ryan, Wee Man, Preston, Dave and Ehren – You reminded me to not take life too seriously.