...or are we witnessing "Jackass, the Culture"?

At a time when strikes are rampant in Europe, ten percent of Americans are chronically out of work and Nevada is in danger of electing Sharron Angle to the Senate (insert shudder here), the number one movie at the box office last week was..."Jackass 3-D". Don't get me wrong. I like a good groin-kick as much as the next guy...as long at it happens to the next guy. Still, I worry that when choosing a movie, the viewing public rejects "Waiting for Superman" and "Secretariat" in favor of a film devoted to men doing some of the dumbest stunts imaginable. This has to be like watching someone stick a fork in a toaster for 90 minutes. How entertaining can this be?

Apparently pretty entertaining. This is the third iteration of the Jackass franchise and the first one in 3-D. That's quite an oeuvre for a bunch of guys (no women appear dumb enough to do this stuff) whose creative process sounds like "so dude, suppose we have a guy dressed as Santa climb to the top of a giant tree then chop the tree down?" Artistic committee consensus "way cool!"

At first glance these movies are a feature-length ad for the dangers of smoking dope. No sober person would actually try any of these stunts. They're dangerous, pointless and were it not for the performers yucking it up during and after the tricks, might not be that funny. Silly, seemingly life-threatening shtick is only funny in context. When a film character is trapped in a portable john and taken for the ride of his life, that's funny. Mechanically strapping a "actor" into a toilet and slingshotting the thing with bungee cords is contrivance. If you remove the character of Mr. Bean or Inspector Clouseau from the film equation, you are left with a quickly tiresome series of pratfalls.

Anyway, these movies are popular and who am I to dictate to America's youth? After all, we laughed at Pinky Lee and Red Skelton. We thought All in the Family was "edgy" and watching Sanford & Son made you a liberal. Come to think of it, with the world in its current state and the job prospects of today's high school and college graduates maybe all the next generation has to look forward to is a good kick in the balls. They won't even need the glasses.