On Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 1:42 PM, Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Monday, June 20, 2011, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 10:47 AM, Kevin M. <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Ryan Dunn posted photos of himself drinking on his Twitter feed. Not > > too long after, he and his Porsche were engulfed in flames. What a > > jackass. > > > > I have never seen Jackass, and never heard of Ryan Dunn before (somehow I > thought Ashton Kutcher did the Jackass show?). I can quite bring myself to > call a young man who just burned to death a jackass (though once the > evidence is all in I might not be able to refute the claim either). I am > comfortable using the term jackass (or maybe something stronger) for the > people described in the following excerpt from the linked story: > > I hear you, and had a fraction of a second of internal debate before > posting the title, but the series was called Jackass, he called > himself a Jackass, and he died doing something a Jackass would do. > Whatever moral issues my calling him a name might be are negligible > compared to what he did. And he'll be hailed as a pop icon because he > had a show that made teens and stoners giggle. > > One thing his family won't be able to say is that such reckless > behavior was totally out of character, or any of the other platitudes > that tend to get uttered at times like this. He lived and died as a > jackass. > I was not necessarily disagreeing with your comment, just noting that since I had no idea who the young man was (or what his show was about) I would not pile on at this time. Apparently Roger Ebert did know something about him, and did agree with you, posting something similar on this twitter feed, sparking a bit of a twitter war (see: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/20/roger-eberts-ryan-dunn-death-jackass_n_880950.html#s295271&title=SteveO). Some of the story excerpted below: **************** "Friends don't let jackasses drink and drive," he tweeted around 3 pm EST. The message was met with a barrage of push back, including from blogger Perez Hilton's site. "We certainly agree that driving after drinking is wrong, we think there's no reason - especially RIGHT NOW - that anyone should be pointing fingers or poking fun at a truly tragic situation," the site wrote<http://perezhilton.com/2011-06-20-roger-ebert-responds-insensitively-to-ryan-dunns-death>. "Everyone makes mistake, and this is somebody's son. Too soon, Roger." Around 8 pm, Ebert responded, defending his comment and the remarks of commenters on Hilton's site, many of whom agreed with Ebert. "Perez Hilton's readers agree with me and not with Perez about my tweet on Ryan Dunn. He drank, he drove, 2 people died," Ebert wrote<http://twitter.com/#%21/ebertchicago/status/82960226545958913> . *UPDATE:* Bam Margera, Dunn's best friend and the "Jackass" and "CKY" co-star whose parents tearfully confirmed the death, lashed out at Ebert over Twitter late Tuesday night, ripping him for his comments about drinking and driving. "I just lost my best friend<http://twitter.com/#%21/BAM__MARGERA/status/83014633153236992>, I have been crying hysterical for a full day and piece of sh*t roger ebert has the gall to put in his 2 cents," Margera tweeted. "About a jackass drunk<http://twitter.com/#%21/BAM__MARGERA/status/83015158930227200>driving and his is one, f*ck you! Millions of people are crying right now, shut your fat f*cking mouth!"" ********************* Again, there is still a lot I don't know (e.g. was he actually drunk? Did he really brag about drinking and then driving?). There may be room for some greater sensitivity here, but I don't take either Kevin or Ebert as really making a joke. Quite the contrary. It is the popular media that often seems to joke too much about irresponsible drinking, including DUI - and that is what there is nothing funny about, since it kills people. Calling people who drive while drunk jackasses seems pretty mild. Again, I don't know if this particular person was driving while drunk, and even if he was, there may be some justification in waiting a while before blaming him - on the other hand, what day other than today are the kids who watch his show more likely to maybe here the message that it is just stupid to drink and drive than today? -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
