jackassworld

Soon after finding out this website was going to become a foolhardy reality, we filed a petition to spring all our old tapes and shit from the MTV storage vault. In doing so, this allowed us to dredge up some footage that has never once smeared the airwaves. Some is good. Some is not so good. Some is neither here nor there or anywhere in between, but here it is now on the Internet, an entertainment medium more junked up than Staten Island and most all of India combined.

Today’s never-before-seen selection harkens back to the first season of jackass when we were still running around all half-ass and willy-nilly. Structure is what I’m talking about here, because the day we brought this mess o’ footage in for the “Satan vs. God” segment, starring Chris Pontius as The Devil Himself, I was chuckling to high heaven. Things went fantastically awry on the shoot and I couldn’t wait to see it all cut together in a brilliant little package. However, one of our editors, Ivan Victor to be precise, lost it on me while scrolling through the footage in his bay. Apparently he thought I was supposed to be a Segment Producer or something and know exactly what the overall “story” to this piece was so he could edit up all nice and quick-like. But I didn’t. I don’t think anyone did. We just went out and shot shit back then, hoping for the best, and “Satan vs. God” was a prime example of this.

Luckily I didn’t give a shit about what my occupational title was or I might have been a little more concerned for my professional integrity. I knew I didn’t know shit about being a producer-type then—or now, for that matter—so I had him there. All he could do was get red in the face. But when an editor gets mad it will inevitably get back to you in some manner. Sure enough, the next day a few of us new kids on the Hollywood block received a formal lesson in logging footage and how to do these things called “write-ups,” which clearly outline the “story” for each piece and how it’s expected to unfold on the screen. That’s right, story. On jackass. I was just as surprised.

Anyway, there you have it: a tangential story about how one small professional step forward for man eventually lead to one great leap backward for mankind.