Can a franchise built on reckless youthful humor survive the death by high-speed wreck of one of its core cast members?
Critic Roger Ebert unwittingly raised the question -- and set off a web-wide controversy -- when he tweeted “Friends don’t let jackasses drink and drive” shortly after news broke Monday that “Jackass” star Ryan Dunn had died in a car crash.
For some, the connection was a little too close for comfort.
But Ebert alluded to the obvious: “Jackass” was built on the kind of high-risk behavior that led to the 34-year-old’s fatal accident early Monday morning.
Also Read: Ryan Dunn Drinking Buddy Describes Final Binge Before Crash
Dunn’s 2007 Porsche 911 careened off a Pennsylvania highway at 130 miles per hour, and left his car a flaming metal shard. In the process, both the “Jackass” original player and his passenger, production assistant Zachary Hartwell, were killed.
That’s the kind of carnage -- minus the fatalities -- that would fit comfortably on a show where Johnny Knoxville once tried to fly a homemade rocket and got in the ring with a charging bull.
Pictures Dunn tweeted hours before the crash that showed him drinking have prompted speculation that he was intoxicated at the time of the accident.
On Wednesday, The Daily published an interview with a drinking buddy of Dunn's, Thaddeus Kalinoski, who said the "Jackass" star consumed Whiskey shots and beer prior to his fatal accident. He had also reportedly told Kalinoski that he had struggled with addiction to prescription drugs.
“He was shooting picklebacks — whiskey shots chased by pickle juice,” Kalinoski told The Daily. “The shots were coming right to him. They were all over the bar.”
MTV declined to discuss whether there might be any impact on the “Jackass” brand, saying only that they were saddened by the tragedy.
But could there be repercussions for a franchise that has evolved from a hit MTV cable series into a box-office juggernaut? The three films in the franchise grossed more than $334 million globally and collectively cost less than $40 million to make.
After all, will watching someone jump off a balcony be a lot less funny following Dunn's senseless tragedy?
"'Jackass’ is forever going to be the show with the guy who died,” Ethan Thompson, professor of media studies at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, told TheWrap.
Also Read: Ryan Dunn Death: Bam Margera Rips Roger Ebert for 'Jackass' Tweet
Others said that the culture will take a breather and go right back to sucking down the sensationalistic and often dangerous antics Jackass and lots of other shows gleefully celebrate.
“We’re going to take a respectful break, and then people are going to go back to doing what they do,” Eric Deggans, a television and media critic for the St.
