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Thursday, February 10, 2022
What It's Like to Be a Safety Supervisor on ‘Jackass Forever’
www.vice.com: The masochists behind Jackass have been putting their bodies through absolute hell for more than 20 years. While they were a bunch of bright-eyed degenerates when their show debuted on MTV, the crew has now solidly entered middle age
6 comments:
Jeremy Pitzer
said...
If you sat me down and interviewed me, asking only the question of what job in the world I think would be the most insufferable soul crushing exhausting responsibility possible in either this life or the next, I would say being Safety Supervisor on this television series. I don’t think I would last longer than maybe a week. It truly sounds taxing on the mind, the body and the soul. Trying to keep a bunch of grown men calling themselves Jackass Forever from hurting themself? Thank you for offering, but not over my cold dead body. I love and support whoever is doing this godforsaken job, but I also pity them extremely. I wonder what the turnover rate for this job is, like do they constantly have a new one or has one person been doing this from the beginning. Because if that's the case that person deserves a purple heart and a 21 gun salute at their funeral.
Ill admit that watching “Jackass” has been one of my guilty pleasures for a long time. The movies are absolutely hilarious and my friends and I still consistently watch old clips when we hangout. I’ve actually been meaning to watch “Jackass Forever”, but I haven’t had the time. From what I can tell in the trailer though, it appears as if the stunts are a bit more tame then previous films, but that could just be the trailer cuts. I can only imagine what being a safety supervisor on that show is like, especially because a lot of the stunts could cost someone’s life. There’s definitely a fine line that can be walked in between dangerous and outright suicidal, and a lot of the stunts definitely push the boundaries of that. One of the most stunts that I found the most impressive was the “Poo Cocktail Supreme” as hilarious as the stunt was it also definitely took a bit of engineering to make sure that it went properly. Shooting Stevo in a porter potty 100s of feet in the air using cranes and a massive slingshot is no easy feat and it definitely took a lot of trial and error to set up. Its stunts like those that show that being a safety supervisor for “Jackass”, as ironic as it sounds is no joke.
I first encountered Jackass a few weeks ago when I unfortunately came across a clip of one of their members letting UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou punch him in the balls. It was quite concerning. Personally, I am not a big fan of their style of slapstick humor but it is definitely interesting to consider the technical elements of how they are able to consistently pull off such crazy stunts. Reading this article, I sort of feel like Charlie Grisham, the longtime stunt coordinator of Jackass, is mildly downplaying the extreme dangers of their shenanigans. It honestly sounds like these guys are now living with lifelong injuries from their relentless antics and that a lot of their more dangerous stunts have a way higher reliance on luck than it should. The emphasis on how the more mild stunts can turn out to be the most dangerous is something that I found to be relevant to other fields; danger is often easier to prevail when the illusion of safety is present.
This was just . . . insane. Charlie Grisham’s job is basically keeping the Jackass crew alive. Not safe, not uninjured: alive. And sometimes, it sounds like it got a little too close to comfort for him. The things he described, like the bull stunt or water ski-jetpack thing they filmed, bring these people so close to death that I just simply cannot fathom choosing, or even enjoying this for a living?? I’m glad Grisham is there almost 90% of the time when they are filming, and I like how he meets the cast and crew part-way to make the show/movies happen. When they suggest something that is simply too dangerous, he can use that idea to come up with something that *won’t* end up with a dead body on set. This just seems like an insanely stressful job, I can’t even imagine the toll that anxiety takes on Grishman himself; even if he isn't the one doing any of the stunts. It was an interesting read!
Safety coordinator for Jackass sounds like the biggest oxymoron I've ever heard, but this guy rules. Like he knows exactly what the limits of the human body are and he's seen it go through hell, either with his own body or with the cast of Jackass's bodies. I couldn't imagine doing his job, I'd probably stress eat, drink, and cry every day. But he also gets to see the coolest shit ever and people getting hurt for the fun of it. And in the article he was talking about how he modifies the stunts slightly to avoid major bodily harm and death and that just shows how well this guy knows his craft. He probably has to know so much about the physics of falling and how the human body will interact with every collision it gets dealt as well as the theatricality of it all. Like in the article, he was mentioning how it still has to be crazy because it wouldn't be Jackass if it wasn't.
This sounds like my personal job from hell. I have worked with kids in the past, and there have been moments where it felt like I was wrangling cats fully intent on using all nine of their lives. I can't imagine what it is like with grown men who have access to money and other resources. As someone who has experienced two major concussions, I can’t fathom why anyone would put themselves through these incredibly dangerous and stupid stunts. It is somewhat reassuring that Charlie Grisham, the production’s stunt coordinator, is enjoying himself the majority of the time. I really can’t wrap my head around the idea that his job everyday is to make sure they don’t die and or get injured. As a kid, I loved watching MythBusters where they always made a point to show the safety precautions in place and tell viewers to not to attempt at home. The Jackass franchise seems to encourage the audience to try their own stunts because they survived.
6 comments:
If you sat me down and interviewed me, asking only the question of what job in the world I think would be the most insufferable soul crushing exhausting responsibility possible in either this life or the next, I would say being Safety Supervisor on this television series. I don’t think I would last longer than maybe a week. It truly sounds taxing on the mind, the body and the soul. Trying to keep a bunch of grown men calling themselves Jackass Forever from hurting themself? Thank you for offering, but not over my cold dead body. I love and support whoever is doing this godforsaken job, but I also pity them extremely. I wonder what the turnover rate for this job is, like do they constantly have a new one or has one person been doing this from the beginning. Because if that's the case that person deserves a purple heart and a 21 gun salute at their funeral.
Ill admit that watching “Jackass” has been one of my guilty pleasures for a long time. The movies are absolutely hilarious and my friends and I still consistently watch old clips when we hangout. I’ve actually been meaning to watch “Jackass Forever”, but I haven’t had the time. From what I can tell in the trailer though, it appears as if the stunts are a bit more tame then previous films, but that could just be the trailer cuts. I can only imagine what being a safety supervisor on that show is like, especially because a lot of the stunts could cost someone’s life. There’s definitely a fine line that can be walked in between dangerous and outright suicidal, and a lot of the stunts definitely push the boundaries of that. One of the most stunts that I found the most impressive was the “Poo Cocktail Supreme” as hilarious as the stunt was it also definitely took a bit of engineering to make sure that it went properly. Shooting Stevo in a porter potty 100s of feet in the air using cranes and a massive slingshot is no easy feat and it definitely took a lot of trial and error to set up. Its stunts like those that show that being a safety supervisor for “Jackass”, as ironic as it sounds is no joke.
I first encountered Jackass a few weeks ago when I unfortunately came across a clip of one of their members letting UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou punch him in the balls. It was quite concerning. Personally, I am not a big fan of their style of slapstick humor but it is definitely interesting to consider the technical elements of how they are able to consistently pull off such crazy stunts. Reading this article, I sort of feel like Charlie Grisham, the longtime stunt coordinator of Jackass, is mildly downplaying the extreme dangers of their shenanigans. It honestly sounds like these guys are now living with lifelong injuries from their relentless antics and that a lot of their more dangerous stunts have a way higher reliance on luck than it should. The emphasis on how the more mild stunts can turn out to be the most dangerous is something that I found to be relevant to other fields; danger is often easier to prevail when the illusion of safety is present.
This was just . . . insane. Charlie Grisham’s job is basically keeping the Jackass crew alive. Not safe, not uninjured: alive. And sometimes, it sounds like it got a little too close to comfort for him. The things he described, like the bull stunt or water ski-jetpack thing they filmed, bring these people so close to death that I just simply cannot fathom choosing, or even enjoying this for a living?? I’m glad Grisham is there almost 90% of the time when they are filming, and I like how he meets the cast and crew part-way to make the show/movies happen. When they suggest something that is simply too dangerous, he can use that idea to come up with something that *won’t* end up with a dead body on set. This just seems like an insanely stressful job, I can’t even imagine the toll that anxiety takes on Grishman himself; even if he isn't the one doing any of the stunts. It was an interesting read!
Safety coordinator for Jackass sounds like the biggest oxymoron I've ever heard, but this guy rules. Like he knows exactly what the limits of the human body are and he's seen it go through hell, either with his own body or with the cast of Jackass's bodies. I couldn't imagine doing his job, I'd probably stress eat, drink, and cry every day. But he also gets to see the coolest shit ever and people getting hurt for the fun of it. And in the article he was talking about how he modifies the stunts slightly to avoid major bodily harm and death and that just shows how well this guy knows his craft. He probably has to know so much about the physics of falling and how the human body will interact with every collision it gets dealt as well as the theatricality of it all. Like in the article, he was mentioning how it still has to be crazy because it wouldn't be Jackass if it wasn't.
This sounds like my personal job from hell. I have worked with kids in the past, and there have been moments where it felt like I was wrangling cats fully intent on using all nine of their lives. I can't imagine what it is like with grown men who have access to money and other resources. As someone who has experienced two major concussions, I can’t fathom why anyone would put themselves through these incredibly dangerous and stupid stunts. It is somewhat reassuring that Charlie Grisham, the production’s stunt coordinator, is enjoying himself the majority of the time. I really can’t wrap my head around the idea that his job everyday is to make sure they don’t die and or get injured. As a kid, I loved watching MythBusters where they always made a point to show the safety precautions in place and tell viewers to not to attempt at home. The Jackass franchise seems to encourage the audience to try their own stunts because they survived.
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