A few of my fellow dads spent the week before wondering if it was time to introduce our kids to the series. Even though the eldest of my three is technically old enough to take the other two without me, we all had reservations. So we decided to screen it first: go to a late weeknight showing, marvel at the craft-beer-and-gastropub offerings apparently installed during the pandemic, and laugh our tails off in a mostly empty theatre.
Reader, we did.
I laughed every kind of laugh I know how to laugh. I worked out every muscle group. My voice went hoarse. My hands hurt from slapping them against my chair, knee, friends and over my mouth, ears, etc. It was idiotic and brilliant, terrible and wonderful, painfully obvious and diabolically surprising.
“I had no idea how much I needed that,” I said as we walked out, aching with the physical and mental release.
I’d love to say that there was some kind of profound connection between the material onscreen and this societal moment–the primal universality of the comedy transcending the COVID-y barriers between us? Seeing symbols of the invincibility of youth go out there with gray hairs, false teeth, and prove they’ve still got it? A reminder that even the most acute suffering can be temporary?–but really, I just needed to let it all out.
But whatever psychic baggage this movie took off my shoulders is clearly weighing down a hell of a lot of us.
Jackass Forever, a movie that spends a healthy dose of its running time systematically determining how much testicular trauma one of its cast members can endure, has been rated
86 percent fresh by critics on Rotten Tomatoes. The series’ previous high score? 65.
The new cast members are great (and the added diversity was sorely needed), COVID precautions were clearly followed, and much more care was taken to keep all involved animals safe than the humans they were interacting with. Jackass has always had a heart, and it’s never been more obvious.
It’s not going to be for everyone–the male nudity starts in the opening credits–but if you think this might be your thing, go see it.