Over and Dunn

Ryan Dunn from Jackass lore died in the morning of June 21… I’m not going to say I’m weeping about it. I’m not. It’s sad to see anyone pass away even under the circumstances. It’s possible Dunn was either speeding, drinking and driving or all of the above. Right now Bam Margera is waging war against Roger Ebert for Ebert’s debatable tweet about Dunn’s passing. Below is the excerpt from the tweet that has people buzzing.

“Friends don’t let jackasses drive drunk.”

Afterwards, Bam Margera lost it and went on a twitterriffic tirade saying Ebert was cruel, insensitive, and vicious (obviously in much more choice words as is the case of Bam’s vocabulary). Perez Hilton later backed up Bam on this one and Ebert yet again replied:

"Perez Hilton's readers agree with me and not with Perez about my tweet on Ryan Dunn. He drank, he drove, 2 people died."

So in less than 24 hours of Ryan’s death, the focus has passed from a horrendous car crash that claimed the life of a 34 year old crazy but likeable guy and his passenger to a tweetathon about written sticks and stones. The attacks against Ebert have been heinous and there has been a palpable wave of support for Dunn.

What strikes me as shocking though are two things: that it took this long for one of the members of Jackass to actually die and that it was Ryan instead of some of the less stable people (Steve-O comes to mind). These people had so many close calls with death (which they purposely put themselves in) that maybe they all thought they were some sort of counterculture immortals; frat versions of Evil Knievil, if you will.

The evidence Ebert based his comment on is the picture of Ryan having a beer with friends hours before the crash and of course, the state of the vehicle in question which barely resembles the carcass of a car. The reality is that since Twitter became the big shit, PR representatives have had to up the dosage of their meds since they can’t control what people tweet. But I’m not going to delve into that topic just yet, because that’s not the point. And neither is the bitch fit fights between Perez, Bam and Ebert. The point is that a kid died last night. Some people will mourn, some will have their opinions, the coroner will say a couple of things regarding the reason of why it happened, but the reality is that two people died in a car crash… along with other thousands of people, thousands of friends, and a million other things that happened and weren’t on the news. Life goes on for those of us who are still alive and we should make our lives count.

Dunn might have been a jackass, but in his frat boy insanity, he led what he possibly believed was a full life. He lived on the fast lane and died on it… it might be tragic to some, poetic to others or logical and stupid to others more. But ask yourself, what does that mean in your life?

After you answer that question, take out your phone, scroll down the names and call 5 random people to see how they are. Then you’ll hear news that relates to you and matters more to your life than the passing of a celebrity.

Cheers