If I'm going to be honest, I've always viewed Jackass as the non-nihilistic response to Fight Club's "destruction of the self." In Fight Club, everyone's kicking each other's ass because they view both each other's and their own life as meaningless, so the only act of any meaning is to reduce each other to nothing. Jackass flips that: everyone has inherent worth and your friends are there with you, so when you debase or reduce yourself to nothing for the mere act of amusing yourself and others, it's a celebration of life and simply being alive. We cheer because it's the stupidest shit and that's funny, but also because we admire the sheer lengths and creativity they will go to in order to deliver a mere dick joke... and because we all realize none of this would be funny if someone died doing it.
To put it simply, Jackass is life affirming. It's something I watch when I'm having an especially dark day and need a reminder that sometimes just enduring is a victory.
To put it simply, Jackass is life affirming. It's something I watch when I'm having an especially dark day and need a reminder that sometimes just enduring is a victory.