Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Uncensored.



















Mark Hansen is our "don't try this at home" hero! Mark Tiberius Hansen is an American Film & TV Editor working in Hollywood for the MTV/Paramount/Dickhouse franchise Jackass. For those who aren't in the know, Jackass is a television series, originally shown on MTV from 2000 to 2002, featuring people performing various dangerous, crude, ridiculous, and self-injuring stunts and pranks.


Jackass is considered to be groundbreaking American media and has earned it's place in the National Broadcast Archives. The series and feature films reflect an Arte Nuevo style that has ceased to be adopted by mainstream media for the past two decades. On critic raved that they have achieved, "the pinnacle of pointlessness."


Here are the highlights of the first season:
- Chris Pontius dresses up as the devil and runs around the street of LA holding a sign that says, "Keep God out of California."
- Johnny Knoxville gets into a full port-a-poty, and holds on tight as it is turned upsidown.
- Steve-O fills an inflatible pool with a weeks worth of elephant poo, and then dives into it from a ladle.


On January 29, 2001, U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman publicly condemned MTV and Jackass in connection with a dangerous stunt that led to a copycat incident in which a 13-year-old Connecticut teenager was left in critical condition with severe burns. Lieberman followed up with a February 7, 2001 letter to MTV urging the company to take greater responsibility for its programming and do more to help parents protect their children.


The feature film, Jackass included skits that involved profanity, extreme stunts (such as Rocket Skates, which was filmed for the television show but wasn't allowed to air due to the network censors), and extremely crude humor (such as Butt X-Ray, which involves inserting a toy car wrapped in a condom into Ryan Dunn's rectum and getting X-rays of the car inside his anus, or Dave England defecating in a display toilet in a plumbing store showroom).


Mark Hansen is not just an editor but also required to be an interpreter of the law, while the "Jackass" crew could waive civil liability, they could not waive criminal liability. Hence should Johnny or any cast member have been killed or grievously injured as a result of a stunt, the producers of the film could possibly be held liable on the grounds of negligent or reckless homicide or battery. While Knoxville and other Jackass participants are clearly aware of the risks involved in their stunts, the threat of criminal liability was significant enough that the Los Angeles law firm Irell & Manella advised cutting out segments which could potentially be used as evidence in such a case.


In addition, the final skit in the film called "Butt X-Ray" was edited to remove the insertion of the toy car into Ryan Dunn's anus, the reason being that displaying the insertion might have been considered pornographic or otherwise highly objectionable by the MPAA, and could have earned the film an NC-17 rating, severely limiting its distribution.


Film Critic, Jeff Vice gave the film 1 1/2 stars and said the 80 minute runtime was too much. Vice said the film should have been rated NC-17 and said that many people will find the film to be "possibly the most irresponsible picture ever released by a major film studio."


Hansen is currently at work on editing Jackass 3-D. One of the major stunts in the next film is called "Once Saved Always Saved." In this stunt, Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O and Bam Margera, make public confessions of faith in Jesus - but Bam makes a conscious decision to backslide while Johnny tries his best to maintain a grace based faith. While, Steve-O sells his soul to a media ecology professor for $5.


Also in the film, Ryan Dunn and Dave England, debate Kantianism and epistemology while riding a grocery cart through an underground sewer filled with...
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FROM THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF WHEATON (Heroes)

Dear Wheaton Heroes Blogger,

We would like to respectfully ask that you remove Mark Hansen from the Wheaton Heroes blog immediately.

Our records show that Mark Hansen did not graduate from Wheaton, and does not qualify as an alumna of the college. Further more he does not exemplify the spirit and character of Wheaton. In addition, please add a disclaimer on the blog indicating that Wheaton is not in any way sponsored by, affiliated with, or endorsing Mark Hansen or Dickhouse Productions. We appreciate your prompt cooperation in this matter.

Insincerly, 
W.H.

cc: Howard Ahmanson, Jr., Bob Buford, C. William Pollard, S. Truett Cathy, Richard DeVos, Wayne Huizenga

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(HT Nomination: DV)

5 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. wait, what did veen say? what did he say? come on, tell us!

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  3. I removed it Cath, felt like it was TMI, but what the hell--pointed out that Hansen was also an alumnus of The Church of Reason and the band that changed a generation, Dungus Mangulaneous, while at Wheaton, which clearly helped him develop his spiritual gifts for his calling in the Jackass ministry.

    Also, the masculine singular of Alumni is Alumnus (three years of Holland Christian High School Latin paid off, but I'm not doing any declensions) and "former student" is sufficient to be entitled to the status.

    FYI from my favorite source of truth and fact, Wiki:
    An alumnus (pl. alumni), according to the American Heritage Dictionary, is "a graduate (JC) or former student of a school, college, or university".[1] In addition, an alumna (pl. alumnae) is "a female graduate or former student of a school, college, or university".[2] If a group includes more than one gender, even if there is only one male, the plural form alumni is used.

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  4. Anyone else wonder why our decade, 1985-1995, is non-votable in the poll? I may have just answered my own question above. . .

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  5. that is a serious oversight.
    also, where are all the chicks?

    ReplyDelete