Would you call a simulated drive-by shooting a moment of hilarity? Or instead would you, like myself, call such the sadistic, irresponsible, illegal, potentially lethal, and immature actions of a band of privileged assholes? Sorry to give away the spoiler, but I hate these guys.
Some things aren’t funny. And for 90 full minutes, I believe Natural Born Pranksters explored every single one of them. I write this not as somebody who detests the idiot stunt genre, but as somebody who attended Bad Grandpa and three Jackass films and found something to enjoy in each one of them. There is nothing to enjoy here.
First off, this is all Jackass ripoff shtick; armed with a camera and a bad idea, three talentless jerks (Roman Atwood, Dennis Roady, Vitaly Zdorovetskiy) have hit El Lay with the sole interest of humiliating folks. Unlike the Jackasses, however, these douchebags have no real interest in humiliating themselves, just others. This is the crux of the failed humor. There’s something naturally endearing about a normal guy willing to humiliate himself on film. There is nothing naturally endearing about a desire to humiliate total strangers. In the 1960s, we called this shtick “Candid Camera” and, though embarrassing, it was very mild and all in good fun. Now, the stakes have raised and the fun has disappeared.
“Examples,” you ask? Sure – how about simulating an erection for a masseuse? That’s relatively tame stuff here. How abouting raffling a “select” art work with the medium of human feces? Laughing yet? How about a street gang threatening an innocent through a case of deliberate mistaken identity? Or, my personal favorite in the “this isn’t funny” parade – a very pregnant Asian-American woman going into emergency labor at home and displaying a newborn African-American baby to the white father just rushing home. How about now? Is this funny yet?
Worse still, the camera lingers and lingers and lingers. The stunned look on new dad’s face didn’t change as he tried to make sense of it, nor
even as the African-American mailman dropped by to announce his hand in this lovely occasion. And behind the scene is a van full of snickering punks with a camera on the whole time. Their objective is to capture the reaction of the mark, but they capture instead next to nothing of the sort. These guys would pull a prank on one of those heads from Easter Island, laugh their asses off, and then taunt, “you should see the look on your face!”
At the end of the day, I have a lingering respect for the Jackass clowns. Those guys are a modern version of Evel Knievel – men who went a very long way for entertainment and a cheap thrill. Steve-O might just be certifiably insane. These Natural Born Pranksters? I feel like society failed to deliver their much-needed beating and now they’ve been empowered to make us all suffer. Be on the lookout for white boys pulling crap. Literally.
Come meet fellas who have no shame
At their disposal, debasings, lame
They’ll make you blush
With failure to flush
And lack of talent to play an X-Game
Rated R, 90 Minutes
D: Roman Atwood, Ben Plumier
W: Roman Atwood, Dennis Roady, Vitaly Zdorovetskiy
Genre: The “Live Action” poop joke
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Very immature boys
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Anyone with an ounce of taste
