Gary Coleman is the Governor of California. The fifth largest economy in the world is now under the tiny thumb of a sitcom actor whose most famous words are ‘Whatchoo talkin bout Willis?’. While we do not live in that no doubt beautiful parallel world, Gary can at least console himself by knowing that today’s television stars also suffer considerable pain. Jackass & Big Brother, please explain.

Boofheads ‘R’ Us
From the cultural juggernation that brought the world Beavis & Butthead, Bill & Ted, Rock N Roll Wrestling and daytime talkback TV, inevitably the kid at the back of the science lab with his underpants on fire was going to get his own TV show. Jackass was the vehicle, but if we retrace a few steps – we find a skateboard magazine named ‘Big Brother’. Renowned for it’s irreverent approach, gratuitous sex and drugs references and unashamed targetting of horny 14 year old boys, the Big Brother editorial team soon added video to their repertoire, and a while later – mixed up with the now very well known skatevideo director Spike Jonze – the endless skits peppering the in-between skating bits had finally found a new home all of their own: Jackass. Recent jumpers onto the Jackass depravity bandwagon, are Stomp films who also licence a very, very interesting collection of rare art and music related films for DVD distribution in Australia. New Stomp_ables?

Steve-O: The Early Years
Subtitled ‘How dangerous and irresponsible behaviour can lead to fame and Steveoweb.jpgfortune’, unpredictably this is an absolutely essential disc for those who already own the ‘Steve-O’, ‘Steve-O The Tour’ & ‘Steve-O Out on Bail’ DVDs, and no doubt already have the Steve-O tour cut-off t-shirt, the Steve-O temporary tattoo kit, the Steve-O DIY piercing needles, the Steve-O XL Enema kit and the Steve-O trepanning kit ( insert drill to bit of forehead just above nose ). Meet Steve-O’s dad. See Steve-O in clown college. See Steve-O jump into water lots. See Steve-O before he got Jackass-ed. And the pilot he made for it. See amateur homemade VHS pause button skate footage – lovingly crafted by a 14 year old Steve-O. Even better – see Steve-O reclining in a plush hotel bed ( or his current abode ? ) kicking back, and fondly recalling his troubled youth – think of it as a magnifying glass on his infected bellybutton piercing. What a long time ago that was~! And if you love the disc, what fun to be had at the Steve-O website, complete with bulletin board for thousands of fans.

411VM Skateboarding : The BAM Issue
Rebellious subcultures still need a good branding, and 411VM have been delivering skater eyeballs to advertisers for 60 whole video magazine issues now – this latest a BAM special, which means aside from urban grinds of many kinds, you get a lot of BAM in between the skate product ads. It’s all relative here, but Bam seems to exude a little more charisma than Steve-O, while plundering the same depths of bodily damage exploration. And the boy can skate. Plenty of giant flips and transfers, concrete park carving and smooth grind-candy for the weariest of skate-porn eyes. A tutorial section offers to teach how to boardslide down a handrail – which perhaps, is kind of like watching a slow motion martial arts video tutorial on how to do the splits in the air and double whammy the attackers from both sides. We also get skate park tours, obligatory low-angle skatercam street scenes of polished benches, steps and rails, and an inside view of a day in the life of Jason Dill – which generally involves some skateboarding, hanging with his homies and lots of fast food. A double disc DVD for the whole skater family.