While we like to deal mainly in crass joke, poor taste and hearsay, there’s something rather unsettling to the response to Ryan Dunn’s untimely death. Of course, by now you’ll know that he died in a car-crash, with Dunn and another passenger dying on a road in Pennsylvania.
Perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that one of the Jackass team should meet an untimely end. Collectively, they had such wilful disregard for their own safety and a need to seek a thrill, that at some point, one of them was going to go too far.
And it certainly appears that the car which Dunn travelled in was speeding, reportedly leaving the road at 110mph, which is clearly reckless and dangerous… but that’s no surprise coming from someone who entered the Gumball rallies and earned money from jumping into sewerage and having toys inserted into his anus. However, with his corpse barely cold, people are already looking to defame Dunn, which, even by our low standards, seems in very poor taste.
It appears that before Dunn jumped into his car that evening, he went to a bar. A picture appeared on twitter showing him enjoying a drink, fag in hand.
This has allowed many to jump to the conclusion that he was drunk before he got behind the wheel.
You see, one photograph of a person drinking means automatic drunkenness. This, of course, is assuming that he was the driver at all (thereby allowing him to get as plastered as he pleased) or, indeed, he drank more than the one photographed glass.
The picture below, is the thing that seems to be incriminating him to hysterical people, all ready to quickly brand him an arsehole for being so inconsiderate that he’d drive a car at 100+ miles an hour, resulting in the death of someone else, who is completely sober and innocent by implication.
One report claims that Dunn was indeed drinking, but not so drunk he couldn’t drive. Another report notes that Dunn doesn’t really drink, noting that it was very unlikely that he’d be hammered at all, let alone while driving a Porsche.
Yet the narrative today, surrounding this still weirdly depressing news story (as that’s all it is to us onlookers – news and sensationalist gossip) is that he was as drunk as can be, thereby, kicking the doors open to allow people to imply that he deserved to die.
Famed film critic, Roger Ebert was so indignant about Dunn’s death that he went to twitter to say:
‘Friends don’t let jackasses drink and drive’
It goes without saying that it doesn’t take a huge leap in your imagination to idly assume that one of the Jackass could be daft enough to drive under the influence at high-speed in a high-performance sports car and, indeed, any post-mortems may well prove as such… however, what is troubling about this story is the haste in which people are quick to jump on his cadaver because there’s no grave to dance on yet, all because of one photograph that contains one drink being pointed at by Ryan Dunn.
The hysteria spouted by the indignant isn’t even being done for comedic effect. It’s just plain nasty, which is what is making this whole sorry spectacle all the more unpleasant to view.
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mark says
The initial news reports immediately said it was alcohol related. The bar and friends said he had 6 drinks -3 beers and 3 shots. The photo is neither and looks like a long island iced tea. He was drinking. To pretend he wasn’t is irresponsible. A quarter million people are injured a YEAR by people who drink and drive. If Dunn were alive he would have been arrested. He’s a criminal.
Arthur ASCii says
> 3 Beers and 3 shots.
Over 4 hours.
Assuming Dunn was average build and average height, this would mean his body would have imbued 9 units of alcohol and metabolised 4. At 5 units of alcohol, and weighing 150lb or more, Ryan would have been below 0.08 DUI law.
Arthur ASCii says
Oh, and the drink in the picture doesn’t look much like a Long Island Iced Tea, which is a green cocktail.
Maybe you’re confusing the bearded, ginger man on the left (who is drinking a pint of light wheat beer, garnished with a slice of lime) with the two clean shaven, Latin looking men on the right (who are drinking cocktails through straws)?
Easy mistake to make.
Cookie Monster says
marc, did you know that 99% of comments posted on the internet are posted by idiots? Were you alive, you would be arrested. You are a criminal.
Eugene says
This may sound harsh, but having been nearly killed a few years back by an impaired driver (in an incident that killed two other people), and having had to spend over a year learning to be able to walk properly again afterwards, I have no sympathy whatsover.
I’m just glad that no passers-by were injured.
JayDubFresno says
Arthur….A long island ice tea is not green as you claim…It does in fact look very similar to a normal ice tea. It has all clear liquor in it with a splash of sweet and sour mix and a splash of coke. The coke gives it the appearance of normal iced t. Just saying. And in this photo, Dunn, on the left does not appear to be drinking a LIT, but perhaps a beer.