Before handing over the keys to the government's new "scout" or "reconnaissance cars," Ford drivers in 1941 decided to hold a demonstration of their new four-wheel-drive vehicle's abilities for a group of VIPs, including the general in charge of purchasing for the U.S. Army. And thus, the Jeep hoon was born, a patriotic attention-getter astride a worthy machine. Others seek attention in less successful fashions, as Spiegel Luther King shared in his comment on the cactus-munching acrobat:
High school was a weird time for me.
It wasn't tough, really it was just different. I left Colombia in the middle of December and started school here in the US as a freshman in the middle of the school year. It was somewhat of a trying time, me a fresh-of-the-boat 14 year old with a real bad case of culture shock as I saw different people of different ethnic backgrounds congregated in the cafeteria. One day while hanging out with my newly formed friends I happened upon a spectacle of stupidity that was only matched by the painful screams afterwards.
There is a large floor to ceiling window in the cafeteria room that looks towards the football and baseball fields in the back of the school, a senior had the brilliant idea of throwing his entire body and see if he was able to break the window.
So on he went, he took a good running start and jumped towards the window in such a way as to hit it with his entire body. Nobody expected it until everyone heard BLAM, CRASH and found the poor idiot in a pool of his own blood with cuts and shards of glass all over his body.
The entire cafeteria was cheering.
It didn't take long before the faculty called the ambulance and carried him out of there. He was in the hospital for about 4 days and was given a month's suspension.
He became homecoming king.
Sometimes stupid is the only way to fame, look at Courtney Love.