"Jackass" star Ryan Dunn died early this morning. But if you're like us, then for a moment when you first heard the news of his death, you too thought that this could just be the most elaborate "Jackass" hoax ever.
We're not off-base in thinking this — forumites and even our own commenters — are already creating fake Fox News articles claiming Dunn faked his own death. If anything it's a tribute to their abilities as performers that their fans think he could have actually cheated death last night.
Helping fuel this rumor is Dunn's next film, which is apparently about Dunn dying but returning as a ghost to hang out with his friend.
He didn't. Sadly. But, let's examine what it might take to pull off such a stunt by the former member of Camp Kill Yourself — just to end this hoax rumor now.
For starters, you'd need a body. Naturally, buying a cadaver is no easy task, and unscrupulous coroners don't exactly hang shingles out.
But with enough planning and cash thrown around, I'm sure they could find a body somewhere. Naturally, that body would have to be bearded and shaggy, so think Boot Hill. Then, there's the matter of the tattoos. Finding an artist to fake Dunn's tats would be easier than finding a corpse. Trouble is, we're not sure how a corpse's skin might react to being inked.
The accident cover story is less of a problem. Getting drunk in front of witnesses, and tipping off TMZ that Dunn had three Miller Lites and three "girly shots" between 10:30 PM and 2:10 AM — nearly a four hour span — but he was "not too drunk to drive" — is also not hard.
Frankly, it's the crashing of the Porsche 911 GT3 at 110 mph into a tree that's the part that seems most implausible. But that's mainly because we don't understand why anyone would want to destroy a car as beautiful as that.
Obviously Ryan Dunn's death wasn't a hoax. But didn't you think — for even just a fleeting moment — that it just might be?