Steve O: Out on Bail

I have always felt that my entertainment tastes were extremely eclectic. I can watch pretty much anything. Well, that has now been severely challenged with my viewing of Steve-O: Out On Bail. To give you some idea of just what this DVD contains, Steve O is one of the members of the cast that brought the MTV show ‘Jackass’ into the world. Now, being a performer on a show called ‘Jackass’ should tell you something. The extreme stunts performed on this disc are dangerous, foolish and altogether disgusting. I am not a person that uses the term disgusting lightly. I have witnessed autopsies and viewed numerous surgeries but that was mild compared to this. Steve O and his merry band of miscreants travel around the world in Out on Bail performing their stunts to the enthusiastic glee of their fans. From England to Cancun Steve O finds new and perverse ways to inflict harm on himself and his closest friends.

Steve O’s gang of misfits includes his friends Nick Dunlap, Ryan Dunn, Bam Margera, Wee-man, Preston Lacy and Mike Liddle. In one prolonged montage Ryan strangles Steve O repeatedly until the tattooed master of pain passes out, tongue lolling out, twitching and unconscious. Normally I would be worried about brain damage but in this case I feel that this ship has passed a long time ago. Other notable bits of merriment include shooting Steve O repeated in the buttocks with a dart gun, setting various body parts on fire and the every popular part of his act where after stapling bras flung on stage by topless young women he proceeds to staple his scrotum to his thigh. And to think that people say there is no quality entertainment. Not since the old carnival freak shows has such an exhibition be made public.

Now all of this is not performed without copious quantities of beer, hard liquor and various illegal substances. Steve O and friends seem to be unable to walk down a street without punching and throwing each other to the ground. With friends like this who needs the Spanish Inquisition. They wake each other by urinating; they laugh as they take turns throwing up and generally seem to have not one rational moment between the lot of them. I sincerely doubt there is a single functioning brain cell in the group. At one point Trishelle from MTV's The Real World: Vegas joins the group only to be attacked in the stall of the ladies rest room. She even goes on stage to help kick Steve O in the crotch repeatedly. Hopefully this has the effect of preventing his unique genes from being passed on to future generations. The low point of the stage act is where one of the troop ascends a ladder to defecate on the stage. In fact, there was not a single body fluid that did not find its way into the act.

Those of you that have followed the struggles of women’s rights groups over the decades will be appalled that so many seemingly normal young women will fight for a chance to disrobe for Steve O. Steve O and his friends revel in the attention and compete with each other for the stupidest trick performed. So much for looking for a suitable mate on the basis of which one will contribute most to the gene pool. Sex, drugs and rock & roll has never hit such lows. There are heavy metal bands that would not consider any of these actions.

The DVD was rather well done. The stereo sound was crisp and clean. Every grunt groan and curse word is clear. The audio mix is a bit loud. It shakes the speakers and fills the room. The video quality varies widely. Much of the program was done on a video camera in an almost documentary style. There are several deleted scenes. You may wonder what could possibly be left out of such a disc. It is mild by comparison. There are several scenes of trashing a hotel room and a set of scenes of failed attempts of three topless English girls trying to give Steve O a ‘flying wedgie’. A second disc is provided, ‘How PCP Saved My Life’ which is pretty much the same antics. The material presented here is the culmination of everything your parents warned you about. About the only thing they don’t do is run with scissors. The disc is uncut, uncensored and possesses no rating. If this film had been submitted to the MPAA the gentle folk there would have succumbed to a stroke or a heart attack. No reviewer with normal, socially valid sensibilities would recommend this disc. The thing is, the target audience for this disc will not care. Gross out humor has been around forever. If done right it can even be funny, working on the puerile teenager in all of us. This disc is just gross for the sake of going over the line.

Posted 11/12/2003