This morning, I heard the news that Ryan Dunn had passed away. Now, I had never seen an episode of Jackass or anything else he was on (I did watch the entire first season of Viva La Bam tonight, so that is no longer true), but it is always sad to hear of an innocent person’s death.
Dunn and an unidentified passenger died in a one-car accident on a highway in Pennsylvania at about 3 in the morning (today; 20 June). Many people, including myself, speculate that his death was the result of drunk driving, since he tweeted a picture of himself drinking with friends just hours before the crash.
A lot of people are upset about this speculation, which I understand. They don’t want to imagine that someone they potentially looked up to may have died like that. However, I believe that no matter how it happened, his death is just as tragic.
Sadly, there are a lot of people who don’t seem to feel that way. For example, film critic Roger Ebert tweeted the following: “Friends don’t let jackasses drink and drive.” Essentially, he got what he deserved, and let this be a lesson to you all.
See, that really irks me. Does the fact that intoxication may have contributed to his death make it any less tragic? I don’t think it should. He still died. He’s still gone from this world, he still has friends and family left here without him, and I can’t even imagine what they are feeling right now. So can you hang your holier-than-thou attitude at the door, please?
Fine, make his death a lesson. That’s fine. Go ahead and say, “look what happened to poor old Ryan Dunn because he was driving drunk. Don’t let this happen to you or your friends.” That’s fine.
What’s not fine is implying that he deserved his death in any way, shape, or form. Yes, he drove drunk, although it has not been confirmed by authorities and may not even be true. Yes, he made a bad decision, and yes, it cost him his life. That does not, however, mean that he deserved it.
No one, save the occasional killer, deserves to die, and no one’s death should be trivialized simply because you don’t “approve” of the cause.
I’ve seen both sides of the aisle talking on twitter about this. I had no idea who he was until this post specifying he was on Jackass, but even so. I agree that no one should be trivializing the fact someone’s life was cut short & their family/friends are in excruciating pain over this, but people tend to do that on the internet/media so it’s to be expected.
Hopefully his family/friends are given some privacy on this matter.
I agree that he didn’t DESERVE it, but I do think he was ASKING for it. Even though it was a single-car accident, there are two points here that make this different than another tragic death. 1) he was driving under the influence of alcohol, which is both illegal and potentially lethal for himself, his passenger, and other people outside of his own vehicle who WERE obeying the law, and 2) the other passenger died, as well. So no, I don’t think either of these two people deserved this at all – no one does except the most serious criminal offenders IMO – but there were definitely things that were blatantly ignored that could have prevented this by Dunn, the passenger, and anyone who was with them when Dunn decided to get behind the wheel.
Hopefully people will see that driving drunk or even watching someone get behind the wheel while intoxicated is NOT OK and can be prevented. Still disappointing this keeps happening, though.
I have never watched Jackass although I have heard of it, but of course anybody dying is such a sad incident, so of course what happened was really sad.
I haven’t looked much into what exactly happened, I have heard a lot about it being about drunk driving. I’ve also heard that he isn’t actually dead, although I don’t think that is true. I haven’t taken the time yet to research what happened and draw my own conclusions.
I agree, drunk driving of course is bad, it puts passengers, the driver, and everybody else around them at risk. However to putting it down to ‘learning a lesson’ is pretty disgusting. At the end of the day, he didn’t deserve to die just because he was driving drunk.
“No one, save the occasional killer, deserves to die, and no one’s death should be trivialized simply because you don’t “approve” of the cause.” – I agree. To be honest I think even if you are the meanest person in the world, if you haven’t killed, then you don’t deserve to die.
What’s happened is really sad, and I hope people will learn to stop driving when drunk.
*cries* Nobody deserves to die. It’s in the song Holy Grail by Hunters and Collectors. If I remember correctly, it’s Australian (so I’m a tad proud of it haha). I probably think Dick Masterson should die… but even so, when someone dies, you should not be that insensitive. Dunn’s death can be a lesson to show us that we should not drink and drive as that might have been the cause of his death, but his family are around and they are going through a hard time now. These kinds of comments can be hurtful and insensitive. People are so judgemental of the way people die… I think that is just really hurtful. It often doesn’t matter how a person dies. Any death is tragic, whether someone fell off a building, got shot, was in a car accident, on a malfunctioning rollercoaster, murdered. All these deaths are tragic. I didn’t watch Jackass either, but I still find it sad hearing of his death too.
I’ve never watched Jackass (quite frankly, I had to google his name to see where he was from), but it is a sad death, even if no one in my family has ever watched it. I didn’t even know before the articles came out on twitter!! Shows how much of a movie person I am…
Based on the crash pictures, and on the twitter post, I’m sure he was drunk. Let’s see… it takes one hour for one alcoholic drink to fade out of your system. Three drinks would be three hours, and so fourth. So unless he stopped drinking an hour before, then he’s pretty much been driving drunk.
I wonder if they’re going to be able to do an autopsy? The car was in really bad condition. His body wasn’t even recognizable before a DNA testing. If his body was that torn up, I don’t think they’ll be able to do an autopsy..
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I, honestly, don’t ask them for oppinions on my layouts. They just sort of come up behind me and ‘give me ideas’ or ‘help out’. I swear, sometimes they’re like ghosts. o_o
Yup~ A web design business~
about… maybe last year or two years ago, I made a layout for the law firm my mom works in and they really liked the layout. Plus, I had a lot of fun doing it~ So I decided that I’d like to start my own business. Plus, it gives me an excuse to be on the computer all day. x)
I couldn’t agree with you more! Of course, him drinking and driving was a terrible, TERRIBLE idea and should be frowned upon greatly. But not even the worst mistake in entire world deserves to end in death. Regardless of how it happened, his and another person’s lives were taken and they can never be gotten back. I don’t understand why anyone would even dare to make jokes about someone dying, or disrespecting them.
Hopefully people will take it as a lesson. It’s sad that it has to come down to death for people to realize how wrong things can go.
I have never seen Jackass, either, and I didn’t even know who he was – but it was still sad :/ Some people were saying that if he weren’t a celebrity, it wouldn’t be as big of a deal, and that people wouldn’t care so much. I, for one, think that anyone’s death is tragic, regardless if they’re famous or not. People need to shut their mouths and think about things before they say them DX
I heard the news last night while on twitter. I never watched an episode either, well maybe parts but never a fully episode. It was still sad seeing all the tweets fans would send. Also if you go to Google and search his name as “images” you can see a lot of tweets people sent about him.
It really sucks how he died, R.I.P Ryan Dunn.
I’ve never watched Jackass before, mostly because of its title (I’m sure the profanity doesn’t end there), but I agree with you. It’s tragic to hear about anyone’s death, no matter what the cause was. The thing about celebrity deaths that bothers me so much is that people seem to downplay the fact that someone actually died. It seems people either gets depressed over their death or they just brush it off and say “Eh. They brought it on themselves” The coldness and insensitivity in people is so unreal! How could they?
Of course, I’m not saying that drunk driving is right but no one shouldn’t grieve for them because of their one mistake. They were still human beings and had relationships with others, just as you said! A life is a life and nothing should make it worth any less than priceless. Not even murderers that deserve their deaths. People should still be respectful when someone dies and not go around the cyberworld parading the level of “they deserved it”.
Ah, such a shame to hear about Ryan’s death, I was an avid “watcher” of the old TV show, “Viva La Bam!”
And I completely agree with you. People, like Ebert, shouldn’t really say these kind of things. A death is still a death and should be respected no matter what the cause might have been.
For every person who thinks Ryan “deserved” it for drinking and driving, I dare them to picture the same exact scenario except the person who died was someone they personally know and love. What if it was your mother? Your husband? Your son? Your best friend? You wouldn’t f*cking say, “Yeah, he deserved it. Don’t drink and drive kiddos,” now wouldn’t you?
Actually, I think it did great! I did it on Monday. (: Thanks!
Haha yeah, I kind of stopped playing runescape for a while because I was so busy & I had a members account so I was just wasting money. I have 2mill on it. (: Yeah I miss runescape too!
Everyone (well, sometimes) eventually drinks and drives in their life times. Also, everyone makes mistakes, and he died.. Like, how could people be so disrespectful? He DIED, and everyone makes mistakes, his was just fatal. He’s always going to be missed, too.
You make a great point.
I agree with you Rachel, its quite sad but then again…everyone has to die one day or another so I guess it was his time
Oh yes, I wanted to tell you about the green tea, i honestly feel it had helped me a lot when I used to drink it like 3x a day. I cannot find that particular brand (was probably Arabic or something) Had no clue of the name since it was years ago but I do want to definitely go on that path once again. It does help you burn stubborn fat when you combine exercise and an healthy diet =) If I ever do miraculously find it online I’ll pass on the name to ya =D For now I think any pure Japanese green tea is just as good (or at least I hope it will be) Talk soon hun! I’m almost almost done with my new layout YAY!
Ebert made such an insensitive comment! It’s way too soon and completely unnecessary, I can’t believe he didn’t even step into other people’s perspectives and see that it’s such a huge loss. I hope Ryan is in a better place. I remember watching him on Bam’s show! They were so crazy, but I never expected Ryan to get into something like this. It’s a terrible shame because he’s so young too!
I would like to thank you for leaving a nice comment on my blog as well
I do not know who Ryan Dunn is, but recently a celebrity I am familiar with and like a lot accidentally hit someone who was almost dying, and the person died soon after that. If the celebrity I like was drinking and driving, then I think he’d deserve the punishment for accidentally killing someone. However in Ryan Dunn’s case I don’t think he deserves to die if he DUIs. But punishment yes.
I’m not really up to date with Western entertainment but in Korean media it is very common for a celebrity to die. 17 in the last 3 years, all suicide. I don’t know many of the ones who died but I do know a few, I feel kind of sympathetic, though none of them were people I really liked / looked up to. The reactions never were as extreme as the ones for Michael Jackson though.
7 hours isn’t too bad I think, it’s not completely reversing your schedule.
No one deserves to die, you’re right. But I think Ebert’s comment is being taken way too out of hand. It was untimely, yes. But why is Dunn being made out to be a martyr when he was driving with almost a .2 alcohol level at 130 mph? He could have easily hurt killed other innocent drivers with his recklessness. And really, Ebert’s comment wasn’t even directed at Dunn himself. It was directed at Dunn’s friends. Why didn’t any of them volunteer to be a designated driver? Where was the voice of reason, telling Dunn not to drive after six drinks? As I said, it was untimely, and no one close to Dunn wants to hear that kind of comment so soon after his death. They don’t need the guilt now. But this accident could have been prevented.
I was never a fan of Ryan D nor Jackass itself but as I see it, somehoew, it’s his fault because drunk driving is illegal but still, he doesn’t deserve to die — no one does. But since what he did is his fault, no one else can take the blame.
It’s still tragic, considering that he died behind the wheel. So whoever said that it’s not, that person doesn’t know what tragic means exactly.
I didn’t expect him to die this early. I mean, he had done a lot crazier things than drunk driving yet he practically managed or something. I kind of admire him from that. His death was unfortunate, well, every death is. And I believe that his death must not be just talked about as an entertainment issue or something. It is true that we shall learn a lesson from it cause the things that might look ‘ok’ and ‘fine’ could actually kill you, like drunk driving as i had mentioned.
I completely agree with you on that. Sure, he shouldn’t have done what he did but that definitely doesn’t mean he deserved to die because of it. If that were true, then everyone who did something they shouldn’t have done would have to die because they did it. And that just makes no sense at all.
I suppose it is a lesson, though, to those who do it. Although, it doesn’t matter because those who drink and drive don’t give a shit and they’re still going to keep doing it. The death of Ryan Dunn isn’t going to change their decision, honestly, I highly doubt it.
Haha I agree. It kind of kills the point of the message when everyone and their mother is attempting to send the same exact message. I think she literally bites off and just copies what everyone else does and tries to make it seem cooler because ‘Lady Gaga says it’. I just find it obnoxious how she acts like such a trend setter when she’s biting off other people’s trends to appear that way. And nobody notices because it’s all teeny-boppers who are obsessed her. >.< Oyyyy.
I have to agree wholeheartedly with this post. I’ve seen both arguments, and even if he was driving drunk he did not deserve to die like that. I’m just glad someone was able to word it in a way that makes sense, like you did. It’s sad and we should be thinking about his family and friends who have lost someone they care about–as well as the passenger who was hit.
And it is a lesson. It’s something to think about and consider the next time people who are in that same situation do. Call a cab, call a friend. Don’t get into that car drunk.
Also thought I would comment you on your layout. Love your quote, Nikki Sixx is a favorite of mine.