Careercow Brandon "Bam" Margera - From Jackass to Lolcow

[Yeeted Teet]

Was it ever explained why Rake Yohn hated mustard so much? I'm still not 100% convinced that they weren't just making that up, to be honest.

He was on Raab's podcast and he confirmed it there, they start talking about it at 7:08.

 

[Never Scored]

Like everyone who was a teenager at the time I was a fan of Jackass. The movie came out just after I turned 18, so I got to see it in theatres.

I never really liked Bam very much, and I never understood why people did. Knoxville has this magnetic personality and most of the time the humor is in the fact that Knoxville is genuinely attempting the stunts that go awry most of the time, like a real life Super Dave Osborne, or there was a candid camera, Tom Green sort of element to it. Bam's just kind of a dickhead and most of his stunts were just people purposely falling down. The stuff with his parents was kind of funny, but that's because April and Phil were funny, not because Bam was.

Back around 2010 or so, some people in my area raised tens of thousands off dollars to pay him to come here and drink with them all at the local bar where shitty local punk bands play their shitty fucking shows and I still don't get it.

 

[MirnaMinkoff]

Like everyone who was a teenager at the time I was a fan of Jackass. The movie came out just after I turned 18, so I got to see it in theatres.

I never really liked Bam very much, and I never understood why people did. Knoxville has this magnetic personality and most of the time the humor is in the fact that Knoxville is genuinely attempting the stunts that go awry most of the time, like a real life Super Dave Osborne, or there was a candid camera, Tom Green sort of element to it. Bam's just kind of a dickhead and most of his stunts were just people purposely falling down. The stuff with his parents was kind of funny, but that's because April and Phil were funny, not because Bam was.

Back around 2010 or so, some people in my area raised tens of thousands off dollars to pay him to come here and drink with them all at the local bar where shitty local punk bands play their shitty fucking shows and I still don't get it.

Knoxville was always the talent and idea man. He needed a cast of likable, funny or interesting misfits around him for it all to work.

Bam was always originally bait for the MTV teen girl demo. He was a stand-in for the cute skater boy they had a crush on at school. Im sure MTV execs loved his aspirations of being a lead singer for a goth-boy metal band too. However, his pranks and interactions with his much more personable parents ended up being far more likable and entertaining than his cliche rock star preening.

Bam’s parents /family are what made him a star, if not for them he would have just been the “cute teen skater/ boy band” of the ensemble cast.

Though I was in the teen girl demo that Bam was meant to attract I also thought he was the worst of the bunch. He seemed like a vain, rather dumb, douchebag who’s favorite pastime was looking at himself in the mirror or on video. Everybody in the production seemed to like his parents way more than him for a reason.

I’m sure Knoxville wasn’t crazy about him being in the cast but was savvy enough to know he needed to include a dreamy teen skater boi for MTV. Along the way they realized the teen/parent pranks were the gold that could be mined.

The thing about being the “cute teen boy” on a TV show is that it doesn’t last and Bam aged like milk. All his own merits were shallow and didn’t age well. The rebellious teen schtick does not work on a fat 40 year old man, even if he still behaves like a shit for brains sixteen year old man child.

 

[Bowl of Ramen]

Strong dislike or even a full-on phobia of mustard is apparently a legitimate thing, you can find stories online from people who shut down or have panic attacks over it. Like anything, I guess. But no, I can't really find anything about Rake talking about it any deeper than "I hate it" though.
I thought the freakout actually looked legit back then, the slow boil and the "you knew about this and really fucking did it you asshole" energy to it. Rewatching it now it still feels pretty real but calmer than I remember.

As a side note with the recent shift to the people around Bam getting their shit together - I always thought Dico's comment about Rake working with chemicals and how he'd pour them on them for pranking him with mustard just meant Rake worked at a factory or something.
But no, Rake apparently got a bachelor's degree in chemistry back in '97. The movie and mustard attack was 2002. He'd been a chemist for 5 damn years. Always just took him for some crazy homeless wastrel or something.

Rake upstaged Bam by being a more valuable member of society even all the way back then.
Imagine that.

Won’t powerlevel too hard, but I understand the mustard phobia very well. Same goes for ketchup and mayo. I was totally in solidarity with Rake on that regard. It was a dick move that Mr. Yohn paid back magnificently.

 

[Arocyt]

Knoxville was always the talent and idea man. He needed a cast of likable, funny or interesting misfits around him for it all to work.

Bam was always originally bait for the MTV teen girl demo. He was a stand-in for the cute skater boy they had a crush on at school. Im sure MTV execs loved his aspirations of being a lead singer for a goth-boy metal band too. However, his pranks and interactions with his much more personable parents ended up being far more likable and entertaining than his cliche rock star preening.

Bam’s parents /family are what made him a star, if not for them he would have just been the “cute teen skater/ boy band” of the ensemble cast.

Though I was in the teen girl demo that Bam was meant to attract I also thought he was the worst of the bunch. He seemed like a vain, rather dumb, douchebag who’s favorite pastime was looking at himself in the mirror or on video. Everybody in the production seemed to like his parents way more than him for a reason.

I’m sure Knoxville wasn’t crazy about him being in the cast but was savvy enough to know he needed to include a dreamy teen skater boi for MTV. Along the way they realized the teen/parent pranks were the gold that could be mined.

The thing about being the “cute teen boy” on a TV show is that it doesn’t last and Bam aged like milk. All his own merits were shallow and didn’t age well. The rebellious teen schtick does not work on a fat 40 year old man, even if he still behaves like a shit for brains sixteen year old man child.

I like shitting on Bam as much as everyone else these days but I don't think saying Bam was only taken on board to Jackass "by" MTV for essentially sex appeal is entirely accurate.

Jackass at its core was a Knoxville and Jeff Tremaine idea and formed around the skate and alternative culture magazine Big Brother (Pontius worked there as well).
Jeff Tremaine found out about Bam and his friends through the CKY tapes and reached out to them, before MTV was even involved.
Bam was known for some basic stunts like jumping off hotel balconies into pools and of course his skating stuff, but it was the CKY movies that made Tremaine try to get Bam and the CKY crew involved. CKY had stuff like wrecking a rental car, the guys pranking each other, as well as music and skate material generally shot guerilla-style, which all lined up with what Jeff Tremaine and Knoxville were trying to put together. Bam and the CKY crew were seen as fits for Jackass because CKY was essentially a proto-Jackass anyway, conveniently.

At the time I think attracting a teen girl demographic was the last thing on their minds, it was just finding people who could contribute to the stunts, skating, pranks and comedy.
Bam was involved before the show was even pitched to the networks and MTV fought over it with Comedy Central.
So, Bam was considered and even involved before MTV took it up or it had any real identity other than some side project of the magazine and it was on more than his "pretty" face (imo, he only really looked good around Viva La Bam. Pre-Jackass, CKY1 or CKY2K he was pretty dweeby - there's that one image where he looks like a teenaged Steve Buscemi that comes to mind too).

Funnily enough, I think Steve-O and Preston were the two to get involved after MTV had picked up the show. So if MTV was trying to appeal to a demographic like teen girls, they sure brought on two odd choices..

Edit: For shits and giggles, found this.

Look at how fucking young they all are, jesus.

 

[Flavius Claudius Julianus]

HIM was a band for girls that wanted to be "rockers" but were too weak to handle real metal. Its "girl-metal". Any male becoming fanatical fan of such bands are 100% homosexual.

One of the guys I used to skate with back in the mid 2000s was obsessed with Jackass, HIM, and all related shit. Looking back, he was a massive asshole in the same way Bam was/is. Dude collecting guitars despite not being able to play anything, carried around a skateboard despite being barely able to ride it on flat ground, and, - and I'm not kidding here - he used to go around in a top hat with the 'heartagram' logo on it, completely with a mostly open black shirt à la Bam, along with those baggy blue jeans alt-guys wore around that time. He was also white as fuck and ginger, picture that.

But yeah, total faggot. I don't really know anyone who liked that band unironically. HIM played on various music channels in the UK around that period, and quite a few people into rock/metal had heard of their name. But a few years later, they fell off the face of the earth. I had completely forgotten they existed until reading this thread.

 

[Wilhelm Bittrich]

Why is that these guys, if they manage to sober up and buy a house, always have homes that look like they were decorated by a New Jersey housewife plus a few items drunken flea-market shopping spree? Do they just walk into a Ashley Home furniture store, point to a pricey floor model set up and say “I’ll take it” and then just add some edgy Knick-knacks and art they have to complete the look?

It’s always half 90’s rich housewife furniture plus a few strange edgy items mixed together for a really tacky, ugly house of fail.

Loads of money doesn't give you taste, simple as that. They also are basically Jersey Shore Guidos just on a skateboard.

 

[MirnaMinkoff]

I like shitting on Bam as much as everyone else these days but I don't think saying Bam was only taken on board to Jackass "by" MTV for essentially sex appeal is entirely accurate.

Jackass at its core was a Knoxville and Jeff Tremaine idea and formed around the skate and alternative culture magazine Big Brother (Pontius worked there as well).
Jeff Tremaine found out about Bam and his friends through the CKY tapes and reached out to them, before MTV was even involved.
Bam was known for some basic stunts like jumping off hotel balconies into pools and of course his skating stuff, but it was the CKY movies that made Tremaine try to get Bam and the CKY crew involved. CKY had stuff like wrecking a rental car, the guys pranking each other, as well as music and skate material generally shot guerilla-style, which all lined up with what Jeff Tremaine and Knoxville were trying to put together. Bam and the CKY crew were seen as fits for Jackass because CKY was essentially a proto-Jackass anyway, conveniently.

At the time I think attracting a teen girl demographic was the last thing on their minds, it was just finding people who could contribute to the stunts, skating, pranks and comedy.
Bam was involved before the show was even pitched to the networks and MTV fought over it with Comedy Central.
So, Bam was considered and even involved before MTV took it up or it had any real identity other than some side project of the magazine and it was on more than his "pretty" face (imo, he only really looked good around Viva La Bam. Pre-Jackass, CKY1 or CKY2K he was pretty dweeby - there's that one image where he looks like a teenaged Steve Buscemi that comes to mind too).

Funnily enough, I think Steve-O and Preston were the two to get involved after MTV had picked up the show. So if MTV was trying to appeal to a demographic like teen girls, they sure brought on two odd choices..

Edit: For shits and giggles, found this.
Look at how fucking young they all are, jesus.

Skate and street tapes had been around since the 1980’s, so I don’t particularly think anything CKY crew was doing was new but it certainly got them a lot of attention. The (awful) movie Grind was what got the guys like Bam romanced by the cable networks who wanted to capture the youth demo.

MTV always cares about the teen girl demo - it more than half of their audience (and why they churned out so much retarded reality TV drama bait for years - the girls watched it.) Jackass, or a show with guys doing pranks and skating, was always going to pull in the teen male audience but they need to attract some level of the female audience and over-18 for a monster hit. Cute skaters guys attract a much larger female audience than ugly ones.

Bam filled two needs, one unexpectedly. He was a “cute teen” guy that the teen girls could have a crush on (and gay boys) but his teen/parent relationship actually pulled in a wider audience. Jackass would have not become a huge franchise if it stuck with the CKY stunt/street tape niche audience. The whole point was to pull in viewers that didn’t give a shit about skate boards or ollies by interjecting comedy and personalities.

Do you think Bam would have gotten two spin off shows about himself if he looked like Steve-O or Rake? Bam was always a marketable commodity because rebellious teen boy with tude sell really well. I know CKY had a following but I’m sure MTV was disappointed they didn’t manage to turn it into Green Day or Matchbox 20 level shit, though I’m sure they tried.

I’m just saying what MTV saw and wanted from Bam being in the show - and Bam was more than happy to provide it. It also happens to be something with a short shelf-life so they milked it hard as they could for a few years.

Bam got married just to get a new show after Viva La Bam was canceled ffs. Most of the Jackass guys would drink piss or zap their balls with tasers, but even they wouldn’t sink low enough to get married to churn out some shitty reality TV episodes for MTV.

 

[Hollywood Hitler]

Like everyone who was a teenager at the time I was a fan of Jackass. The movie came out just after I turned 18, so I got to see it in theatres.

I never really liked Bam very much, and I never understood why people did. Knoxville has this magnetic personality and most of the time the humor is in the fact that Knoxville is genuinely attempting the stunts that go awry most of the time, like a real life Super Dave Osborne, or there was a candid camera, Tom Green sort of element to it. Bam's just kind of a dickhead and most of his stunts were just people purposely falling down. The stuff with his parents was kind of funny, but that's because April and Phil were funny, not because Bam was.

Back around 2010 or so, some people in my area raised tens of thousands off dollars to pay him to come here and drink with them all at the local bar where shitty local punk bands play their shitty fucking shows and I still don't get it.

The 1st Jackass movie came out when I was 14. My appeal to Bam was that he was a skateboarder, and like every teenager living in the early 00s, skated (or liked sk8r culture) so he was one of my favorites. But I liked Dunn, Knoxville, and Steve-O more than Bam. Bam never seemed to put his body on the line as much as the rest of the cast, which is pretty gay, that's until you realize that his role was more of the prankster than a stuntman. I never put Viva La Bam on more than background noise because I thought it was boring.

 

[Van Darkholme]

Jesus Christ.
View attachment 1942977

in a few years he's gonna go 100% phil, so he can become his own dad after the real one dies

i also found bam very douchy and uncharismatic

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

in a few years he's gonna go 100% phil, so he can become his own dad after the real one dies

i also found bam very douchy and uncharismatic

In a few years, Bam will be fertilizer. Dude didn't get a grip of himself up till now, I doubt he'll get one in the future. He'll just spiral downwards until something happens. And that something, I hope, will only involve himself. I'd prefer if it didn't come to that, but Bam is doing nothing to prevent it.

 

[Arocyt]

in a few years he's gonna go 100% phil, so he can become his own dad after the real one dies

i also found bam very douchy and uncharismatic

Phil is a handsome, healthy cherub of a man. Don't compare him to his mess of a son.
Bam's on his way to looking more like Vito with the drifting eye and dried, leathery skin.

Here's that unflattering picture of young Bam.

If he kept to his bulimia I wonder if he'd look like Nucky Thompson these days instead.

 

[Ellesse_warrior]

Spoiler: ARCHIVE Bathroom Break Podcast #16 - Rake Yohn: TV Personality/Scientist

Spoiler: ARCHIVE CKY 4 Mustard Man

 

[Burd Turglar]

in a few years he's gonna go 100% phil, so he can become his own dad after the real one dies

i also found bam very douchy and uncharismatic

In a few years he will be Vito. His speech is already fucked and he's turning into a bloated retard, not just a fat gracefully aging east coast tub tub.

 

[ulsterscotsman]

I’m just saying what MTV saw and wanted from Bam being in the show - and Bam was more than happy to provide it. It also happens to be something with a short shelf-life so they milked it hard as they could for a few years.

Bam got married just to get a new show after Viva La Bam was canceled ffs. Most of the Jackass guys would drink piss or zap their balls with tasers, but even they wouldn’t sink low enough to get married to churn out some shitty reality TV episodes for MTV.

According to Bam after the Wedding show MTV was looking Bam to get either his then wife Missy pregnant or fake a pregnancy for a follow up show which was too far even for Bam.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

According to Bam after the Wedding show MTV was looking Bam to get either his then wife Missy pregnant or fake a pregnancy for a follow up show which was too far even for Bam.

What was their big goal with a fake pregnancy? Did they just assume no one would realize it was just a ruse? Were they planning to pull a "loss.jpg" moment? I can't even fathom what the fuck they expected to end such a show with.

 

[MirnaMinkoff]

According to Bam after the Wedding show MTV was looking Bam to get either his then wife Missy pregnant or fake a pregnancy for a follow up show which was too far even for Bam.

I’d say that had more to do with the marriage being a total fraud than Bam’s ethics. Marrying some dumb chick for a TV is temporary, breeding with her is permanent.

If the marriage was actually valid and real expecting a baby coming along is pretty standard. Expecting a baby to be produced from a fake TV marriage is a bridge too far.

I’d bet Bam floated the idea of some content being produced when he got his latest wife pregnant. If Bam wasn’t such a sad train wreck I’m sure he’d love to do “Viva La Bam - The n3xT g3n3ration”

I mean he begged to go on Dr Phil and did some family therapy show with Lindsay Lohan’s parents. I don’t think there’s any aspect of his life he wouldn’t exploit for a TV production. I’d like to think that’s due to him being a desperate addict making bad decisions, but I think it’s got more to do with narcissism.

 

[Emperor Julian]

This one makes me sad, my college years where spent doing copious amounts of drugs, partying and watching CKY (an experiace i recommend to anyone). The fuck happened?

 

[Trigger Me Timbers]

So I did some highlight surfing and didn’t find anything about this so thought it would mention it.

not 100% about Bam directly but he has a very weird orbiter/ “promoter” called Vincent Beedle aka “Scumbag Vinny”

Vinny is a young, dogshit tier grifter in the Connecticut comedy circuit who’s only two claims to fame is one he was on an episode of cum town which was legendarily cringe which made him take on the persona of “scumbag Vinny” and also decided to make his own podcast called “scum town”.
His second claim to fame is he knows Bam.
He’s known as a grifter because what he likes to do is go to comedy clubs and promises to sell them out in return for higher cut and saying he can get Bam Marghera to headline. In reality he can only get like 30 people to signup and piss off venues. (and Bam flakes nonstop or won’t show to venues that ent packed)

Pat Oates (another comic) called him out for this on his podcast and WATP also had a segment about this (this is I why I know about this). Vinny has a fully blown meltdown and made a few episodes called “Pat Oates is Gay” where he just reeeeees at pat for goofing on him.

the WATP segment that really goes into detail about, can’t find the ep number and honestly I don’t care that much. The only other thing to note is that if you type in Bam Margera and scum town you will see that Vinny nonstop puts him in the description and it always giving “updates“ on Bams situation or him doing impressions of people From the viva la Bam days.
I think there was a time when Bam was completely off social media so scum town became a sort of hub for updates about Bam (even though Vinny would just speculate with the rest of them)

 

[RatRoyalty]

Someone earlier in the thread made a good point about Bam. While he definitely had charisma and a good look for MTV, his job in the CKY crew was always behind the camera and in the editing room. Dude had the idea to film his friends falling out of shopping carts, and he had access to cameras and other equipment well before laptops and smartphones were common. He was like, what? 19? when he made a licensing agreement with Landspeed for the first CKY video, which was what put him on Tremaine and Knoxville's radar. The success of the video helped push the CKY band, and their own merits brought them their own success. Bam pissed the earnings away from the first video partying with his friends, and was smart enough to film it for the next video.

If he could clean himself up he could still leverage his career and recent downfall into an upswing as an off-beat weirdo filmmaker. He's not getting an Oscar, but I could see the Criterion Collection putting out a posthumous box set of his early works.