Yo, Bam Bam

Analyse Viva La Bam, a ‘reality TV’ show, in respect to generic hybridity, the notion of realism and format.

After the surprise popularity of Jackass in 2000, October 26th 2003 saw professional skateboarder and Jackass, Bam Margera’s own television show Viva La Bam debut on “the MTV Music Television cable network” [Auslander,1999:91]. The focus of his show was still pulling stupid and entertaining pranks, this time enlisting help from skateboarding friends – Tony Hawk, Tim O'Connor, Bob Burnquist – rock bands – HIM, The Bloodhound Gang, Slayer, Gwar – and the ‘CKY Crew’ – Ryan Dunn, Chris Raab, Brandon DiCamillo, Rake Yohn – but during the first season pranks were concerned with giving his family, their home, and local town of Westchester, Pennsylvania, hell. Throughout the seasons the show became more interested in how the next episode could be bigger and better than the previous one. Viva La Bam is quickly categorised under “the generic label ‘reality TV,’” [Kilborn,2005:51] but it is not so simple to determine its exact place in the realm of reality TV due to principles of generic hybridity, the notion of realism and reality itself, and the format which the show takes. This essay will explore these concepts not with the intent to pigeon-hole, but rather to determine how Viva La Bam belongs to all, and yet none of reality television’s sub-genres simultaneously.

Reality television is created by taking elements from established programme categories and creating new combinations, producing innovative [Kilborn,2005:51], or seemingly innovative, television. Interestingly enough ”most contemporary programmes classified as reality TV are far removed from traditional factual television genres such as news or documentary” [Hill,2005:62]. “Extensive cross-genre borrowing” [Kilborn,2005:61] occurring in the creation of reality TV allows Viva La Bam to span sub-genres such as: docu-soap, staged reality events, reality game-docs, and candid camera shows; belonging to all and none at concurrently. “MTV, the generic Music Television channel, is paradigmatically postmodern in its function, structure and (partly) content” and “postmodern TV is characterized by a high degree of excess, fragmentation…hybridization…stylization, intertextuality, recycling…self-referentiality, and parody and pastiche,” [O'Day,1998:117,118] all of which are present in Viva La Bam, causing it to be a constantly developing show which is complicated to define in terms of a stable generic-hybrid.

Viva La Bam claims to largely be unscripted, but the premise of each episode must be established beforehand, and conventional fiction conventions are used for guidance. There are seven basic plots, from which all fiction is developed. Of the seven Viva La Bam borrows clearly from at least four: man vs. nature, (‘April’s Revenge’ (7/12/03)) man vs. man (‘Fat Boy Face Off’ (9/5/04), ‘Fort Knoxville’ (7/11/04), ‘Vito’s Revenge’ (10/7/05)), man vs. the environment (‘Bam On The Bayou’ (3/3/05)), and man vs. self (‘Don’t Feed Phil’ (2/11/03), ‘Angry Ape’ (28/11/04))[Brooks,2005:213]: further proof of the show’s chameleon-like nature to adapt to various genres and forms.

Docu-soap combines “certain structural and narrative features of soap-opera with elements of observational documentary,” [Kilborn,2005:57] it is evidenced in Viva La Bam in the way episodes follow something of a traditional narrative structure, and are strongly focused on the reactions, and relationships of the show’s participants.

“More recently developed reality formats…[which] all to a greater or lesser extent, depend on the staging of an event” [Kilborn,2005:78] definitely includes Viva La Bam. There are rock concerts, skate demos, Christmas celebrations and family reunions staged at the Margera’s house, but, as Kilborn elicits “the idea of being uprooted from one’s normal environment and placed in a strange, exotic or potentially dangerous location strikes a strong imaginative chord in all of us,” [2005:78] possibly explaining why over half the episodes – from five seasons – feature the idea of a ‘road trip’; season four seeing six out of eight episodes occurring somewhere other than Westchester.

“Reality game-docs claim a certain reality status for themselves by focusing on a series of ‘real life’ exchanges between a group of…individuals gathered together in a highly contrived…environment …required to respond to a number of challenges dreamed up by members of the production team”
[Kilborn:2005:59]
A game-show feeling is indicative of Viva La Bam as a whole, but it applies specifically to episodes featuring ‘man vs. man’ or ‘man vs. self’ plots. A challenge is established at the beginning of the episode and by the end the participant/contestant has faced obstacles and trials and is deemed either successful, or a failure, and is celebrated, or punished, accordingly. Winning is never winning unless Bam is victorious, evidenced in ‘Fat Boy Face Off’ which pits his father Phil Margera again his uncle Don Vito in a series of demeaning weight related challenges – concluding with a quiz showdown complete with tacky game show set and outrageous host. Don Vito loses, and sees his car destroyed, while Phil, the winner, sees his wife’s China cabinet also destroyed; at the end of the episode Bam addresses the camera saying: “Fat Boy Face Off proved who the better man is…me.” An element of the game-doc frequently implemented by Viva La Bam is “the extensive use of playful humour and self deprecating irony in the narrational [commentary],” [Kilborn,2005:60] which includes testimonies from the show’s participants concerning events before, during, or after they take place, along with Bam’s narrative input. The audience responds to this technique as the “protagonists entrust confidences to the camera” and then to the audience who enjoy “being spoken to in a generally lighthearted and conversational tone” as it gives an impression they are involved and sharing in experiences as they occur [Kilborn,2005:60,62].

Viva La Bam has its foundations in candid camera shows “where people are set up and filmed without their prior knowledge or consent” [Hill,2005:65]. While cameras are around all the time, it is usually only Bam who is fully informed about every prank. ‘Limo vs. Lambo’ (24/7/05) sees Ryan Dunn racing Bam home, Bam hates losing but falls behind because there’s a surprise for Dunn at home; Bam had the image of an open garage door painted over the closed garage door, something Dunn didn’t expect, as he drives straight through it, and is shocked, but amused, later exclaiming: “It was Wile E Coyote shit!”

MTV’s disclaimer at the beginning of each episode states: “this show features stunts performed either by professionals or under the supervision of professionals”: the notion pranks are pre-planned degrades the show’s spontaneity severely. The presence of ‘professionals’ and safety advisors, along with the fact the show credits Jacob Pinger as ‘Director of Photography’, and Joseph Franz as ‘Cinematographer’, destroys any further illusions of total spontaneity by implying someone is planning every scene, shot and camera angle. The actual reality of carefully planned stunts places greater importance upon the reactions of participants and witnesses who “are not professional actors” [Andrejevic,2004:102] to inform a notion of realism. April Margera – Bam’s mother – and Don Vito – Bam’s Uncle – drive the show in terms of responses. The most honest and emotional reactions are from Bam’s grandmother, Mum-Mum, but her appearances in the show are brief; she is seen throwing Bam out of her house in ‘Rockstars’ (14/11/04) for tattooing Don Vito, and she sits in the bushes in a state of distress before being driven home stating “This whole family is crazy!” during ‘Family Reunion’ (9/11/03). It doesn’t take much to set April into escalating hysteria with high pitched squealing repeating “Are you kidding me?” and provoking angry and violent responses from Don Vito who exacts a chokehold on whomever he can reach asking them “Live or die?” is too easy.

John Fiske wonders if “realism [is] capable of expressing adequately the relationships [people] have established between each other and the external world” [1987:163]. This is especially pertinent for Viva La Bam not only because of Bam’s previously established high profile public persona, but as co-creator of the show he has a say in the final edit, meaning the relationships and interactions the audience views are partly inclined to portray Bam as a jackass, but a somewhat endearing jackass.

The family dynamic of the Margera’s and their adopted CKY crew are strange, but intrinsic to the show; as “families come in many shapes and sizes, they better fit the definition of a ‘family circle’ – the close group relationship of a household” [Brooks,2005:7]. In ‘Castle Bam’ (25/4/04) Bam says “everybody can all move in with me, but this house is gonna be my way,” initially it appears his suggestion is a ploy to gain dominance; but ultimately he simply enjoys having friends and family so close by. In terms of portraying a typical American family they don’t seem conventional, but they’re the new American family. “The latest batch of television mothers runs the gamut from the passive to the domineering,” [Brooks,2005:7] which April Margera transitions between, as she attempts to mother eight ‘sons’: one is Bam (other son Jess lives elsewhere), another is her gentle placid husband Phil – the opposite of his brother Vito – who wants to be one of the boys, and the rest are the CKY crew.

Kilborn asserts “reality television is not very real” [2005:79], and Viva La Bam shrewdly acknowledges the artificiality of its reality, and its own construction, making it no secret that “the scenarios they portray are in many respects, contrived” [Andrejevic,2004:102]. The show does this in various ways; through use of different camera styles, direct address to the camera, and what is a certain MTV stylistic aesthetic “using computer graphics and special effects to warp or wipe out televisual worlds” [O'Day,1998:118].

The varied use of different cameras, and camera styles to capture footage is an unsubtle nod to the constructed reality of the show. 16mm film, surveillance cameras, mounted dashboard cameras, hidden cameras, steady cam shots, poorly disguised spy cameras – such as Bam’s ‘eyeglass cam’ in ‘Limo vs. Lambo’ where Dunn observes: “You might as well duct tape a betacam to your head”, and of course hand held cameras – Bam himself is often seen with digicam in hand – combined in a 20 minute show give the skewed sense of reality in terms of it being a pieced together show from scraps of footage, but the glaring difference between film and video, and handheld and steady cam, doesn’t fool audiences into thinking everything occurred as it is shown. Differences are clearly visible in shooting styles when comparing skating segments to ‘the rest’ of the show. Repeated use of montage, sped up segments, flashbacks, slow motion, colour graded segments, and cast members wearing personal microphones, make denying the highly constructed nature of the show impossible.

Viva La Bam follows a traditional narrative structure with a beginning, middle, and end. During the show’s introduction and epilogue Bam directly addresses the camera, and with his very fast MTV speech informs the audience of the show’s setup, recaps the episode, the direct address is used throughout to guide the audience. Bam’s best examples of self-reflexivity and a playful acknowledgment of the show’s construction include: “Best montage ever”, “This is where the airplane montage happens”, “This is where the montage starts”, and when April asks during ‘Angry Ape’ if her challenge is almost over Bam replies “this is nothing, this is only the second bit Ape, there’s still a commercial to go…” Bam is excited to discover ‘Castle Bam’ but as the camera pans left to reveal the house he grabs the camera, shakes his head saying “Hey, easy, it’s a surprise,” personifying the camera, and giving the audience a greater sense of “immediacy and intimacy” [Auslander,1999:15].

MTV utilises its “visual style, gimmickry, [and] hype” [Frith,1988:210] throughout Viva La Bam serving as a constant reminder of the unrealistic take on what is a realistic life. When people are introduced footage of them appears on the screen then pauses, changes colour, the background fades out and is replaced with graffiti-like paint splashes, as their name/title is displayed; everything is loud, bold and fast. MTV’s proficiency with “digital manipulation and image generation techniques” [Hill,2005:58] ensures things are always popping up on screen: titles, countdown clocks, ‘fun-o-meters’, anger gauges, tallies, scoreboards, amounts of money made/won/lost, things collected, locations, times, maps of travels etc. This convention is actively acknowledged in ‘Viva La Europe Part 2’ (13/3/05) when a tired and subdued Ryan Dunn says “Time’s running out” as a sign appears above his head reiterating it, he then says “Clock”, holds up his right hand and a computer generated graphic falls into it, followed by “Need more product, paint splash” swiping his left arm across the screen, this time a graphic of food appears, followed by the usual graffiti paint splash. Dunn’s clear knowledge of the conventions applied to their show and the way he provokes the editors to implement them is evidence the show admits it is ”principally conceived as…light entertainment” [Kilborn,2005:89].

Viva La Bam adheres to aspects of carnival in terms of the unrealistic reality it presents, employing notions of ritual spectacles, comic verbal compositions, and various genres of billingsgate, to highlight humorous aspects of the show. [Vice,1997:151,152] The element of “the grotesque body” [Vice,1997:149] is brought to prominence via Don Vito and his frequent “eating, drinking, defecation and other elimination (sweating, blowing of the nose, sneezing)” [Vice,1997:165]. Vito is rarely seen without a beer or food, and his main goals seem to be finding “nice girls” and the “best Veal scaloppine.” Vito is shown as out of control and driven by his corporal desires; there isn’t much he won’t do for beer or money, a fact often exploited in the show. His grotesque body is frequently on display; ‘skin tags,’ rotten toenails, scarred stomach, and dent in his back, which “allow the audience to peer in voyeuristically on other people’s lives in a way that carries strong reminders of the fairground freak show” [Kilborn,2005:75,76].

In terms of ‘ritual spectacles’ the ‘Fat Boy Face Off’ game show is a good example, it’s loud, ludicrous and doesn’t even make that much sense. The ‘ratification’ of the ‘State of Bam’ in the episode of the same name (27/3/05) sees Dunn drive his motorcycle into a trailer causing it to explode, before setting alight a giant heartagram monument built on a pile of old cars. Concerning ‘comic verbal compositions’ there are two distinct types in Viva La Bam, the first is Vito’s speech, deemed “authentic because it does not sound contrived, simulated or performed, but rather sounds natural, fresh, spontaneous,” [Hill,2005:75] even though he is unintelligible most of the time and requires subtitles – another example of the show’s humour – which are also gibberish such as: “He’s got no tiddly just joogle, you can’t just goat duggle…Sitting hernwhaga ehhhm, just sitting glawhahwaglahhh”. DiCamillo’s songs, and the invention of words, usually prefixed with ‘Bam’: Bamerican History, Bamzoni, Bamtastic, and slobstacle, are other examples of comic composition. Abusive language used very frequently throughout the show, cursing and verbal insults, serve as examples of billingsgate, eg. Bam deciding: “Now I’m going to start cussing like a sailor: shit, fuck, piss, dick and cunt.”

A question often arises concerning reality TV of: “Whose reality is it anyway?” [Kilborn,2005:67]Viva La Bam never purports to be the reality of the viewing audience – it claims to be Bam’s reality, which, due to his ‘celebrity’ status, is a world removed from that of MTV’s intended “teens and young adults” demographic [Denisoff,1988:317]. People always want what they can’t have, and shows vaguely in the ‘reality TV’ genre such as The Osbournes, The Simple Life, Meet The Barkers, and Tommy Lee Goes To College, give audiences an opportunity to see how the rich and famous live, to assure themselves even ‘celebrities’ struggle, and are as dysfunctional as everyone else.

Viva La Bam’s sense of ‘reality’ is highly constructed, and astutely aware of its own construction; a reality viewers may not understand or perceive as the same as their reality. Bam replies truthfully “Whatever the fuck I want” when asked by the voiceover during Viva La Bam’s opening credits: “Bam Margera. What will he do next?” He destroys things (pianos, cars, houses), embarrasses people (constant derision of Don Vito’s physical appearance), spends copious amounts of money (a customised $250,000 purple Lamborghini), but is still popular enough to have kids line up at the Mall of America to be slapped in the face by him. Bam declares “You’re in Bam World now,” – a world the show depicts as a place where money is no object, consequences are few, and the only real limitation is imagination – which has been packaged stylishly by MTV, creating an appealing version of reality to both the voyeur and the envious within. The show is Bam’s, meaning it will continue to both evolve and evade stringent definition as Bam grows and changes his mind about “whatever the fuck he wants”; reflective of the future of reality television – unsure of what it’s doing, but doing what it thinks is entertaining.


REFERENCES

Books
• Andrejevic M, 2004, Ch. 4 ‘The Kinder, Gentler Gaze of Big Brother’ in Reality TV: The Work of Being Watched, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, New York.
• Auslander P, 1999, Liveness: Performance in a Mediatised Culture, Routledge, London.
• Brooks M, 2005, The American Family on Television, McFarland & Company, North Carolina.
• Denisoff R, 1988, Inside MTV, Transaction Books, New Brunswick.
• Fiske J & Hartley J, 1987, Reading Television, Methuen, London.
• Frith S, 1988, Music For Pleasure, Routledge, London.
• Hill A, 2005, Ch. 4 ‘Performance & Authenticity’ in Reality TV: Audiences & Popular Factual Television, Routledge, London.
• Kilborn R, 2005, Ch. 3 ’Playing the reality card’ in Staging the Real: Factual TV Programming in the Age of Big Brother, Manchester University Press, Manchester.
• O'Day M, 1998, ‘Postmodernism & Television’ in The Icon Critical Dictionary of Postmodern Thought, (ed) Stuart Sim, Icon Books, Cambridge.
• Vice S, 1997, ‘Carnival & the grotesque body’ in Introducing Bakhtin, Manchester University Press, Manchester.


Television Programs

• Jackass, Dickhouse Productions, Music Television (MTV), 2000.
• Meet The Barkers, Katherine Brooks, Music Television (MTV), Music Television (MTV), 2005.
• The Osbournes, Katherine Brooks, Big Head Productions, Music Television (MTV), 2002.
• The Simple Life, Kasey Barrett, 20th Century Fox Television, Fox Network, 2003.
• Tommy Lee Goes To College, National Broadcasting Company (NBC), 2005.
• Viva La Bam, Don’t Feed Phil, 18 Husky & Bam Margera Productions, Music Television (MTV), 2/11/03.
• Viva La Bam, Family Reunion, 18 Husky & Bam Margera Productions, Music Television (MTV), 9/11/03.
• Viva La Bam, April’s Revenge, 18 Husky & Bam Margera Productions, Music Television (MTV), 7/12/03.
• Viva La Bam, Castle Bam, 18 Husky & Bam Margera Productions, Music Television (MTV), 25/4/04.
• Viva La Bam, Fat Boy Face Off, 18 Husky & Bam Margera Productions, Music Television (MTV), 9/5/04.
• Viva La Bam, Fort Knoxville, 18 Husky & Bam Margera Productions, Music Television (MTV), 7/11/04.
• Viva La Bam, Rockstars, 18 Husky & Bam Margera Productions, Music Television (MTV), 14/11/04.
• Viva La Bam, Angry Ape, 18 Husky & Bam Margera Productions, Music Television (MTV), 28/11/04.
• Viva La Bam, Bam On The Bayou, 18 Husky & Bam Margera Productions, Music Television (MTV), 3/3/05.
• Viva La Bam, Viva La Europe Part 2, 18 Husky & Bam Margera Productions, Music Television (MTV), 13/3/05
• Viva La Bam, State of Bam, 18 Husky & Bam Margera Productions, Music Television (MTV), 27/3/05.
• Viva La Bam, Vito’s Revenge, 18 Husky & Bam Margera Productions, Music Television (MTV), 10/7/05.
• Viva La Bam, Limo vs. Lambo, 18 Husky & Bam Margera Productions, Music Television (MTV), 24/7/05.