Ryan Dunn dead, now 'Jackass' fate in question

Ryan Dunn, the popular wild stuntman, is gone. He lost his life doing something that he has been doing for long. But now, after his terrible death, what will happen to Jackass? Will a show, based on his reckless activities, lose its fun after the death of one of its leading casts?

When film critic Roger Ebert tweeted Friends don't let jackasses drink and drive after the news of Dunn's death spread on Monday, the internet was set on fire by many of Dunn's fans accusing Ebert of insensitivity. But, did he allude to something which is not obvious?

According to police report, Dunn was driving his 2007 Porsche 911 at a terrifying speed of 130 miles per hour. The pictures tweeted by Dunn himself just hours before the fatal mishap showed him drinking, which also prompted speculation that Dunn was intoxicated at the time of the crash.

Dunn's close friend Thaddeus Kalinoski confirmed speculations later on Wednesday saying that the Jackass star had whiskey and beer before he met with the accident. The local police on Wednesday said Dunn's blood alcohol level was 0.196, more than twice the legal limit.

Although MTV declined any possible negative impact on the Jackass band, will the franchise, which has grown into a box-office hit from a popular MTV cable series, survive the aftermath of Dunn's death? Will people find all those dangerous and senseless stunts funny again after the Dunn tragedy?

Some people said that the show will take a break. We're going to take a respectful break, and then people are going to go back to doing what they do, Eric Deggans, a television and media critic for the St. Petersburg Times, told TheWrap.

Many claimed that Jackass that began more than ten years ago on MTV was coming to its climax even before Dunn's death. But, considering the money that the low-cost show has generated for MTV so far, a nearing end to the series didn't seem likely. With a production cost of only $20 million, Jackass 3-D generated over $170 million last year.

However, the unexpected death of Dunn does bring Jackass back into controversy once again.

When the show came on television for the first time in 2000, Joseph Lieberman, the senior United States Senator from Connecticut, raised his voice against it. He called on the owners of the MTV television network to either cancel or change the program as many young viewers had been reportedly hurt while trying the stunts from the show at home.

It's possible that after Dunn's death, the series could once again come across similar circumstances.

But the show may not promote drunk and hasty driving for sure.

Read: Ryan Dunn had a history of speeding, got 23 driving citations