CKY (video series)

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The core members of the CKY Crew
The core members of the CKY Crew

The CKY video series is a series of skate videos produced by West Chester, Pennsylvania residents and Jackass stars Bam Margera and Brandon DiCamillo. Four videos have been released to date, Landspeed: CKY, CKY2K, CKY 3 and CKY4: The Latest And Greatest. There is also a CKY "documentary" DVD, which is a supplemental item in the hard-to-find CKY "Box Set," as well as two "CKY Trilogy" sets, both of which are compilation DVDs featuring scenes from the previous CKY DVDs. As with CKY, the band of the same name, "CKY" stands for "Camp Kill Yourself".

The videos feature Bam Margera, Brandon DiCamillo, their friends and Bam's relatives in various stunts and pranks, interspersed with skating footage of Bam and other pros. A trademark of the skating footage was to show unsuccessful trick attempts immediately followed by the same skater pulling the trick off. CKY started when Bam and his friends were in the same Graphics Arts class at East High School in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Instead of attending class, they would go out in a field and film skits. Eventually, they had so much footage of themselves, they decided to collaborate it into a video.

Contents

[edit] The CKY Crew

In addition to Margera and DiCamillo, the core members of the CKY Crew are Bam's brother Jess Margera, Ryan Dunn, Chris Raab (aka Raab Himself) and Rake Yohn, real name Ted Webb. Jess's involvement with the video side of CKY became increasingly limited as CKY the band became popular and touring and recording commitments took up most of his time. Other crew members include Bam's parents Phil Margera and April Margera, Ryan Gee, Mark Hanna, Chris Hanna, David Decurtis (aka Naked Dave), CKY band members Deron Miller and Chad Ginsburg, Rake's brother Art Webb 1986, Bam's uncle Vincent Margera (aka "Don Vito"), Bam's ex-girlfriend Jenn Rivell and pro-skateboarders Mike Maldonado, Kerry Getz, Chris Aspite, Brandon Novak, Tony Hawk, Tim O'Connor and Mike Vallely.

The CKY videos brought Bam and his friends to the attention of Jeff Tremaine who drafted them into the cast of Jackass which aired for three seasons on MTV. Most Jackass skits featuring the CKY Crew were lifted from previously released CKY material or were recorded by the crew in West Chester, while the Los Angeles based faction of the Jackass team featuring Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius and others recorded in California. A subsequent MTV spin-off entitled Viva La Bam followed Bam Margera and his crew as they tortured Bam's family and generally wreaked havoc in West Chester and around the world.

[edit] Landspeed: CKY

CKY

Landspeed: CKY
Produced by Bam Margera
Starring Bam Margera
Distributed by Ventura Distribution
Release date(s) 1999
Running time 60 minutes
Country USA
Language English
Followed by CKY2K
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Landspeed: CKY, the first film in the CKY series, was released on March 1, 1999. The name Landspeed comes from Landspeed Wheels, which was a subsidiary of Tum Yeto Inc. that made skateboard wheels and clothing from 1998 to 2000. Landspeed originally produced the CKY video allowing Bam Margera to distribute it in the public domain. Bam discovered that the man who owned Tum Yeto, Tod Swank, was ripping him off.[1] Bam left Toy Machine and took the CKY video with him, re-releasing as simply 'CKY'. He removed the Landspeed title and other references and wrote "A film by Bam Margera and not by anyone from Southern California" on the back inlay. Landspeed Wheels later went out of business.

The original VHS release is relatively rare and has an extra scene not included with the DVD release of the film. The scene features Brandon Dicamillo running around a Christmas parade as Santa Claus because the real Santa was late. No one at the parade except for Bam and his crew knew that Brandon had nothing to do with the parade.

[edit] CKY2K

CKY2K

cKy2k
Produced by Bam Margera
Starring Bam Margera
Brandon DiCamillo
Ryan Dunn
Distributed by Ventura Distribution
Release date(s) 2001
Running time 60 minutes
Country USA
Language English
Preceded by CKY
Followed by CKY3
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CKY2K, the second film in the CKY series, was released on May 22, 2001. It is notable for the documentary of the trip to Iceland taken by Bam Margera and company. It also includes the "worry free" destruction of a rental car after paying $9 for extra insurance. Rake Yohn finished off the already damaged car by setting fire to the radio.

On the trip to Iceland, the crew heckled Björk outside her house, and used her music in a previous scene. Like its sequel, CKY2K was discontinued due (in part) to copyright issues. The first major issue was from Björk.

The original VHS release ended with CKY's "Disengage The Simulator," and featured nothing in or after the credits. The DVD release featured "One Last Time" by HIM, and featured additional footage. One such scene featured a minor exposing himself (he had begged to be in the video, and said he'd do anything) in public. This, more than the copyright infringements (of which there were many), led to the discontinuation of the DVD.

[edit] CKY 3

CKY3

cKy3
Directed by Bam Margera
Brandon DiCamillo
Starring Bam Margera
Distributed by Ventura Distribution
Release date(s) 2001
Running time 60 minutes
Country USA
Language English
Preceded by CKY2K
Followed by CKY4: The Latest & Greatest
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CKY 3, the third film in the CKY series, was released on February 12, 2002. It was also the first of the videos to be taken off the market due to copyright restrictions. Some of the musicians (or their legal representation) were unhappy with Margera using their music without their permission. This would later happen with CKY2K and the box set including all three videos and the documentary.

[edit] CKY4: The Latest & Greatest

CKY4: The Latest & Greatest

cKy4
Directed by Bam Margera
Starring Bam Margera
Brandon DiCamillo
Music by CKY
Editing by Bam Margera
Distributed by Slam Films/Ventura Distribution
Release date(s) 2003
Running time 90 minutes
Country USA
Language English
Preceded by CKY3
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CKY4, the fourth film in the series, was released on March 25, 2003. It has a sharp increase of editing techniques compared to the other films, mostly due to Bam Margera's newly-acquired wealth and ability to purchase motion picture film cameras and utilize advanced post-production facilities. However, it also features a lot of older video material, some unseen, some extended and some off-cuts from previous CKY films. Scenes include Don Vito's 50 Shots of Peach Schnapps (Bonus Feature) and Ryan Dunn rolling off a roof in a barrel.

CKY4 is the only CKY video to be censored, and one of the few DVDs to have been censored three times.

  • A DVD "Easter Egg" (bonus material in a random menu), showed Bam and his then-girlfriend mid-coitus with altered color mixes to avoid nudity. This wasn't the first time CKY videos have attracted trouble due of this sort, but it had never been cut until mid-2003.
  • In 2002, Brandon DiCamillo and CKY drummer Jess Margera wrote a freestyle rap about Masters Of The Universe characters Skeletor and Beast Man engaging in extreme homosexual behavior, called Skeletor vs Beastman. Mattel, owners of the Masters Of The Universe franchise, heard about this, and were not pleased. Margera was sent a cease-and-desist order, and subsequent editions of the DVD (there have, to date, been four; the first two have the video) have replaced this video with skateboarding footage.
  • CKY guitarist Chad Ginsburg, a large fan of punk rocker G.G. Allin, visited his grave one day (probably June 28, 2002, as that was the anniversary of G.G.'s death, and the tenth anniversary was after the DVD's release). Consuming an entire bottle of Jim Beam bourbon (Allin's favorite beverage), he proceeded to urinate on the grave, and left an autographed copy of Infiltrate.Destroy.Rebuild. which was later stolen. Mixed in between the grave footage is CKY performing Allin's song "Bite It, You Scum".
  • At the end of the "lil key key" skit performed by Chris Raab, there was a "Secret Easter Egg" also got cut in 2003 due to unknown circumstances.