-Jeff

America’s Funniest Home Videos may well be the most popular show on television (don’t worry, this is just a catchy opening sentence, the writer’s strike hasn’t actually taken us back that far). Aside from videos with the always-crafty use of “boobs, celebrity, naked, sex, or orgasm” in their titles, YouTube’s top viewed clips can, in many ways, serve as a fair measure of public interest. Yes, there are new trends that arise, fresh interests in music, the (rare) creative comedic video, but there are certain things that will always be entertaining. It was of little surprise then, two days ago, when six of the top 20 videos of the day were all different versions of the exact same thing….

On January 19, 2008, American skier Scott Macartney left the ground at approximately 88mph, only to return shortly thereafter with neither skis, nor helmet, as soft tissue met slick frozen snow in the depths of Austrian winter. The 30-year-old from Seattle took a cringe-worthy spill on his final jump at the World Cup downhill on Saturday in Kitzbuehel. Thankfully, he is expected to have a speedy, full recovery. Unfortunately, this is only a physical recovery. Before you could say Kitzbuehel 5 times fast, his epic fall had been viewed over 1,481,575 times on YouTube between 10 different versions of the same bone-crunching crash. Talk about a publicity stunt.

Feel free to join that group of pain-hungry viewers

The man has probably spent countless years training, abandoning family and friends, traveling the world over, using up all of his money, and breathing through an oxygen tank to prepare himself for any ski environment at absolutely anytime. But, thanks to this clip, for the general public, Scott Mcartney is absolutely not “that really good and deserving-of-success skier,” instead he is simply, “that guy who practically killed himself in that ski race thing… what an idiot”.

YouTube provides the ability to “rate” clips through a 5 star system. I’m not exactly sure what measurement one uses in a situation like this—quality of video? Level of pain? Amount of laughter and “OMGs” produced? Either way, most of these clips were uniformly about 4 ½ stars. I suppose that translates to, “Good transition of shots, nice slow-mo, pretty high degree of pain, and funny/frightening twitching after sliding for an extra 50 feet after the fall”. For the most part, I was pleased with the comments left on the videos, most were empathetic and hopeful for a quick recovery, while obviously there was the occasional, “dude, bro, you suck!!”

Of course, this is nothing new; Athlete falls from impressive height, celebrity slips over her own breast implants, you’ve got yourself an instant YouTube classic. But let me make this clear; there is nothing wrong with viewing this video. There is also nothing wrong with laughing at this video. Granted, it helps that the person getting injured is alive and well, but generally speaking (save death) people getting hurt is humorous and always entertaining. This is not a commentary on the youth and the masses being stupid and violence-driven to the point of complete worthlessness. Also, on the flip side, it’s ok if you thought this video was just too much for you to see as humorous because of personal feelings about violence.

The point is, I don’t need to do an analysis through the ages that details the progression of pain from the ancient Greeks to Abbot and Costello in order to prove that someone losing an eye will continue to be a top seller no matter how many times we’ve watched MLB bloopers on late night public-service television. One recent example that comes to mind was on August 8, this previous summer, when X-Games skateboarder Jake Brown fell 40 feet on a halfpipe. In what I felt was a more impressive (wrong term) accident, this video actually compiled less views than the recent ski slip, though of course it still had well over a million.

To the Jake Browns and Scott Mcartneys out there, I salute you. Your pain is our entertainment, and as long as you heal (almost) completely, we will continue to respect you for all the wrong reasons. To the general public, don’t let squeamish people tell you that you’re a morally bad person for enjoying these videos. To YouTube, as usual, thank you.