Wildboyz: Season 2

Director: Jeff Tremaine,
Starring: Chris Pontius, Steve-O, Johnny Knoxville, Manny Puig, Wee-Man, David Weathers, ,

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DVD Review

Tired of the over-earnestness of The Crocodile Hunter and Jeff Corwin? Those crazy Wildboyz are back for a second season filled with more snake bites and animal poop jokes than you can shake a stick at. This season is a mix of countries they visited last time around with some new places too. They haven’t messed around with the formula at all (if ain’t broke, why fix it, right?) as Chris Pontius and Steve-O mix it up with various dangerous animals and insects while also performing all kinds of gross out stunts that usually involve both of them puking their guts out at some point.

In Brazil, Chris puts a deadly monkey spider on Steve-O’s chest. In a funny moment, just before this happens, Steve-O asks, “Are they dangerous?” to which Chris replies with a mischievous grin, “They eat birds for a living. Of course they’re dangerous.” They also mess with a large electric eel and endure a rite of passage of the Mee-Mee Indians, deep in the Rainforests, that involves donning a glove filled with nasty ants.

In Australia, the boys encounter a rambunctious little creature known as a Wombat who proceeds to chew up one of Steve-O’s shoes and chase them around. Steve-O continues to be the coward as he runs away from most animals they encounter, like the crocodile Chris ends up grappling with and actually capturing. Chris is definitely the braver, more easy-going of the two and this makes him much more likable as well.

Not surprisingly, a lot of the jokes revolve around the potty humour level, including animal feces, puke and various animal bites and insect stings that the guys endure all over their bodies (although, Steve-O takes more than his share on his ass). This is basically a continuation of their Jackass antics but with an Animal Planet spin on it.

The Florida episode is, without a doubt, the most entertaining one as the boys hook up with animal expert Manny Puig, venomous snake expert David Weathers and “movie star” Johnny Knoxville who is his typical smart-ass self. The highlight of this episode occurs when Knoxville pulls a practical joke on Steve-O, fooling him into believing that he’s been mortally wounded by a lethal snake. As Knoxville is being “rushed” to the hospital, he tells Steve-O that it was all a joke.

Knoxville also returns for the last episode of the season that takes place in Indonesia. He ends up refereeing a match between Steve-O and Chris that is basically a whipping contest to see who can get the gnarliest mark on their body. Knoxville also dons a medieval suit of armour and messes with a group of large Komodo dragons feeding on an animal carcass.

What makes the Wildboyz work so well is that they don’t take themselves too seriously. The relationship between the whiney Steve-O and the happy-go-lucky Chris works well and their dynamic is only improved when they include someone like Manny or Knoxville into the mix. This season certainly won’t convert fans who didn’t like the first one but those who love watching these goofy guys take the piss out of animal shows like The Crocodile Hunter will find a lot to enjoy with these episodes.

Special Features:

Disc one features an audio commentary on every episode by Chris, Steve-O and co-creators/producers Jeff Tremaine and Dimitry Elyashkevich. Wee-Man joins them on his episode (Kenya) and Knoxville joins them on his two (Florida and Indonesia) – not surprisingly, these are the best commentaries of the bunch. They are often chaotic affairs as everyone proceeds to make fun of Steve-O and crack jokes at what we are watching. They also dish on all sorts of amusing behind-the-scene anecdotes as well.

Disc two starts off with deleted footage from each episode that totals 40 minutes! We see Steve-O, Chris and Wee-Man get ritualistic burns in Kenya. There is also more footage of the guys mixing it up with various animals. It’s really a shame some of this footage was cut, for example, in Australia Chris and Steve-O have salt water crocodiles swim between their legs and then they dive in their tank!

There is also a 20-minute collection of outtakes and bloopers that include Steve-O getting peed and pooped on by an elephant and, most interestingly, fall-out from certain segments, like just how painful the ant glove incident was for Chris and Steve-O.

“Wildboyz Unclothed,” is a behind-the-scenes look at the Costa Rica episode that shows how certain segments, like Steve-O’s bungee jump, came together.

“Wildboyz Encyclopedia” is the “educational” extra that takes a look at a particular animal from one of the episodes and allows you to view a clip from said segment showing the animal in action.

There is also a trivia game which tests your knowledge of Season 2 and rewards all the right answers with a previously unseen clip that maybe should have been left unseen.

“Bite List” gives a run down of how many animal bites Chris and Steve-O have received over the season, where on their body and in which country.

Finally, there is a photo gallery of most of the episodes with captions for each picture which is a nice idea.

J.D. Lafrance

J.D. is a freelance writer who is currently doing research for a book on the films of Michael Mann. He likes reading anything written by Jack Kerouac, James Ellroy, J.D. Salinger, Harlan Ellison or Thomas Pynchon. J.D. is currently addicted to the T.V. series 24 and enjoys drinking a lot of Sprite. This is not a blatant plug for the beverage but if they ever decided to give him a lifetime supply he certainly wouldn’t turn them down.
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Rating: 80%

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