Plum Crazy

A man who legally changed his name to "Jack Ass" is suing Viacom for defamation of character over the MTV program, "Jackass". The former Bob Craft changed his name in 1997 to draw attention to the dangers of drunk driving. I know that when I think of the word "jackass" I immediately think about drunk driving.

He is suing Viacom because he claims it is "liable for injury to my reputation that I have built and defamation of my character which I have worked so hard to create." Hands up, all of us who have heard of this guy and the character he has "worked so hard to create" before. Nobody? I don't think he worked hard enough.

And what of this "reputation" he has built? He changed his name to "Jack Ass." Most people don't associate positive things with that term. When people refer to others by it, they are not being complimentary and nice. I'm sorry for the guy, who did this after his brother and friend were killed when their car crashed, but he changed his name to a common insult. The rest of us better watch out and not insult people using that phrase again. We might get sued.