[imagesource:here]

Sean McInerney isn’t a household name like Johnny Knoxville or Steve-O, but he’s in the headlines following a shark bite he sustained during a wakeboarding stunt being filmed for Discovery’s Shark Week.

The show is called Jackass Shark Week Special, and I guess you can expect the same level of madness one would see in a regular Jackass show, with sharks added to the mix.

I’m sure it’s going to be highly informative, like most of the Shark Week content we see, but more on that later.

NewsAU reports:

The TV star was filming for ‘Shark Week’ when he fell from his board during a dangerous stunt and was brutally attacked by the animal.

He was quickly pulled from the water and received immediate medical attention.

McInerney suffered a deep bite to his hand and sustained artery and tendon damage.

McInerney, who goes by Poopies, did show some common sense when he said “I don’t blame the sharks at all. I mean, I was in their living room, and it was dinnertime.”

Let’s see what all the fuss is about:

This Access excerpt gives a little more context:

So, what can we learn from this?

Firstly, I guess Jackass is still a thing, and there’s even a fourth and final movie on the way.

That will be titled Jackass Forever, with a trailer coming on July 20. Some promo images were released yesterday:

stoked to share im in the upcoming movie #JackassForever hitting theatres October 22! Here’s your FIRST LOOK. Don’t miss the trailer debut on Tuesday, July 20, and follow the new Instagram page @Jackass for more!https://t.co/4YT06fsJAu pic.twitter.com/F9JdHObiXo

— Rachel Wolfson (@wolfiecomedy) July 11, 2021

Cool.

Secondly, Shark Week continues to be less about educating the public about sharks, and more about cashing in on their notoriety.

This isn’t exactly breaking news, and stories of shows straying wildly from the facts have been around for years.

Remember that time a megalodon shark attacked and sunk a ship off the coast of Cape Town?

No, because it didn’t happen, but Shark Week ran a ‘documentary’ about it in 2013 anyway, titled Megalodon: The Monster Shark That Lives.

This from TIME:

It sounds like a great premise. With a maximum length of 60 feet and teeth the size of butchers’ knives, the megalodon…is one of history’s most fearsome predators. There’s only one problem: Despite what the show’s title may claim, this “monster shark” has been extinct for more than one million years.

Those watching the “documentary,” however, were not burdened with such inconvenient truths. Instead, Discovery hired actors to play marine biologists on a hunt for the megalodon around the coast of South Africa. Their expedition is mounted following the release of (faked) footage showing a fishing vessel taken down by a massive sea-dwelling predator (nicknamed “submarine”).

More fabricated “evidence” supporting the creature’s existence is presented, including a whale whose tail has been bitten off by an unknown animal, and a Coast Guard video showing a giant, shark-like shape moving through the water.

No awards will be given for this acting:

Oh, and as for that boat attack:

Funny, I don’t recall this ever happening in Hout Bay, although it is correct to say that the bodies were never found.

In order to cover itself, Discovery popped a little disclaimer in the final few seconds of the ‘doccie’, stating that “none of the institutions or agencies that appear in the film are affiliated with it in any way, nor have approved its contents.”

The disclaimer goes on:

Though certain events and characters in this film have been dramatized, sightings of “Submarine” continue to this day.

Megalodon was a real shark. Legends of giant sharks persist all over the world. There is still a debate about what they may be.

They don’t.

Discovery is talking kak.

Shark Week is a product, and as long as it rakes in the viewers, farcical tales of megalodons, and people wakeboarding over ‘shark-infested waters’, will continue.

[sources:newsau&time]