Sean Dunne’s short documentary, American Juggalo (above), has become nothing short of a sensation. When readers first started sending us links to the doc, I thought it was great, but I also thought that it would be interest to a handful of music fans and pretty much no one else. I was dead wrong, though; suddenly movie blogs and the mainstream media starting giving Juggalo attention, comparing Dunne to some of the truly great legendary filmmakers like Frederick Wiseman and D.A. Pennebaker.

And Dunne deserves the acclaim. American Juggalo is insightful, even-handed, and even sympathetic to ICP fans. I know it’s good because it almost made me regret all the shit I’ve given Juggalos over the years… almost.

I reached out to Dunne via his website to see if he’d be game for an interview, and, happily, he was. Read our complete chat after the jump and find out the answer to the question: “Fucking American Juggalo, how does it work?”

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Of course, the Oscar for Best Documentary, Short Subject will actually go to something about, like, crippled third world crack babies suffering from both HIV and terminal cancer, but that’s a crock — director Sean Dunne should totally get it for his twenty-minute American Juggalo (below), a very straightforward, non-judgmental series of interviews with ICP fans at The Gathering of the Juggalos. I’m not sure it made me any more sympathetic to their plight (for example, there’s a girl who calls herself “Maniac” and claims to be high only “on life,” but even if that’s true, she should start telling people that she’s high on crystal meth, because the other option suggests that she was dropped on her head as a baby),  but it did give me some new understanding of them as people. For example, there’s a girl early on who claims she became a Juggalo because another Juggalo took her in when her family had abandoned her, and while that’s very sweet in theory, it’s also how cults recruit new members, so… yeah.

ANYWAY, you need to watch this because it’s highly entertaining (and beautifully photographed). Be forewarned: it’s NSFW due to nudity.

-AR

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed us about this!

We keep getting e-mails regarding the below video of Charlie Sheen at The Gathering of the Juggalos this past weekend, because allegedly it shows how he was booed and pelted with bottles and generally not met with a warm greeting from all the little Ninjas. “How are you guys not all over this?!?!” one reader even asked.

Thing is, it doesn’t really show any of that fun stuff. I think I counted four bottles thrown at Sheen, and he doesn’t seem particularly offended — in fact, he catches two of the bottles, and is met with applause for doing so. There aren’t even any really audible boos until he announces an act and walks off the stage, and it’s not clear if the crowd was booing Sheen or the upcoming performer. So it’s not like this was a repeat of the Tila Tequila incident from last year’s Gathering.

In other words: this video is not that entertaining, but if you wanna see what all the fuss is about, here it is.

-AR

Earlier today, Noisecreep published an interview with Insane Clown Posse’s Violent J. (his mommy calls him “Joseph Bruce”) regarding this year’s Gathering of the Juggalos. And while perusing said interview, I came across the below quote… emphasis at the end is my own:

“It’s hard to be a Juggalo. It’s not cool. We are the most hated band in the world. But when you get together with other people all over America, who do the same shit you do, it’s wonderful. I was even reading what reporters said last year, reading stories that came out after The Gathering, where writer were saying that ‘I was so surprised by everyone’s warmth and happiness.’ That’s why there is no reason for cops or tough ass security guards; it’s not on that kind of show.“

And that particular assessment piqued my interest, because in case everyone has forgotten already, at last year’s Gathering, the Juggalos did this to Tila Tequila:

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In June, ICP released their annual infomercial for their annual Gathering of the Juggalos, the largest music festival I still can’t believe a) exists and b) has never been napalmed. That commercial ran twenty-seven minutes long, or about a minute for every IQ point of your average Juggalo, so you’d think that everything there was to be said about this ridiculous event had, indeed, been said.

But you’d think wrong. Not only has ICP now released a second infomercial for the Gathering, but this one is THIRTY-THREE MINUTES LONG. To give you some idea of how crazy that is, keep in mind that a single episode of a half-hour network sitcom only runs about twenty-two minutes (the other eight minutes being, of course, devoted to commercials).

Why do these things have to be so friggin’ long? Do Juggalos really need to be convinced that they should attend this thing? Did adding Charlie Sheen to the line-up merit more than another half-hour of material? Or did some poor starving child ask the group for a donation, and they were just like, “Fuck you, we’re making a thirty-three minute commercial for our festival instead?” The mind boggles.

-AR

[via Metal Insider]

Making fun of juggalos is passe at this point; been there, done that, 100 times over, and everyone gets the point. But posting the annual infomercial Psychopathic Records puts out to promote the Gathering of the Juggalos is something of a ritual, always good for a few lulz, and possibly even entertaining.

Once you get through the so-uncool-at-this-point-that-maybe-it’s-cool-again Star Wars-style intro, you’ll discover that Vanilla Ice has sunken to an even lower low and is now a juggalo. In addition to the usual assortment of interchangeable clown-faced rappers, this year’s lineup also brings a whole new set of artists scraping the bottom of the barrel that’s become their career: CKY, Dope, Saliva, Vanilla Ice (obvs), Xzibit, Kittie and M.C. Hammer. In the “Are you sure you really want to stoop so low?” department we have Ice Cube, George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars and Busta Rhymes, who all must be getting hella paid. And last but not least, the comedy stage will feature Brian Posehn and classic wrestlers Iron Sheik and Rowdy Roddy Piper (zuh?).

Should be an interesting one. Perhaps an MS reader braver than us can go on an anthropological mission on August 11-14. I already had the juggalo experience of a lifetime, and I think that’s enough for me.

-VN

We got so many fucking e-mails about this video of Tom Green at the Gathering of the Juggalos that I have to assume they all came from Mr. Green himself, using a variety of different e-mail addresses and IPs, or that he begged lots and lots of his friends to e-mail us and get this posted. For, surely, if this many people still thought Tom Green was worth a damn, he’d still have a television show on a major network, he’d still have a film career, he’d still be shtupping Drew Barrymore, and he most certainly would not be at the Gathering of the Juggalos, where careers (and dignity) go to die.

So why am I posting it anyway? Because my fascination with Juggalos just will not end. To any Juggalos who may be reading this site (and I know there are at least a few of you): Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you people?!?! You’re like the Nazis, but less organized.

I’m also posting it for the Gallagher cameo at the end. Holy shit, man — frickin’ Gallagher is still alive.

-AR

Tila Tequila is one of these ladies who is famous for reasons I don’t really understand. I’m reading her Wikipedia page right now, and it looks like she got her start posing for Playboy, because I guess some guys like any woman who will take her clothes off, even if she looks like Gollum with fake tits. Then she did some acting, by which I mean she played “Hooters Girl #3″ in the unwatchable I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. And then she got a VH1 reality dating show, because VH1 is where people with VD go to find true love, or, at least, someone to fuck until next season. And I guess she put out some music, too, because that sort of thing is no longer based on talent, but, rather, access to a computer, and every famous-for-no-particular-reason person in the world now puts out an album sooner or later.

So. The Eleventh Annual Gathering of the Juggalos took place this past weekend, and I don’t know who books/curates/whatever that event, but my impression is that they’ll take anyone. If you’re moderately famous and willing to play their festival, the organizers will gladly have you. And I guess it didn’t occur to anyone that Juggalos are used to fucking girls who looks like this and, thus, would probably get overly excited by the site of a woman who looks like Tila Tequila. And so Tequila took the stage at said Gathering… and was promptly attacked by the crowd of rabid horny mongoloids.

She told TMZ, an institution that represents everything right with the world:

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The United States is devolving; might as well have some fun at its expense, right?

So. Earlier this year, a dill pickle was able to accrue more fans on Facebook than Nickelback; now, in another move of social networking genius, someone has started a FB page entitled “Illegal immigrants can stay, deport the juggalos.” (“Because at least illegal immigrants aren’t making a mess in Meijer toy aisles at 3 AM.”) As of this writing, the page has more than 64,000 followers, which, the page’s administrator is quick to point out, is larger than “the number juggalos previously thought represented the entire population of the world.” If Wikipedia is to be believed, it’s also more than three times as many people as attended the 2009 Gathering of the Juggalos, which makes me wonder if the next move shouldn’t be to organize some kind of anti-Juggalo rally near the location of the fest’s 2010 edition. I mean, that’s what the Tea Partyers would do, right?

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