more reply Loading. Hustings of the National Coalition for the Homeless tells Rolling Stone that modern civil-rights movements like #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter and the observances of a Homeless Bill of Rights in some states might keep Bumfights from getting wide acceptance today.. Search the history of over 806 billion Archived post. Search the history of over 806 billion The Guys Behind Bumfights Got Arrested For Trying To Mail Infant Body Parts From Thailand, The Best Coachella 2023 Performances Were Reflections Of Pure Joy, My (Non-Anonymous) Ballot For The 2023 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, HBOs White House Plumbers Delivers An Absurd Historical Snapshot And A Knockout Performance From Justin Theroux, The Rundown: Ted Lasso Has Created A Delightful Little I Think You Should Leave Conundrum, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. [1], By June 2002, 250,000 copies of the first volume of the series were reported sold for $22 each, according to Wired magazine. Its like jackass but instead of friends pranking each other, you go do it to homeless people without asking if they're down for it. The debut release titled Bumfights Vol. Wife wanted a divorce and I was so very close to losing my job at work. Addeddate 2020-12-30 04:34:16 Identifier bumfights-2-4 Scanner Such incidents, according to Brennan, were what prompted Hannah to call Barry Soper, a San Diego businessman who had once hired the duo to perform maintenance work for a few weeks at a residential development he owned. Brennan and Hannah had each spent time in the U.S. Army, with Brennan serving in the Vietnam War. Bumfights might be an outrageous but forgettable one-day fad in 2018, netting scant cash for its creators. When he caught Hannah inside the Dumpster that morning, he got mad. It started in 2002 and features homeless and teenagers fighting and doing stunts in exchange for cash. 2:52. Uploaded by He called Hannah a beautiful soul., Hustings, of the National Coalition for the Homeless, says she interacted with Hannah on a few occasions while he was engaged in outreach as a speaker on behalf of the organization. The traditional meaning of bun fight appears in a glossary entry in Hippocrene Language and Travel Guide to Britain (1996):. Police tracked down McPherson after being alerted by the shipper, DHL. We want to hear it. During one segment about a rash of violence against homeless people in the United States, reporter Ed Bradley intimated that McPherson and the other filmmakers were at least tangentially responsible for the attacks, including one in Holly Hill, Florida, that left a man dead. Their work was good. Dr. Phil has made his career putting people in tough and often embarrassing situations, so when Ty Beeson, the creator, and director of the infamous Bum Fights, dressed up as the doc when appearing on his show, Dr. Phil didn't take it too well. Ross and Judge Charles Ervin concluded the pair had not completed the required hours of community service after McPherson and Bubeck filed paperwork claiming they had. Its devastating. But McPhersons unlikely connection with Brennan and Hannah for better and worse would propel them all into the media limelight, and reshape their lives completely. Back then, McPherson, now 35, frequently filmed his skateboarding peers attempting daring tricks across La Mesa, like in the then-popular CKY videos the skater-centric series with stunts and pranks, co-produced by Bam Margera, whod go on to star in MTVs Jackass. McPherson filed a complaint against the citys police department in August 2002. Two years later, though, McPherson and Bubeck went to prison for violating their probation. One Thanksgiving night, McPherson brought Brennan and Hannah plates of leftovers from his familys dinner, sitting with them outside a grocery store while they ate. You might guess that the creators of a popular video series that was based on the premise of paying homeless men to beat each other up might not be built of the highest moral fiber, and youd be right. For more information, please see our During the mass shooting there in October 2017, Slyman says, members were live-streaming the chaos from their phones and posted scanner feeds. They do the same thing to different demographics. McPherson says he heard about the duo, particularly Hannah, and their hijinks from friends. Bumfights 1, 2, and 3. McPherson, an aspiring filmmaker, was always tooling around town with a video camera. Bum fights. Then he censored the man by forcefully removing him, leaving plenty of time for Dr. Phil to say everything he wanted. more replies Loading. In fact, Soper "rescued" Hannah and Brennan from the filmmakers after the two men called Hannah's boss from a Las Vegas apartment building where they'd been "stashed." With Tenor, maker of GIF Keyboard, add popular Bum Fights animated GIFs to your conversations. I think [their conduct] should have been held accountable at the felony level, Ross says, but the judge at the preliminary hearing felt differently.. This week, Bumfights creators Ryan McPherson (31) and Daniel Tanner (33) were arrested in Thailand for trying to mail an infants head and other body parts from Thailand. Many believe the founding members of Indecline were the driving force behind the early media blitz around Bumfights, proud to have pulled the wool over the eyes of so many homeless people who got hurt for the price of a few beers. Can you imagine how scary that would be, especially for someone sleeping outdoors who knows that it is very dangerous to be sleeping outside? But there is a standard that Bum Fights doesn't pretend to achieve. Jackass would skip to the big screen with its own feature film. We were debunking the rumors of multiple shooters, telling people what roads were blocked off information the local news couldnt give them. Bumfights is a series of popular DVDs in which homeless people perform degrading stunts for which they are paid a few dollars and a lot of alcohol. The release of "Bum Fights" in 2001 has led to a proliferation of bum videos. Be the first one to. I'm not saying I agree with the producer of Bumfights, but he should be allowed to speak his mind if Dr. Phil is going to speak his. My life was falling apart. But few players in the Bumfights tale believe the film would have such reverberations through the zeitgeist of today. Soper denies helping Brennan and Hannah for monetary gain. The creator of Bum Fights appeared on the Dr. Phil Show today ( December 12, 2006) on an episode about media controversy. McPhersons explanation for the incongruity is that he and Bubeck were trying to make the most of their community service by organizing an off-site clothing drive instead of doing maintenance work at a San Diego homeless shelter. That was Ty Beeson, an investor to whom McPherson and Co sold their rights, and about whom McPherson reportedly said, in an interview no longer online, they were extorting us and doing a bunch of shady sh*t.. In my 30 years in law enforcement I have never seen somebody turn his life around the way he was able to, Willis, the La Mesa police officer, now retired, says of Hannah. See, this is why I only use FedEx for my dead baby heads. You'd walk past the bay area and just throw a dollar at a bum and just point at another and they know what's up. web pages It was Leticia and Beeson who released the three Bumfights sequels, stretching out the controversy, though the later films did feature footage acquired from Indecline in their deal for the rights. on the Internet. In September 2002, the Bumfights Krew were arrested on seven felony charges for paying homeless people to fight. There were all kinds of people and kids in the park who witnessed the fall, Brennan says. He still insists McPherson supplied alcohol as payment for filming Brennan and Hannahs potentially injurious stunts. Signs of real trouble for McPherson and his Bumfights venture started one afternoon in February 2002, a couple of months before the release of the first DVD. That event, featured on the DVD, along with another in which Brennan got BUMFIGHT tattooed across his forehead, became centerpieces in a 2002 criminal lawsuit filed by the Superior Court of California against the Indecline crew. That's the kind of friend you keep around, huh. They contend that they were simple voyeurs on the streets, a bunch of unsupervised kids with video cameras, as Slyman calls the team, who wanted to pull the curtain back on the lunacy occurring in some dark corners of society. Privacy Policy. Would fight like Tyson. In the late 1990s, when Ryen McPherson was a teenager living in the idyllic San Diego suburb of La Mesa, California, he met two middle-aged homeless men named Donnie Brennan and Rufus Hannah.. Hed given up alcohol for good in 2002 because, as he told The San Diego Union-Tribune, his daughter wrote him a letter after hearing about his activities in Bumfights. McPherson admits to giving Brennan and Hannah money at various points, but not necessarily as compensation for their time in front of the camera. Contrary to its title, the video does not depict homeless men actually fighting, but instead a compilation of street fights caught on tape and homeless men performing in skits and stunts. I flew out to Las Vegas and met my cousin and told him we have to rescue Rufus and Donnie, Soper says. There were two felony counts each of solicitation to commit a crime and conspiracy to commit a crime, stemming from several instances in which Indecline allegedly bribed Brennan, Hannah and other homeless people with money, booze and even doughnuts to participate in destructive behavior. Who Needs a License? Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future. Bum Fights. Anyway, McPherson and Tanner were questioned by police for a few hours before being released, and have since traveled on to Cambodia. Then bumfights came along. It was very obvious that the films glorified violence, says the director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. McPherson disagrees. They are taking advantage of a vulnerable, minority population to make a profit. But the prosecutions side of the case, as it turned out, was kind of hard to piece together, Ross explains, noting that his witnesses had built-in credibility issues. We had money, we put it in an account, we took them to Vegas to get them set up with a better life, McPherson says. According to a Georgia State Patrol investigator, an 18-wheeler ran a red light and crashed into the passenger side of the car, killing Hannah instantly. Then in his early twenties, Bubeck who could not be reached for comment had seen similar tapes of homeless men, high school melees, pranks and skaters produced in Las Vegas by another teen, Danny Tanner. Police Col. Chumpol Poompuang said the sender was a 31-year-old American tourist, Ryan McPherson, who told them he had he found the items at a Bangkok night market. In the early to mid-2000s, there was a (thankfully) brief trend known as "bum fights." Which was essentially consisting of some sick jerks paying a couple of people living on the streets a negligible sum of money to fight in front of them while they placed bets or simply cheered them on. I can't remember their name. Dr. Phil revealed in the next segment he himself had been homeless. While briefly onstage, Beeson critiqued what he perceived as Dr. Phil's hypocrisy; being outraged over their exploitation of the poor while he himself exploited people in duress for entertainment on his show. They'd bloody each other up as if it's a championship fight. Suspect Arrested in Connection to Killing of Black Trans Sundance Star Koko Da Doll Brennan and Hannah followed McPherson, who put them up in an apartment. We had a lot of friends in La Mesa., Brennan says Hannah once dared him to jump off a hill near the entrance of La Mesita Park, and land on the concrete below. Unknown He's also the subject of a San Diego Union-Tribune profile. Released in the spring of 2002, the first film in the Bumfights series would prove quite a profitable commodity, punching its way into the cultural zeitgeist while branding the filmmakers as manipulative violence mongers. on August 1, 2021. Photo credit: Jim Baird/ZUMA, Subversion Gone Wrong: Inside Bumfights, Why New Yorks Underground Weed Market Isnt Going Anywhere. Thanks to bumfights I can now live life to the fullest. Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future. Well, the guy exploits homeless people for profit. Merely walking down Colfax Ave. to go downtown, you run a gauntlet of sparechangers, see guys sleeping on air vents or in doorways, or the occasionally one so wasted they stumble down the sidewalk without realizing they no longer have shoes and their jeans are soaked in piss. There was one count of felonious battery with serious injury connected to the Taco Bell incident, as well as a misdemeanor charge of illegal fight promoting for Indeclines alleged offering of compensation to Brennan and Hannah for their pugilistic contest that day. Though McPherson says that Hannah misled investigators, the media and his readers about the nature of the relationship they shared, the thought of Hannahs death tears him up. Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. The body parts were stolen from the medical museums of one of Bangkoks biggest hospitals, its administrators said late Monday. 'Bumfights' producers detained in Bangkok for sending human body parts to Las Vegas. After initial deliberations, it was settled without a trial. McPherson says he used a portion of the revenue he earned from Bumfights to pay for their housing, cigarettes and food, a move he thought more prudent than writing them a royalty check that he worried theyd blow on booze. That was a really big day, Tanner tells Rolling Stone. But by then, Indecline had sold the rights to Bumfights for a reported $1.5 million to two Las Vegas producers, who began promoting the film under the pseudonyms Ray Leticia and Ty Beeson. And then one day I get a call from Rufus saying, Barry, you have to get your ass out here, I think theyre going to kill us. . We will keep fighting for all libraries - stand with us! McPherson was eventually incarcerated for three months in connection to the DVD, and the civil suit filed against him by the three homeless men leveed a settlement upward of $300,000. The body parts were stolen from the medical museums of one of Bangkok's biggest hospitals, its administrators said late Monday. Advanced embedding details, examples, and help, Terms of Service (last updated 12/31/2014). But thats not exactly true. The first video, "Bum Fights," grossed over six million dollars in one month, and those recently produced continue to bring in profit at the "expense of the homeless people . ), Brennan says any acts of kindness McPherson may have offered him and Hannah the Las Vegas housing, the Thanksgiving dinner, monetary donations were all part of a ploy to continue to profit off of their pain. I think i may recreate the scene where 2 homeless crack heads dive to the bottom of a pool for a bag of crack. There are no featured reviews for Bumfights: Cause for Concern because the movie has not released yet (). You must be at least 18 years old and you must agree that you are not offended by mature content to view this group. RT25: Celebrating 25 years of Rotten Tomatoes. Soper would later become Hannahs co-author for his memoir, A Bum Deal. . In the late summer of 2002, McPherson relocated to Las Vegas, in part to continue projects with Indecline. Find a minimum of at least 2 Bums. Breaks Down His Killer White House Correspondents Dinner Set, Pharrells Something in the Water Fest Cancels Final Day Due to Severe Weather, Stagecoach: Kane Brown Breaks Mental Health Stigma With 'Memory,' Talks Depression, Bernie Sanders: Many GOP Leaders 'Don't Even Believe in Democracy'. Bumfights 17 Years Later, Where Are They Now? Urged by a neighbor to help the transients rather than run them off, Soper hired the two to do odd jobs around the complex. No.. He says today he lives off disability payments from the Army and that hes now sober, having recently been discharged from a rehab facility. Barthel says Willis backed off from McPherson for a time, but in an interview with Rolling Stone, Willis denied doing anything unlawful, adding that the department cleared him of wrongdoing. The video series immediately garnered criticism. I think they fell in the camp of just normal, good kids that made some bad decisions [and did] some pretty cruel things regarding getting the homeless guys drunk and having them hurt each other.. The cop then instructed him to be more careful in the future. News outlets across the country and even overseas splayed clips and photos in critical reports. I slipped on a walk up there and lost my balance, Brennan says he told the officer. In September 2002, the Bumfights Krew were arrested on seven felony charges for paying homeless people to fight. Around that time, the four original founders sold the business to two Las Vegas businessmen, who went by the pseudonyms Ty Beeson and Ray Leticia for $1.5 million USD. Police, a fire truck and an ambulance arrived a few minutes later. We will keep fighting for all libraries - stand with us! KVFutureGamer 3.31K subscribers Subscribe 2.6K 316K views 4 years ago Here is an update video about the producers and stars of Bumfights.. Then, proceedings for the civil lawsuit against McPherson, filed in 2002, finally began in 2006. 1:05. P2P smart contract on the way [5], Phil McGraw, host of the talk show Dr. Phil invited one of the creators of Bumfights, Ty Beeson, on to the show on December 12, 2006. Leticia and Beeson publicly claimed they were the original masterminds behind the project. Tanner and McPherson are not to be confused with the Bumfights producer who got kicked off Dr. Phil when he showed up dressed as Dr. Phil. All rights reserved. . Viewers now saw homeless characters risking bodily harm by performing stunts, as well as brawling, abusing drugs and engaging in all sorts of extreme tomfoolery. People in La Mesa, namely the police, would let them be. Is New York City Really Cracking Down on Weed Sellers? McPherson and Tanner began filming the carnage, and say they also tried to calm Hannah down. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. In that same civil-suit statement, Hannah said McPherson cared about him, and showed concern over his excessive drinking. [6] Beeson attended the interview dressed in a Dr. Phil costume, nearly identical to Dr. Phil himself. See Also After the civil suit, Hannah worked for Soper as a handyman, published his memoir in 2010, and gave inspirational speeches to other homeless people at events organized by the National Coalition for the Homeless. Exploding with insane Fights, Hilarious Pranks, Crazy Crackheads, Gorgeous Girls, and some of the Most Shocking Stunts ever by The Worlds Best Homegrown Stunt Teams, Vol 4 is simply the rawest, most hardcore ruckus video ever produced. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. The Stunt Bum barely walked away with his life. According to Ross, the videos were a last-minute submission into evidence, allowed by the judge without the prosecution having the chance to examine them. Thats when my ankle snapped.. The episode never aired but according to legend, it was meant to air on December 12th, 2006. It could be someone whos threatening your life., In June 2002, just a couple of months after the first DVDs pressing, Wired reported that 250,000 copies of Bumfights had been sold for $22 each, and that Internet users, some from as far away as Istanbul and as near as Andrews Air Force Base, are logging ontoBumfights.comto get one of their own [videos] and picking up a T-shirt or hooded sweatshirt while theyre at it.. He has a wife and kids, and helps run a Facebook group with more than 50,000 members dedicated to providing information about area emergencies. The original Indecline members could not reveal the buyers true names due to a non-disclosure agreement, and multiple reports on the pair who did not respond to multiple interview requests for this story concluded they were utilizing aliases in the media. I now pay the local homeless around my town to do the . As the films popularity grew, advocacy groups lashed out against it. But they were super chaotic and violent and full of drugs and prostitutes and shit. Do I feel remorseful? We thought it was funny.. Addeddate 2020-12-30 04:49:43 Identifier bumfights-4-2 Scanner Internet Archive HTML5 Uploader 1.6.4 TomoNews US. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. McPherson, Slyman and Tanner say part of the message behind their film was to raise awareness of the homeless problem in America, indicated by the complete title of the first installment the only production of the series four that Indecline controlled Bumfights: A Cause for Concern. 2. To this day, it still sounds good, he says of the title. Thanks to bumfights I can now live life to the fullest. With so much access to so many violent videos across the Internet on YouTube and World Star, for example Bumfights might be an outrageous but forgettable one-day fad in 2018, netting scant cash for its creators, whod see viral-status hit numbers and little else to show for their efforts. and our bum fights Easy to start: 1.) Finally, thanks to some good lawyers, here is the footage that was seized from the arrests. SUCH A SAD WORLD WE LIVE IN NOW. In a few Bumfights scenes, the Bum Hunter an actor impersonating the late Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter pounces on seemingly unsuspecting homeless men for examinations in their natural habitat. After approaching a man sleeping out in the open and binding his hands together with duct tape, the Bum Hunter offers observations on the mans dandruff and his clean-looking blue jeans, which he presumes were recently stolen. They point out that they were still young when most of it occurred, and that theyd had personal relationships with the films stars prior to and throughout their filming. Indecline, the crew behind 'Bumfights,' would go on to create powerful anti-Trump art. To optimize visceral consumer reaction to the product, they called it Bumfights. When presented with the paperwork in his civil-trial deposition, Hannah said he couldnt remember signing it. Unfortunately, he has also created an indelible stain on my psyche by smuggling it into my home and putting it in my DVD player. It singlehandedly cured my depression, my wife no longer wanted to leave me, and i got a promotion at work. Scan this QR code to download the app now. canaanp 3 yr. ago He believes that because Indecline mashed the terms bum and fights together in the videos title, it piqued peoples curiosity and helped in its marketing even though the film includes very little footage of homeless people actually duking it out. tea fight or bun fight tea party. Im at a loss as to how Im exactly supposed to feel right now.. The moral of the story is dont take advantage of handicapped, disabled or homeless people, attorney Mark Quigley, who represented the three plaintiffs, including Brennan and Hannah, said at the time. They were awarded roughly $300,000 in the settlement, which was procured through the homeowners insurance policy of McPhersons father, James McPherson. He lives in a room at a sober-living home that supports people in recovery in San Diego. Nov 20, 02 at 8:28am (PST) ^. He's married to an "old flame," with whom he'd already had two children, and he's eight years sober. Tanner recently told Rolling Stone that, during the preliminary hearing, the Indecline defense had provided video footage that did not make the final cut of the DVD and countered the states claims. 1: A Cause for Concern features primarily high school fights caught on tape and homeless men (most notably Rufus Hannah and Donnie Brennan) in the San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas metropolitan areas attempting amateur stunts in a style inspired by the popular MTV series Jackass. web pages Bumfights Exploding with insane Fights, Hilarious Pranks, Crazy Crackheads, Gorgeous Girls, and some of the Most Shocking Stunts ever by The Worlds Best Homegrown Stunt Teams, Vol 4 is simply the rawest, most hardcore ruckus video ever produced. comment. McPhersons Bumfights subjects, meanwhile, would experience a dizzied mix of both redemption and tragedy. on December 30, 2020, There are no reviews yet. However, McPherson asserts he did more for those guys than anybody had, for years.. Plotkin tells Rolling Stone the story in the book was dramatized by Soper for effect, but is more or less accurate. on the Internet. Soper says Hannah moved back there to be closer to family. Unknown According to Slyman, a mention of the video on The Howard Stern Show led to a crashing of the server the team used to sell the DVD online. 2023 Rolling Stone, LLC. Beeson and Leticia released the three follow videos, volumes 2 - 4, including footage that was provided as part of their purchase of the business. 2,442 Views . To go from living that much of a desperate life to being someone whos a national spokesperson, traveling around the country, talking to legislators and colleges about homelessness and alcoholism to me, that shows great courage., Brennan tells Rolling Stone that, before Hannahs death, the two were tighter than the Lone Ranger and Tonto., He was beyond a nice guy, Brennan also said of Hannah. Brennan also says that during this period McPherson ordered him and Hannah to dress up like a cat and Tweety Bird and walk through Las Vegas casinos while being filmed. I was living life and it was hell. Saddened by the loss of Hannah, Soper, followed by a local news camera, placed a bouquet of flowers at the dumpster where he says the two first met in the late 1990s.

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