A Rose by Any Other Name

Good luck paging Robert Craft at a department store. In 1997 Craft legally changed his name to Jack Ass as part of a movement to raise awareness about drunk driving. When MTV's popular TV series by the same name debuted three years later, Mr. Ass lived up to his moniker, suing Viacom for $10 million in damages for plagiarism and defamation. His claim: that the crude, stunt-based show damaged his, well, good name. The show's stars — no strangers to stupidity themselves — were unperturbed. "I can't wait to get served the papers. What could be more American than just suing the living s___ out of someone for no reason at all?" said Johnny Knoxville. The case was eventually dismissed.

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