- Once upon a time, a man named Jack Rebney had a really bad day. While filming an industrial video for the Winnebago company, Jack lost his temper loudly and continuously for what must have been several hours straight. There was much profanity and yelling, directed at the film crew, his intern, some flies, and even Jack himself. In his immortal and inimitable words, "I gotta give a clue here now. I don't want any more bullshit anytime during the day from anyone...and that includes me." One imagines that Jack's behavior ensured that the camera crew also had a really bad day. In fact, that's probably why they left the camera running between takes. Decades later, a new internet sensation is born.
- I expect everyone is familiar with this particular category of internet celebrity. The kid with the lightsaber comes to mind immediately, as does the "boom goes the dynamite" sportscaster. Basically, these are people who never would have wanted to become famous for the reasons that they did. In days past, they might have been laughed at by their friends and family. In the most extreme cases, maybe word would have gotten around town. Now they have millions of fans on YouTube who watch their well-preserved antics over and over again. Still, even amongst this crowd, Jack Rebney is really something special. His unwitting performance was so frustrated and profane that his outbursts have earned him the informal title of "The Angriest Man in the World." Most people assume that Jack must have died of a heart attack by now, but filmmaker Ben Steinbauer wants to find out for sure.
- At first, Ben doesn't have much luck locating Jack. It's tough to google an internet celebrity and get anything other than what they're famous for. Eventually, a private detective finds a collection of P.O. Boxes that may or may not link to Jack, so Ben takes the simplest approach and sends a letter to each one. Sure enough, his strategy pays off when he actually gets a call from Jack, who's living like a hermit atop a mountain in Northern California. Much to everyone's surprise, their first meeting suggests that Jack has transformed into calmness personified. As Ben notes, it's as though the man must have spent the last twenty years of his life in meditation. Ben leaves disappointed, but an early clip and the film's remaining runtime suggest that there must be more to Jack than meets the eye.
- So who is the real Jack Rebney? Part of him is certainly that man from the videos with the pungent personality. Whenever the infinitely patient Ben attempts to steer the conversation to Jack's past, he instead receives a stream of invective aimed at some combination of internet users, big box retailers, and/or Dick Cheney. One gathers that Jack is bitter about both his failed newscasting career and his accidental celebrity, but the details are never forthcoming. On the other hand, Jack has obviously been a good friend and surrogate father to a man named Keith Gordon, who even inherited Jack's mustache and tendency towards strange verbiage. Perhaps our final evaluation of Jack should come from Ben's quest to bring him to meet his fans in San Francisco, a risky proposition that reminded me a bit of taking King Kong to New York City. There, Jack proves that he can be a courteous and decent man, even to an audience who initially viewed him as a spectacle. Maybe Winnebago Man's final quote says it best: "Do you believe any of that shit?"
- My favorite curse words are now "fern" and "docks."
