Joe Dirt, The Stoic
Would you have guessed it? Joe dirt, the model of Stoic philosophy? Don’t believe me? well, hear me out. We are going to talk about how Joe “Dirtè” Dirt (aka “Dirty Joe Dirt”) was a stoic. Through this, it should show the positives, and negatives of stoic philosophy. Also, for clarification, “Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser” doesn’t exist to me, it is dead and destroys everything beautiful about the man, the myth, the legend himself.
So, let's get started, was Joe Dirt a stoic? Emphatically, yes. First, stoics were virtue ethicists. That is to say that what defines whether an act was good is by looking at the person.
“…the stoics argue that only one thing is needed: virtue. Virtue is the perfected condition of human reason (Seneca, 63D), or “a soul which has been fashioned to achieve consistency [or agreement, homologia] in the whole of life” (Diogenes Laertius, 61A).” (Marion Durand & Simon Shogry, “Stoicism,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
In other words, the good is in the person. The good is something you exude. Examples of virtue would be patience, courage, reasoning et cetera. Joe Dirt absolutely agrees with this state of mind by saying:
“People like that security guard. They don’t really mean what they say. They just got their own issues and what not. Alls I got to do is keep bein’ a good person. No matter what, good things’ll come my way. Everything’s gonna happen for me, just so long as I never have no in my heart.” (“Joe Dirt,” 2001)
Okay, so Joe Dirt was a virtue ethicist. That doesn’t make him a stoic right? Well, stoics also believe in a sort of equanimity as the antidote to things out of their control. That is to say that when negative things happen to them, they cannot be too upset; it's not something that reflects on them because they didn’t do, or ask for it, it happened to them, not by them. This can be seen in the first lines of the previous quote as well. They just got their own issues and whatnot. This tells us that what others do to him is nothing he should judge himself for. You have to, as he says “Keep on keepin’ on” (“Joe Dirt,” 2001.)
So, hopefully I have gotten you agreeing that Joe Dirt is a stoic. We can see that through the actions that happened in the movie. However, the movie doesn’t end there for this dialogue, now it’s time to examine how the movie shows the positives and negatives of stoicism!
The first thing is that Joe Dirt has every right to be upset about his situation. Joe Dirt was abandoned, had his brains showing (and subsequently covered with a wig,) is absolute white trash, and as Zander Kelly (the host of the radio show) said: “Don’t you get it? Stinky stuff is your milieu. Okay? This is your deal. You are an underachievement nexus of the universe.” (“Joe Dirt,” 2001) Everyone makes fun of him, it’s how he even got on the Zander Kelley show in the first place. His situation is absolutely the opposite of ideal. Dirt’s position in life is so bad that, as Zander Kelley first got to know Joe Dirt, said “So, what you’re telling me, is that you’re so ingrained with White Trash DNA, that your facial hair just grows in all white trashy like that?” (“Joe Dirt,” 2001)
All of this should leave Joe Dirt totally justified in being angry at his situation. But he doesn’t let his situation get him down. He just keeps on keepin’ on and tries to be a good person, and at the end of the movie, things “happen for him” as a result. The lesson here is that by virtue of his stoic outlook, he “never had no in his heart,” and made things happen. Through equanimity and grit, Joe Dirt provides a good example of the positive effects of stoic philosophy. In the end, Joe Dirt realizes he had a family all along in Silvertown and marries his sweetheart Brandi.
The positives to Joe Dirt’s Stoicism are clear throughout the plot of the movie. However, what I find more interesting is that there are several impending negatives to stoicism through some more nuanced pieces of the film.
First, this is a movie. Not the real world. The story of Joe Dirt is a fictional one. In the real world, someone in Joe Dirt’s position wouldn’t have gotten onto the Zander Kelley show. In the real world, even if he did, this persons’ Brandi wouldn’t have been listening. In the real world, even if this persons’ Brandi were listening, they would probably be too anxious, nervous, or even ashamed to admit it and try getting ahold of them to fix the problem. In the real world, Joe Dirt would have jumped off that bridge. Nobody could blame them either. Life has been so cruel to them that the very fact that they were alive is an absolute mystery. No radio station is going to allow their janitor to sleep in the boiler room. Even if they did, it wouldn’t be someone so low as “Dirty Joe Dirt.” Even, again, if they did, there are multiple janitors who would be using that boiler room for work and complain, and Joe Dirt would lose his “home.” No, Joe dirt wouldn’t have had a happy ending.
What I am trying to get at here is that the film seems to show a fantasy of stoicism. That we all have a little Joe Dirt inside of us. If we harness it properly, we can have our Brandi save us from our own internal contemplations of jumping off a bridge. This is the promise of stoicism. Though, in the real world, things don’t go according to plan. No matter how much you tell yourself that you’ve got to just “keep on keepin’ on” or that all you got to do is keep being a good person and good things will come your way, does not mean that they will.
All this being said, it may still be a great way to cope with an excruciatingly awful position in life, so long as it isn’t as bad as the unrealistically bad scenario Joe Dirt faced. So, considering this, “keep on keepin’ on.”
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