Zach Woods Confesses That He Can't Look Away From These Brutal MMA Videos | Sorry Not Sorry
Most people have something they watch that they probably wouldn't admit to watching. It could be a terrible reality show or an extremely awful movie. But the fact that it's bad doesn't always make it less entertaining. Sometimes it makes it more difficult to stop watching. Zach Woods, who stars in the 2026 drama The Accompanist, knows exactly what that feels like.
While speaking to JustWatch, Woods admitted that he's spent a large chunk of time watching a series of backyard fights involving various combat sports, which began airing on YouTube in 2008. "It's not a movie, but for a while I watched something called Street Beefs," he explained. "They were like fights that people would hold in 'Satan's Backyard,' which was just this guy's backyard in Virginia."
"And it was like mixed martial arts and boxing and stuff. But it was just like random dudes who came to fight in the backyard." Woods, clearly aware that this wasn't the kind of answer the interviewer was expecting, continued, adding, "And I am legitimately ashamed that I watched it," he admitted. "But I found it completely compelling and electric."
Street Beefs was created by Christopher "Scarface" Wilmore as a way to give people an alternative to settling various disputes. Fighters have different levels of experience, with some having competed in formal combat sports. Others have no experience at all. The videos eventually became very popular, with the Street Beefs YouTube channel attracting millions of subscribers and more than a billion views.
The Appeal of Trash TV
Woods isn't alone in his questionable viewing choices either. People have been watching and enjoying things they know are "bad" for a very long time. The Jerry Springer Show (1991) only existed because viewers couldn't get enough of the bizarre personal dramas of others. Reality television made stars out of people with zero acting talent, and the internet has only made it easier to find strange videos to get lost in.
There's a lot of research behind this too. According to ScienceDirect, people who regularly watch things they think are "trash" or "low quality" still tend to enjoy them quite a lot. Some treated them as guilty pleasures, while others fully embraced the campiness of a particular show. And one group of people said they watched shows ironically.
Reality TV has been studied for similar reasons. Researchers have linked the appeal of these programs to things like curiosity about other people and voyeurism. Watching somebody else's life can be interesting enough, but watching somebody do something you would never do yourself adds another level to the whole sordid thing.
Unlike traditional television shows, which always follow a specific structure, unscripted videos have the tendency to go in very unexpected directions. The people in them never seem to react the way everyone expects. That alone can make even a familiar-adjacent format feel strange. This is especially true when the people on screen are only focused on their own drama (or beef).
Why to Watch 'Street Beefs' (And What to Watch After)
If you're curious about why Woods was watching Street Beefs, it is totally worth checking out. Once you get over the strangeness of it all, you start paying more attention to the people involved and how seriously each of them takes the match. If the oddity-factor appeals to you, 2001's Jackass is an obvious choice to watch afterward.
The MTV series stars Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Bam Margera, Chris Pontius, and the rest of the cast as they perform stunts, practical jokes, and various activities that most people would have enough sense not to try. The show is much more deliberately comedic than Street Beefs, but it has the same feeling that something could go wrong at any moment.
Jackass was also a massive hit because each person in the cast has a strong personality. The stunts are funny, but watching the group react to each other is equally (if not more) entertaining. That gives the show more staying power than a collection of people simply hurting themselves. And that combination of things is all the reason you need to keep watching.
