Alert The Darwin Awards!

This guy has got to be a contender for an honorable mention in the Darwin Awards. He is still alive, so he can't get top honors, but he appears to have given it the old college try. It seems he was celebrating Guy Fawkes night (which has been traditionally celebrated with bonfires and fireworks) with the traditional fireworks. But he decided to start a new tradition by launching the firework from a non-traditional launch pad.

His butt.

LONDON (AFP) – A man was rushed to hospital in Britain with severe internal injuries after trying to launch a powerful firework from his bottom, an ambulance service spokesman said.

It is thought that the 22-year-old could have been trying to imitate a scene from "Jackass: The Movie", a controversial film featuring a series of edgy pranks.

Footage of the incident in Sunderland, north-east England, was captured on a mobile phone by a gang of youths and shows a white flash followed by hysterical laughter and a youth shouting: "Ha ha ha ha," followed by an expletive.

A spokesman for the North East ambulance service said: "We received a call stating there was a male who had a firework in his bottom and it was bleeding."

Aside from that oddly worded last sentence (was the firework bleeding?) this guy did do his level best to apply a bit of chlorine to the gene pool. In fact, he just redefined the term 'dumbass' rather effectively.

UPDATE: And there's video of the entirely new definition of the word.

"Everyone was laughing and didn't believe he'd do it. He pulled his trousers down and it exploded within seconds.

"No one thought he was hurt. But then he stood up and walked a few metres before stumbling and falling to the ground. There was quite a bit of blood."

Safety campaigners say they have never come across such a bizarre incident but it is thought the squaddie could have been copying a scene from the controversial film Jackass: The Movie which shows a similar prank.

A spokeswoman for the North East Ambulance Service said: "We received a call stating there was a male who had a firework in his bottom and it was bleeding.

"He was attended to and taken to Sunderland Royal Hospital."

The victim is recovering at Sunderland Royal Hospital after sustaining horrific internal injuries including a scorched colon. Safety experts today warned that misusing the explosives in such a senseless way can have serious consequences.

Police and paramedics were called to the Dame Dorothy Street area of Monkwearmouth, in Sunderland, on Bonfire Night after reports of the stunt.

The prank, involving a Black Cat Thunderbolt Rocket, has left safety officers bemused. A spokesman for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) said: "It's so unfortunate that someone is now paying the price for the misuse of fireworks.