(Warning: Strong languages and graphic description ahead)
I always love a good comedy show. Whether it's a sit-com, or stand-up specials. Whenever I could use a good laugh, I would watch, or even binge those shows until my belly hurts from laughing excessively for a long period of time. With that being said, I am mostly a sucker for slapstick comedy, which is a form of physical comedy that utilizes some form of body manipulation for a comedic effect. Hell, I love watching shows like Mr. Bean back in the day (Rowan Atkinson, what an absolute legend), and from that show, led me to perhaps one of the most well-known franchises in history, where few guys hang out and pull some gnarly stunts and pranks to each other and the wider audience.
You might be wondering how a show as confronting and gnarly as Jackass be considered as a pinnacle of pop culture. And to be honest, you have to look at the history, those TV series, and all feature films from this franchise to better understand that this show actually came from a humble beginning. It starts in late 1990s, when an aspiring actor Johnny Knoxville moved to Los Angeles and subsequently landed a job in commercials to support his family. He then came up with the idea of testing various self-defense weapons on himself as an homage to his hero, a gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. From all the magazines that contact him, one skateboarding magazine in particular, Big Brother, became interested to the story, and convinced him to record the stunts. What he did at that fateful day set the precedents for all the stunts done in the later years. The stunts consist of testing taser gun, a pepper spray, a stun gun and a .38 caliber with a bulletproof vest. This was also his first meeting with fellow daredevil Jason "Wee Man" Acuña, future series director Jeff Tremaine, and fellow cast members Chris Pontius and Dave England, as well as cinematographer Rick Kosick.
Around the same time, in Pennsylvania, skateboarder Bam Margera and his crew, called CKY (Camp Kill Yourself), which consists of himself, Ryan Dunn, Brandon DiCamillo, Chris Raab (Raab Himself), Rake Yohn, and the Margeras, father Phil, mother April, Uncle Don Vito, and brother Jess filmed variety of stunts, pranks, and skateboarding scenes and released them as part of the CKY Video Series. This attracted Tremaine's attention and subsequently flew Margera to Los Angeles. After he saw the CKY2K video, he was convinced that the CKY crew would suit the idea of a stunt show that he, Knoxville, and Spike Jonze developed at the time. After being offered as a recurring segment on Saturday Night Live, in which later rejected, Comedy Central and MTV went on a bidding war resulted in the crew securing the latter as a 30-minute weekly show with more creative control. Soon after, they added a London-born, Florida native Stephen Glover, known as Steve-O, England's friend Ehren "Danger" McGhegey, and Preston Lacey to round up the cast. The show lasted from 2000 to 2002 and would run for 3 seasons.
After their spell on television, the crew went on to release Jackass: The Movie, supposedly as a swan song to their franchise. but then it grossed over US$ 60 Million with a budget of just US$ 5 million and landed #1 at the box office on its debut weekend. This in turn skyrocketed their popularity. They once did an MTV 24-hour takeover to launch their website Jackassworld.com. They initially thought that Jackass was in their rear-view mirror, but Knoxville was indirectly responsible for the idea for Jackass Number Two, after participating with Tremaine, along with Pontius and Steve-O for the latter two's spinoff Wildboyz. After scoring another box office, in 2010, Jackass 3D, the first to be shot in 3D technology, was released to a considerable success, earning US$ 50 Million. The crew are currently promoting their latest release with new cast members, titled Jackass Forever, which will be premiered on the 4th of February, after major pushbacks caused by the ongoing pandemic.
When you watch a snippet of those movies, or even an episode of their original TV series, you might be wondering what in the hell are these jackasses doing. Their stunts are literally pushing the human body and sanity to the highest limit. From human slingshots to odd contraptions, these people are putting their bodies on the line for the sake of entertainment. Hell, they are known for their excessive toilet humor, like the one when Dave England turned his ass into a volcano, but instead of shooting lava, he shoots his own fecal matter. Or those times when Christ Pontius put his penis on the line with stunts like strapping a remote-controlled helicopter to his meat pole or letting a woodpecker pluck its way to his dick wrapped in a cast. Sometimes, homoerotic, and adult humor completely takes over this series. Like most times Margera got his ass shoved with a dildo on multiple occasions, or those times Pontius pulled his "party boy" skit while wearing nothing but a speedo. How can I forget in the second movie, when a heavily intoxicated Steve-O once pierced a fishhook onto his cheek, and proceeded to swim in shark-infested Gulf of Mexico? Now that's gnarly. "Nutcracker" stunts are also prevalent across this franchise, like that scene in Jackass 3D when Steve-O suffered from a heavy baseball blow to his family jewels, or when Danger Ehren faced the threat of infertility when he turned his nuts into a punching target by UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou in the upcoming Jackass Forever. And that just a small preview of the nastiness of these stunts. And the pranks are not less crazy either. One of those was an attempt to lure the rest of the crew into a trap. Knoxville and Margera devised a plan to trick them into hopping on a limo, later turned into a bee-invested trap, convincing Dunn, England, Steve-O, Wee Man and Kosick that they are on their way to a photoshoot. Margera also pulled some painful and often disgusting skits like "The Rocky", which involves him throwing a glass of water into the target's face from behind, before nailing them with an overhand left to knock them down, or that time when he literally makes everyone angry by urinating on them on purpose. One of the most memorable stunts that resulted in a heavy injury was not on the movie. But instead, it was an Evel Knievel-inspired stunt that resulted in Knoxville breaking his penis after a bike fell on top of him. He once stated that he has to endure a catheter session twice a day on his way to recovery. On a public setting, Knoxville would don his old man persona named "Irving Zisman” and proceeded to pull elaborate pranks and often obscene skits to the public. He once did a movie as Zisman, titled Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa. Outside of it, he once boxed Eric "Butterbean" Esch in a department store no less. He got knocked out cold from that bout.
But like most pop culture icons, Jackass is not without its fair share of controversy. When the original series was first broadcasted in 2000, there are number of deaths blamed on the variety of stunts done by the crew. But by far, at least according to Knoxville while breaking down all his injuries to Vanity Fair, was when the crew filmed Jackass Number Two. Seriously, that movie even features Steve-O chugging beer from his fucking asshole. It was later revealed that his drug and alcohol addiction got worse, the entire crew staged an intervention to help him turn his life around. Currently he is clean and sober for almost 14 years. But the biggest blow for the crew was Ryan Dunn's death in June 2011 from a high-speed accident caused by drunk driving. This affected the surviving members of the Jackass crew, more specifically Margera, who then turned deep into alcoholism. More recently, Margera feuded with Tremaine which resulted into a temporary restraining order filed by the latter after harassments done to him and Knoxville, subsequently firing him from the franchise. But with that said, Knoxville later confirms that his footage will be featured in Jackass Forever.
I must say, I find Jackass hilariously fucked up. Not just by the stunts and pranks, but also by the fact that they are willingly dared to stare at the face of death and laugh at it. More specific, hilarious because of the stunts and all the elaborate plans hatched for the sake of public entertainment (those nut shots and taser guns galore) and fucked up because they are willingly steep that low for fame. I was shocked when I read that Steve-O's addiction was not his shtick for the movies. He actually endured it for most of his lifetime. Some cast members like Chris Raab ended up stepping down from the franchise for the sake of his mental health. And for Bam Margera, I hope that guy found a closure to move on and actually made an effort to recover from his alcoholism.
In a nutshell, Jackass started as a backyard dare to test some self-defense equipment by an aspiring actor. He then met some people who has the same mind as him, and then hatched a program featuring stunts and pranks, gathering fame and infamy along the way. Their fame then solidified by 5 feature films. From fame came turmoil by the form of alcohol and substance abuse, even ended up with someone from the crew died as a result. But with all that being said, Jackass will remain as a fan favorite for years to come, and I hope with the release of Jackass Forever, that legacy will be further enforced. Stay safe, get those jabs and two meters apart at all times.
