From a toy car up a man's butt to a bungee port-a-potty, these are the best moments in Jackass history, chosen by the stars themselves.
Johnny Knoxville being tipped upside down in a loo; boys chucking balls at one another's balls; a haphazard, ankle-breaking hop across the L.A. River; Party-Boying anyone, anywhere. They really were the simplest of times, and that's why it worked: everyone thinks their friends' antics are hilarious, Jackass just put it to the screen.
After their first cinematic outing, the ante had to be upped. Jackass Number Two's pain scale is off the charts, and Jackass 3D was a budget/blockbusting carnival of gross-out extremes (lest we forget the Sweatsuit Cocktail). We're one day away from Jackass Forever, and it just might be their craziest effort yet.
Ahead of the fourthquel's release, I sat down with Knoxville, Steve-O, Wee Man, Chris Pontius, Preston Lacy, Dave England and Danger Ehren, as well as Forever's new blood, Eric Manaka, Sean 'Poopies' McInerney, Zach Holmes, Jasper and Rachel Wolfson. While discussing the new film, we also looked back on their favourite moments across the history of Jackass, from the earliest episodes of the show through all of the movies.
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One of Knoxville's earliest bits left Wolfson with lifelong anxiety. 'When Knoxville farted in the yoga class. Every time I’m in a yoga class, I have prank-TSD I’m gonna be the one farting... also when Dave took a sh*t at Home Depot. Now I have to look in every toilet,' she said.
For Poopies, it was Steve-O 'swallowing the goldfish and puking him back up, and it’s kinda still flopping a little... that was freaking amazing. Like, how does he do that?'
Holmes cited a personal favourite of mine, but also one of the ghastliest: the Vomelet, in which Dave England eats all the ingredients to a three-egg omelette (cheese, peppers, mushrooms, milk - the works) and hurls it up into a bowl, before frying and eating it. 'It ruined eggs for me for a long time,' he said.
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Every single Jackass movie, even their 2.5 and 3.5 supplements, has one thing in common: great intros, from the giant trolley, to their very own Pamplona, to their slow-mo pain somewhere over the rainbow, to whatever chaos they have planned for Forever.
'I think people underestimate the intros so much. To even see the artistry behind that brought into the beginning of this film, all of those intros,' Manaka said, with Ehren explaining, 'The intros and outros are usually the gnarliest, because by that point we’ve usually filmed most of the movie, so we just destroy ourselves.'
Forever's opening set-piece has already been dubbed an all-timer by critics, which tracks with Wee Man and Chris Pontius' excitement. 'Our intro is bigger than anyone we’ve ever done. That alone blows people away. We’ve had people who’ve seen it already, and they say the whole theatre watched it and everybody would ooh, ahh, and then realise what was going on and finally revealed what was happening,' Wee Man said.
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'We have a pretty high bar for our intros, and this one blows them all away. Not only Jackass movies, but every movie ever. It’s the biggest intro ever. Very physically demanding, and so expensive, but there was a lot of pressure. We had the utmost experts in the field. I’ll give you a hint: there’s private parts in it. It’s huge,' Pontius also enthused.
From day dot to now, two pranks were echoed across the cast: firstly, Ehren's Terror Taxi, where he posed as a explosive-strapped terrorist taking a cab to the airport. Unbeknownst to him, the driver was also an actor, and he holds him hostage and 'shoots' the surrounding crew.
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'Ehren’s terrorist bit… that will never leave my brain,' Wolfson said. 'Terror taxi,' England answered, adding, 'Then right after that happened, I was like... now the rest of your life you’re gonna be the guy who wore pubes on his face.' Unfortunately, England is mistaken for Ehren all the time.
Terror Taxi was the grand summation of Jackass Number Two's naughtiness. 'Jackass Number Two has always been our main one, our big one,' Wee Man said. 'Everyone was on their absolute worst behaviour on and off the screen. It’s intense,' Knoxville also said, while Steve-O described it as their 'masterpiece'.
'It’s the most loaded with ready-to-die bits. I feel it’s our masterpiece. Of course, if we’re looking at how the movie performed, Jackass 3D would be the best. I just feel like we obliterated Jackass 3D. I think that Jackass Forever is phenomenally, shockingly good – I’m giddy about it,' he added.
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While Knoxville cited the Poo Cocktail Supreme, arguably Jackass 3D's biggest watercooler moment, Steve-O mentioned a prank that 'just didn’t get enough love... when Knoxville went to a taxidermist with an 80-year-old woman and asked about getting her stuffed and mounted, and he actually got a quote.'
However, next to Terror Taxi, one other 'stunt' stood out as the most widely-admired: Ryan Dunn putting a toy car in a condom and shoving it up his butt. Iconic. Dunn sadly passed away in 2011, but his dauntless bravery and laughs will never be forgotten. 'That’s gotta be the pinnacle of everything,' Steve-O said.
Jackass Forever hits cinemas on Friday, February 4.
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Topics: Jackass, Entertainment, Film and TV, Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O
Cameron Frew