'' was a half-hour
Television Series , originally shown on
MTV from 2000 to 2002 in which a group of men perform various dangerous and/or ridiculous
Stunt s.
The show developed from ''
Big Brother Magazine '', a skateboarding-related humor magazine that
Jeff Tremaine ,
Dave Carnie ,
Rick Kosick and
Chris Pontius all worked for, and featured regular contributions from
Johnny Knoxville and
Dave England , amongst others. The genesis of Jackass dates back to
1999 when struggling-actor-turned-writer Johnny Knoxville pitched the idea to test different self defense devices on himself as the basis for an article for ''Big Brother Magazine''. It was ''Big Brother Magazine'' staff member
Jeff Tremaine 's suggestion that they film the testing, with the plan to include the footage in one of the company's skating videos. The footage, which involved Knoxville being
Tazered ,
Maced , and ultimately shot while wearing a
Bulletproof Vest , appeared in the second ''Big Brother'' skateboarding video, ''Number Two'' and quickly became popular with the underground
Skateboarding community. Knoxville would film several additional skits for several new volumes, as his popularity grew in the underground skateboarding community.
Meanwhile, skateboarder ,
Brandon DiCamillo ,
Raab Himself , and Bam's parents
Phil and
April Margera . The video was successful enough to spawn three sequels and gain the attention of ''Big Brother Magazine''. Tremaine, Carnie, Cliver and Knoxville had decided to create a
Television series based upon Knoxville's skits from the ''Big Brother Magazine'' video line and worked out a deal with Margera to get his camp to work with the ''Big Brother'' camp on the new series.
Soon a television show pilot was put together by the two sides, featuring footage of Knoxville's stunts from the ''Big Brother Magazine'' video line (including a heavily edited version of the "self-defense test" skit that omitted the entire ending wherein Knoxville is shot) and footage from the first two ''CKY'' videos. The pilot was sent to various networks by Tremaine's longtime friend and music video legend,
Spike Jonze .
MTV picked up the show, and ''Jackass'' was born.
The show ran for three seasons; the first episode aired on '', in 2002, which was essentially an extended,
Uncensored episode of the TV show designed to give the show a totally uncensored send-off. Another unofficial episode was called "Kicked in the nuts: a Jackass retrospective" which aired right before the complete box set was released on December 6, 2005. The special served as interviews of the most painfull, the most memorable, and the would never do it again moments. The special marks the last of the Jackass episodes.
Though the cast members were often classified as a troupe, in reality most filming was done separately by different groups. The
CKY footage was performed, filmed, and compiled by
Bam Margera ,
Ryan Dunn , and
Brandon DiCamillo in
West Chester, Pennsylvania . The two other filming units were Johnny Knoxville, Chris Pontius, and others in
California , and
Dave England and
Ehren McGhehey in
Oregon .
- (Bam Margera, Phil Margera) - Bam silently enters the room where his father, Phil, is sleeping, carefully places a stereo on Phil's bed, and turns it on at full blast. When Phil wakes up, startled, Bam bangs on a pot and uses a toilet plunger on Phil's face.
- (Johnny Knoxville) - Johnny wears an Abraham Lincoln -style suit and top hat. He then has Leeches attached to his face to create Lincoln's 'beard', while delivering the Gettysburg Address .
- (Dave England) - England rides down hills, cement ramps, and concrete staircases with rollerskates attached to his knees and a wheel held in his hands.
- (Chris Pontius) - A Running Gag in which Pontius, to the tune of a recurring Techno beat, tears off his jogging suit and dances around à la Chippendale in a Thong and bowtie to the embarrassment of those around him.
- (Ehren McGhehey) - McGhehey dresses in a pink fairy outfit and skips around town putting change in other people's overdue Parking Meter s. This seeming act of generosity is played for gags both by McGhehey's costume and by ribbing the Traffic Enforcement Police , who inform him several times that putting change in other people's meters is illegal.
- (Johnny Knoxville) - Johnny enters a porta-potty and places 1 kg of Pitbull Feces on the toilet, then he locks himself inside. Next, a crane lifts the cabin with Johnny inside, spilling the excrement all over the cabin.
- (Johnny Knoxville, Rick Kosick) - Johnny leads a tour around Mianus, Connecticut while making puns on the town's name, such as "Look! Rick's pumping in Mianus!" while operating a manual water pump.
- (Preston Lacey) - Preston dresses up in a padded black suit, attaches himself to a crane and is then swung into random objects.
- (Steve-O) - Steve-O visits a Body Piercing parlor and has his Buttocks pierced together.
- (Bam Margera, Ryan Dunn, Brandon DiCamillo, Raab Himself) - Bam, Ryan, Brandon and Raab ride Shopping Cart s in a parking lot, crashing into curbs and getting tossed out of the carts at high speed.
- (Bam Margera, Brandon DiCamillo) - Bam and Bran interfere at a local Hockey game and begin fighting each other and Talking Trash . The fight ends for a brief moment only to restart on the streets of suburban Philadelphia .
Note: The following sketches were not allowed anywhere on television. They were originally planned to be included on a special compilation called ''''; this was never released due to the controversy surrounding the content of the show.
- (Ehren McGhehey, Dave England) - Dave bets $20 that Ehren would not swallow a whole spoonful of flour. Ehren wins the bet, but at the price of almost killing himself as the flour badly dried his throat.
- (Steve-O, Chris Pontius) - Chris exposes his Penis and waves it in Steve-O's face. Steve-O is less than amused when he wakes up.
- (Steve-O) - Steve-O decides to have a bowel movement while wearing stilts.
- (Brandon DiCamillo, Bam Margera) - Bam and Bran take a single dollar bill, cover it with icing and then leave it in front of a grocery store. When people find it, they walk up to them and interview them by asking "Are you gonna buy a lot of shit with that dollar?" A portion of this skit was featured in CKY 3 .
- (Dave England) - Dave swallows raw eggs, onions, sausages and cheese, and then Regurgitates the mixture into a frying pan to make an Omelette that he eats. (This one was actually featured on Jackass: Volume 1 DVD as an un-noted skit.)
Additional Note: For an unknown reason MTV Latin America did air these sketches and never took the time to remove or delete these scenes from the show.
Since the first episode, ''Jackass'' frequently featured warnings and
Disclaimer s noting that the stunts performed were dangerous and should not be imitated, and that recordings of any stunts would not be aired on
MTV . Such warnings not only appeared before and after each program, but also in a "crawl" ran along some especially risky stunts. Nevertheless, the program has been blamed for a number of deaths and injuries involving teens and children imitating the stunts. In the fall of
2000 , Senator and then-Democratic-Vice-Presidential nominee
Joseph Lieberman of
Connecticut began a campaign to have MTV pull the show off the air. MTV responded to the criticism by cancelling all airings of ''Jackass'' before 10:00 PM, but Lieberman's continual campaign against the show led to MTV refusing to air repeats of the later episodes, a move which angered the cast and production crew of the series who were furious with MTV's "caving into Lieberman's demands".
Ironically, many have commented that Lieberman's attack on the show, which occurred at the height of the
2000 Presidential Election Campaign, helped alienate young
Democratic Party members, who responded to Lieberman's "campaign of harassment" of the show by refusing to support Lieberman and running mate
Al Gore in the
2000 Presidential Election out of spite.
In a
2001 interview with
Rolling Stone Magazine ,
Johnny Knoxville announced that the show would end after its third season aired so as to allow the show to end on a high note. He also stated discontent at
MTV and the censors, who, with the start of season two, began to hound the show's producers with notes towards what the show could and could not do. When the third season ended in
2002 , MTV (who owns the rights to the name "Jackass"), contemplated keeping the show going with a new cast of characters (even running a teaser for the show's return during the 2002
VMA Awards Show ) before opting to let the show die. Because of problems with MTV's standards and practices department as well as the sudden departure of
Bam Margera and his group halfway through season three, the ''Jackass'' crew did not attempt to create a finale to bring the show to a close.
After the show went off the air, the cast reunited in ''. The cast made it clear that the film was their "farewell" to the fans of the show and the movie format allowed the cast to circumvent the censors. Interestingly,
MTV Films assisted in the movie's distribution.
The movie, filmed on a budget of just $5 million, went on to gross over $60 million in the
United States alone, and finished in the number 1 spot at the box office during its debut weekend.
Johnny Knoxville left the show to begin a moderately successful career as an actor, appearing in such films as the 2004 remake of ''
Walking Tall '', ''
The Dukes Of Hazzard '', ''
Men In Black II '', ''
The Ringer '', and ''
A Dirty Shame ''.
Bam Margera and the "West Chester clique" were given their own spin-off show ''
Viva La Bam '', which follows Margera and his family, who are often made the victim of the clique's practical jokes.
Meanwhile,
Chris Pontius and
Steve-O were given their own show ''
Wildboyz ''. Unlike ''Jackass'' and ''Viva La Bam'', ''Wildboyz'' rejected the formula of practical jokes and instead features the two traveling the world in search of wild and exotic animals and has featured frequent guest appearances by Johnny Knoxville and Jason "Wee Man" Acuña. Steve-O also makes "performances" at clubs and other venues, at which he does stunts such as stapling his
Scrotum to his inner thigh, and doing backflips while "breathing fire" (drinking alcohol, then blowing on a flame). Pontius often accompanies Steve-O at his performances.
It has been announced on various film websites that "Jackass: The Movie 2" has been greenlighted and is due to start production soon. A tentative release date of
September 28 ,
2006 has been announced by
Paramount Pictures .
Much of the original cast will be back, including
Steve-O ,
Bam Margera ,
Ryan Dunn ,
Chris Raab ,
Wee-Man , and
Chris Pontius .
Johnny Knoxville announced on his website that he plans on coming back for the sequel.
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