Jackass at 20: disgusting, childish, dangerous and ... heartwarming?

The very first episode of MTV’s Jackass, airing on 1 October 2000, bore the striking title Poo Cocktail – referring to a stunt in which Johnny Knoxville is strapped into an excrement-filled porta potty, which is then upended by a forklift truck. Back on solid ground, he emerges triumphantly, covered in human (and dog) waste, and immediately starts to chase the rest of the cast and crew. While showering off – aided by two men in hazmat suits – Knoxville is asked by the cameraman how he thinks it went. “It was disgusting, it was horrible. I was awash in a sea of poo,” he replies, grinning all the while. When the second episode aired the following week and MTV achieved its highest-ever Sunday night ratings, a ragtag group of pranksters from across the United States instantly became icons to legions of fans entertained by their gross-out antics and unusually high pain tolerance.

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While America’s Funniest Home Videos (first broadcast in 1989, based on a segment from the Japanese variety show Fun TV with Kato-chan and Ken-chan) had tapped into the growing appetite for reality-based physical comedy, and prank shows had been popular with audiences since Candid Camera first aired some five decades earlier, Jackass sent shockwaves due to the extremity of the antics which made up its runtime. In the first episode alone, Knoxville tests self-defense equipment including a Taser and pepper spray on himself, and stages a fake kidnapping with fellow cast member Chris Pontius, much to the alarm of passersby. The start of the show’s second episode shows Knoxville in the emergency room with a sprained ankle, after trying to jump the LA River on a pair of roller skates – before the show cuts to a clip of the incident in question. Television had never seen anything quite so gleefully anarchic, and while plenty of people were entertained by the antics of Knoxville and co, an equally resistant crowd voiced their concerns.

Although the show was preceded by a stark warning against attempting to recreate any of the stunts performed in the show at home, some viewers decided to not heed the warning, and within six months of the show first airing on MTV, various accounts had emerged of teenagers injuring themselves trying to either recreate or emulate the show. A group of Kentucky teenagers filmed their friend being hit by a car, while two others in Connecticut received severe burns attempting to recreate the Human Barbecue stunt which saw Knoxville attach steaks to a fireproof suit then hop on a grill. MTV refused to take any responsibility for the injuries, but Human Barbecue was not included with the Jackass DVD release.

Perhaps the most vocal critic of the show was the Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman, who wrote to MTV’s parent company Viacom in February 2001, urging them to take more responsibility for their programming. MTV initially responded by moving all showings of Jackass to post-10pm time slots, but after growing pressure, they refused to air repeats of episodes. This caused friction between the network and the show’s cast and crew, who were frustrated with MTV for bowing to political pressure, and by August 2001, the show had been cancelled, amid Knoxville quitting, ongoing salary disputes and growing discontent about the restrictive nature of MTV’s rules about what would and wouldn’t make it to broadcast. The show finished its run on the channel in February 2002, somewhat abruptly, as they had never filmed a proper finale for the season.

But that wasn’t the end of Jackass. After reaching a deal with MTV and Paramount, co-creators Jeff Tremaine, Spike Jonze and Knoxville rounded up the crew to produce a spin-off movie, shot on a $5m budget and – free from the restrictions of a television network – unrulier than anything that had ever made it to air. Critical reception for Jackass: The Movie erred toward disgust, with the New York Times describing it as “like a documentary version of Fight Club, shorn of social insight, intellectual pretension and cinematic interest” but audiences turned out in droves – the film topped the box office and made over $70m in the US alone.

In the years that followed, there would be highs and lows for the Jackass crew. Three more films (Jackass Number Two, Jackass 3D and Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa) and a number of spin-off television shows (notably Viva La Bam and Wildboyz) demonstrated ongoing audience affection towards their harebrained stunts and schemes, but behind the scenes, many of the cast were dealing with alcohol and drug addiction, and started to make the headlines for reasons other than their pranks and stunts.

This came to a head in 2011, when cast member Ryan Dunn and Jackass Number Two production assistant Zachary Hartwell were killed in a drunk driving accident. Dunn had been driving and was just 34 years old at the time of his death. An outpouring of grief from the Jackass crew and their friends followed, including an MTV tribute to Dunn, and in 2013, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa was dedicated to him – a reminder that behind all the gross-out humour, the heart of Jackass had always been the camaraderie between its stars.

Watching the Jackass show and films today, the stunts are still as gross and inadvisable as ever, but the bond between Knoxville, Margera, Dunn, Pontius, Dave England, Ehren McGehey, Jason Acuña and Preston Lacy – plus all their friends and family who co-star – is undoubtedly what makes the show feel so special. It’s also probably the reason the gang are reuniting: after years of speculation and a delay due to Covid-19, Jackass 4 is headed for cinemas in September 2021.

While other prank shows came before and have come since, it’s the friendship on display in Jackass which brings an unexpected wholesomeness to the show, as the stars are as quick to display concern about each other’s wellbeing as they are to do something silly. When the show first aired, it was uncommon to see male friendships portrayed on television as anything other than gruff bouts of one-upmanship and unwavering machismo – although showmanship definitely factors into the Jackass identity, it’s underpinned by how much they all clearly love each other, beneath all the pee and poo gags.