Jackass (TV series)

Jackass was a half-hour television series, originally shown on MTV from 2000 to 2002 in which a group of men perform various dangerous and ridiculous stunts.

History

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 birthed the idea to test different self defense devices on himself as the basis for an article. He pitched the idea to a couple of magazines and was turned down until meeting with Jeff Tremaine of Big Brother. Jeff hired him as journalist and convinced Johnny to videotape this idea and other stunts for stories. The footage, which involved Knoxville being tazered, maced, and ultimately shot while wearing a bulletproof vest, appeared in the second Big Brother skateboarding movie Number Two. Johnny quickly became a hit. Big Brother would go on road trips which is believed where Johnny met Bam and they became good friends.

Cast

Though the cast members were often classified as a troupe, in reality a lot of filming was done separately by different groups. The main groups were the Los Angeles faction of Knoxville, Pontius, Steve-O et al, and the CKY crew from West Chester, PA including Margera, DiCamillo, Dunn and Raab Himself. England and McGhehey also operated autonomously, filming in Oregon.

Main cast

Other regular cast members

Jeff Tremaine, the show's director
Rick Kosick, the show's main cameraman
Chris "Raab Himself" Raab
Rake Yohn
Dimitry Elyashkevich
Greg "Guch" Iguchi, cameraman
Sean Cliver, one of the show's producers
Mike Kassak
Jason "J2" Raumus
Stephanie Hodge - left the cast after being severely injured during a skit^*
Phil and April Margera - Bam's parents and, more often than not, stunt victims
Jess Margera - Bam's older brother
Manny Puig - animal wrangler
Loomis Fall

Celebrity Members

Tony Hawk - renowned skateboarder
Mat Hoffman - famous and renowned BMX Rider
Brad Pitt - participated in the "Abduction" and "Night Monkey 2" skits
Shaquille O'Neal - participated in one skit, in which he humped Wee Man and Steve-O during the filming of a music video

Some feature sketches

Plunger Wake Up (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.
Beard of Leeches (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.
The Human Tricycle (Dave England) - England rides down hills, cement ramps, and concrete staircases with rollerskates attached to his knees and a wheel held in his hands.
Party Boy (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.
The Meter Fairy (Ehren McGhehey) - McGhehey dresses in a pink fairy outfit and skips around town putting change in other people's overdue parking meters. 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.
Poo Cocktail (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.
Mianus (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.
The Human Wrecking Ball (Preston Lacey) - Preston dresses up in a padded black suit, attaches himself to a crane and is then swung into random objects.
Butt Piercing (Steve-O) - Steve-O visits a body piercing parlor and has his buttocks pierced together.
Shopping Carts (Bam Margera, Ryan Dunn, Brandon DiCamillo, Raab Himself) - Bam, Ryan, Brandon and Raab ride shopping carts in a parking lot, crashing into curbs and getting tossed out of the carts at high speed.
Hockey Fight (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 Too Hot for MTV; this was never released due to the controversy surrounding the content of the show.

Dry Throat (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.
Cock Shot (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.
Stilt Poo (Steve-O) - Steve-O decides to have a bowel movement while wearing stilts.
Poo Dollar (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.
The Vomlette (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 3 DVD as an un-noted skit.)(This skit aired in France, UK and The Netherlands)

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. MTV Portugal also aired "The Vomlette" alongside with regular Jackass sketches.

Controversy

Since the first episode, Jackass frequently featured warnings and disclaimers 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 some young Democratic Party members, who responded to Lieberman's "campaign of harassment" towards the show by refusing to support Lieberman and running mate Al Gore in the 2000 Presidential Election out of spite.

Ending and Farewell

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.

Movie

After the show went off the air, the cast reunited in 2002 to film a full-length motion picture version of the show entitled The Movie. 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.

Where are they now?

Johnny Knoxville left the show to begin a 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, A Dirty Shame and Big Trouble.

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, Manny Puig, 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.

Ryan Dunn became part of Bam's crew on Viva La Bam and since has been given his own show Homewrecker, In which he finds revenge for helpless victims of practical jokes by renovating the prankster's room according to the original incident.

Jackass: Number Two

It has been announced on various film websites that "Jackass Number Two" has been produced. A tentative release date of September 22, 2006 has been announced by Paramount Pictures.

Much of the original cast will be back, including Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Dave England, Preston Lacy, Ehren McGhehey, Bam Margera, Ryan Dunn, Wee-Man, and Chris Pontius.

A trailer has been shown of the second movie showing Johnny Knoxville getting hit by a bull, saying the film's release will be fall.

Similar groups

There is also a South African parody of Jackass and other 'extreme' shows of its genre, called Crazy Monkey.
Extreme Duudsonit, Finnish.
Team Sanchez
Tokyo Shock Boys

Newgrounds

Many Jackass spoofs have been made on Newgrounds ^*.

External links

Jackass | CKY

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