Jackass (franchise)

By the late 1990s, aspiring actor and writer Johnny Knoxville had moved from Knoxville to Los Angeles and landed work in commercials in order to support his wife and infant daughter. Among his ideas was to produce an article that involved testing various self-defense equipment on himself as a homage to his hero, gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson.[5] The magazines that contacted him refused to cover the story due to liability concerns, but in 1999, Knoxville was contacted by Big Brother, a skateboarding magazine for which Jeff Tremaine was an editor, and convinced Knoxville to do the stunt and film it. The stunt featured Knoxville testing out pepper spray, a stun gun, a taser, and a.38 caliber gun with a bulletproof vest,[5] which was included in Big Brother video entitled Number 2, which also featured an appearance by future Jackass cast member Jason "Wee Man" Acuña.[6] Other contributors to Big Brother at this time were Rick Kosick, Chris Pontius, and Dave England, who went on to become a part of the Jackass crew.

Around this time, Pennsylvania resident and skateboarder Bam Margera was filming his family and friends, collectively known as the CKY Crew, short for Camp Kill Yourself, and released them on home video as part of the CKY video series[5] that featured stunts, pranks, and skateboarding with a cast that included Ryan Dunn, Brandon DiCamillo, Raab Himself, and Margera's family, mother April, father Phil, uncle Don Vito, and elder brother Jess. Like the Big Brother videos, the CKY releases became a cult hit and attracted the attention of Tremaine, who flew Margera to Los Angeles in 2000 and saw the second CKY video, Landspeed Presents: CKY2K.[5] The video convinced Tremaine that the CKY group would suit the idea of a stunt and prank television show that Knoxville, Spike Jonze, and himself had been planning.[5] After demo footage had been shot and pitched to several networks, Saturday Night Live offered to make them subject of a recurring segment on the show. The offer was rejected, as a bidding war between Comedy Central and MTV resulted in the three accepting a deal from the latter for a half-hour weekly show and greater creative control. Knoxville, Tremaine, and Jonze are credited as executive producers. Van Toffler, president of MTV, said: "We just knew there were a bunch of knuckleheads out there who had a very high tolerance for stupidity and pain."[5]

Soon after the MTV deal, Tremaine approached Florida native Steve-O where he worked as a clown at a flea market, and had him film videos of his stunts for the television show, but none were cleared by MTV management.[5] To round out the cast, England brought in his friend Ehren McGhehey, a fellow Oregon resident and extreme stunt participant.[7] Preston Lacy would be the last of what is now considered the main cast to join, auditioning midway through the show's run by eating four bananas with the peels on.

The show debuted on October 1, 2000. After the second episode had aired MTV gained its highest Sunday ratings in its history, drawing 2.4 million viewers among 12- to 34-year-olds, its target demographic.[8]

In a 2001 interview with Rolling Stone, Knoxville questioned how long the MTV show could last, and soon after announced that the series would end after its third season aired.[9] He also stated discontent with MTV and the censors, who, from the start of season two, increasingly gave notes regarding what the show could and could not depict. In addition, Steve-O claimed that the cast salaries paid by MTV were meager. When the third season ended in 2001, MTV (which owns the rights to the name "Jackass") contemplated keeping the show going with a new cast (even running a teaser for the show's return during the 2002 VMA Awards Show).[10]

Because of problems with MTV's standards and practices department, as well as the sudden departure of Bam and the CKY crew 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 2002 to film what they believed would be the conclusion of Jackass: a full-length motion picture version of the show entitled Jackass: The Movie. The cast made it clear that the film was their "farewell" to the fans of the show, and with the franchise taking the movie format, the cast and crew were now allowed to circumvent the censors, showing more vulgar stunts than the ones featured on the TV show.[16] Despite earlier disagreements, MTV Films assisted in the film's distribution.

The film, shot on a budget of just $5 million, went on to gross over $60 million in the United States alone, and finished in the #1 spot at the box office during its debut weekend.

With the release of Jackass: The Movie, director Jeff Tremaine and the rest of the cast believed that Jackass was finished and there would be no further projects under the franchise. However, during the final season of Wildboyz, Knoxville joined his former castmates Chris Pontius and Steve-O on various expeditions around the world. It was said that Knoxville went so far out during the filming of the show that Tremaine pulled him aside and said "If you're willing to go this all out, why not get all the guys together and shoot another movie?" Knoxville agreed, and with both Viva La Bam and Wildboyz finishing their runs, the entire cast was available to reunite and film the sequel.[17]

Number Two was released on September 22, 2006, produced by MTV Films and distributed by Paramount Pictures. As was the case with its predecessor, Jackass Number Two topped the box office in its debut weekend, earning $29.01 million. Footage for several stunts featured Bam Margera's uncle Vincent "Don Vito" Margera, but the footage was removed from the theatrical and DVD release due to his arrest in August 2006 and conviction on two counts of sexual assault on a minor.

On September 7, 2006, MTV featured a half-hour documentary of Jackass: Number Two. When asked if the film meant the end of Jackass, cast member Steve-O jokingly commented that the people who made money from the franchise still wanted money, hinting that the cast would still continue the franchise in one form or another. At the conclusion of the documentary, Johnny Knoxville reveals that he "had a hard time letting go" because he is "so hooked on doing stunts." Cameraman Dimitry Elyashkevich reveals that weeks after the film, Knoxville was so desperate to shoot that he would film himself running into street signs just for the sake of additional footage.[17]

On May 27, 2008, a direct-to-DVD Jackass film was released by Dickhouse Productions.[18][19] The film is a tribute to the stuntman, Evel Knievel, who died on November 30, 2007, one year before the film's release.

In an August 2009 interview with Knoxville for The Times-Picayune, Knoxville, on the topic of Steve-O's recovery and rehabilitation, said, "He's taking to sobriety like he took to drugs and alcohol, I'm very proud of him. I think we'll see him doing some stuff here really soon. As a matter of fact, I know we are."[20] He later stated "Something's coming. We're pretty excited." Later, he added, "I think it'll be a big year next year, but I don't want to talk about it yet ..."[20]

In September 2009, Margera revealed to Iltalehti, a Finnish newspaper, that a Jackass 3 would be made and filmed in places like Mongolia, South Africa and Finland as well as the United States starting in January 2010.[21] He then confirmed it again on Radio Bam on September 21, 2009. In early December, Knoxville confirmed that Jackass 3 was being made.[22][23] In April 2010, a brief blurb about Jackass 3D, entitled "gone filmin'," appeared on the Jackassworld Web site: "Thanks for the support the past two years. To keep abreast and adick of all things related to the world of jackass and Dickhouse (including the currently in production flick Jackass 3D), follow us on Facebook and Twitter."[24]

In late July 2010, Paramount and MTV screened the first footage from Jackass 3D at a special event during Comic-Con 2010 in its 3D format. The event allowed fans to meet the Jackass crew.[25] Then in August 2010, the official trailer was aired on MTV.

Jackass 3D was released in American movie theaters on October 15, 2010. On opening weekend, the movie made an estimated $50 million in 3,081 theaters,[26] outperforming predictions it would earn $30 million[27] and breaking the record for the most successful fall opening ever, which was previously held by Scary Movie 3.

In March 2012, Knoxville discussed the possibility of a fourth film, saying "we're keeping our mind open" and "I've got 50–60 ideas on top of all the stuff we didn't get to shoot."[28] Then in June 2012, it was reported Paramount "registered several domains for a film that would be called Bad Grandpa."[29]

During Margera's September 18, 2012 interview on The Howard Stern Show about Jackass he said: "There's going to be a whole movie about Knoxville's grandpa character."

Bad Grandpa was officially announced in July 2013 and released on October 25, 2013,[30] exactly 11 years after the release of Jackass: The Movie. It was the first film in the series to be nominated for an Academy Award; it lost the Best Makeup and Hairstyling award to Dallas Buyers Club.[31]

In a 2018 interview, Knoxville said that he is open to making a fourth Jackass film that may feature some new cast members, "just to bring in some fresh blood into it."[32] He said that he continues to write ideas for a Jackass film and that "a ton" have been set aside should the project receive the green-light. In July 2019, cast member Chris Raab said that he had interviewed the Jackass crew on his Bathroom Break podcast and noted that everyone was still open to a fourth film should Knoxville, Tremaine, and Jonze agree.[32] On December 19, 2019, Paramount confirmed that a fourth Jackass film is set for production and scheduled for release on July 2, 2021.[33]

On February 23, 2008, MTV held the TV special, Jackassworld.com: 24 Hour Takeover to coincide with the official launch of Jackassworld.com. The special allowed the core members of Jackass to take over MTV and its studios for 24 hours, broadcasting new pranks and stunts, along with a tribute to stunt man Evel Knievel shot days before.

On September 5, 2007, Margera announced the release of Jackass 2.5 on The Howard Stern Show, a compilation DVD of stunts that did not make it to Jackass Number Two.[48] The DVD was released on December 26, 2007. Special features on the DVD include the making of Jackass 2.5, the making of Jackass: The Game, deleted scenes, and a photo gallery.

Jackass 3.5 was released in June 2011 with unused footage shot during the filming of Jackass 3D.[49] The first trailer was released online on January 27, 2011, and the feature-length movie was released on VOD and DVD on June 14, 2011,[50] and the entire film was streamed in weekly segments on Joost, starting April 1, 2011.[51]

Jackass: The Game was released on October 2, 2007. It was developed under a license by Sidhe Interactive in Wellington, New Zealand, for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS. The game was first shown at the 2006 E3 behind closed doors.[52] It is mentioned in the Jackass: Number Two commentary that the stunt where several members get punched in the face by a spring-loaded boxing glove hidden behind a fake valentine on a wall had just come upstairs from shooting a promo for the video game. Johnny Knoxville and other members of the Jackass team also provided stunt ideas to the developer based on unused stunts from the show.[53] A trailer and the cover art was released in June 2007 on the game's official website. All main characters of the show were featured as playable, except for Bam Margera, who was contractually obligated by Neversoft to appear in the Tony Hawk franchise, thus making him unable to appear in any other video game.

Various groups have created shows based on or similar to Jackass. These include:

• Extreme Duudsonit aka The Dudesons (which also started airing at 2000, although they had been filming their stunts ever since the 1990s)
• Dirty Sanchez aka Team Sanchez
• Nitro Circus
• Stankervision (a repackaged version of 'The DAMN! Show')
• Tokyo Shock Boys
• Mega64
• Rad Girls
• The French film; Les 11 commandements (The 11 Commandments)
• Rémi Gaillard (France)
• Call of Dumb (Texas)
• Ogags (Philippines)
• Jim Rose Circus
• P.O.R Stunts
• NubTV
• Bumfights

Jackass-type behavior has also been depicted and used as plot devices on multiple other television shows - an example of which is episode 19 of season 3 of CSI: Vegas, in which one of a group of teenagers is shot and killed while performing (and filming) a stunt.