Johnny Knoxville Knew This Classic Jackass Stunt Would Make Steve-O Famous
Johnny Knoxville recently reminisced about the Jackass stunt that let him know Steve-O was going to be famous. The pair first teamed up when the television series first began airing on MTV in 2000. The show, which was co-created by Knoxville, Spike Jonze, and Jeff Tremaine, was designed to bring crude humour to the fore as a team of nine men pulled off dangerous stunts and pranks on each other and an unsuspecting public. The series only ran for three seasons, but it spawned 7 Jackass spinoffs featuring various members of the gang.
Jackass also became a hit franchise at the movies, with three feature-length films finding success at the box office and their 2013 spinoff Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa even being nominated for an Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. The long-awaited fourth film instalment in the franchise, Jackass Forever, is coming to theatres on February 4, 2022. The film will reunite past members of the original series and introduce new members as well as a coterie of guest stars including Machine Gun Kelly, Shaq, Tony Hawk, and Eric André, who previously collaborated with Jeff Tremaine on the prank-filled comedy Bad Trip.
Per Uproxx, in an MTV interview, Johnny Knoxville revealed how he knew his team member Steve-O was going to become famous. The realization came after Steve-O performed the infamous stunt where he swallowed a goldfish and regurgitated it, still alive, into a bowl. Knoxville says that it was “a real banger” and he told Steve-O “if you’re not already famous, you’re gonna be now.” Read the full quote below:
[It was] an idea that I saved for a special occasion. I thought it was going to be a real banger. I’ll never forget after this, [I said] “Well Steve-O if you’re not already famous, you’re gonna be now.”
Johnny Knoxville’s prediction certainly came true. The Jackass crew are all well-known to fans of the show, but as far as becoming household names, Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, and Bam Margera (who appears in Jackass Forever despite being fired halfway through production) are the only ones who well and truly crossed over into more mainstream popularity. Steve-O and Pontius later collaborated on the series Wildboyz, which ran for four seasons, beginning in 2003.
It remains to be seen if the new film in the Jackass franchise has the power to capture the public imagination in the same way with any of its stunts. They certainly seem to be aiming to push the envelope as much as ever. One thing that might be able to help the new film gain traction is the rise of the Internet, where short videos of pranks and stunts have only increased in popularity throughout the years. Jackass Forever may be perfectly timed to capitalize on this trend.