1. Spike Jonze, the man who wrote Herand created Being John Malkovich among other achievements, helped get Jackassoff the ground. Jonze and Jackassco-creator Jeff Tremaine were long-time friends and Jonze helped form the idea into a proper TV pitch.
Spike Jonze is the one not wearing a pink plaid suit.
2. The idea for Jackasscame from Johnny Knoxville having trouble finding work. Knoxville turned to stunt journalism testing security devices on himself – but only Jeff Tremaine's magazine Big Brothershowed interest, and only if he could film it for his video section.
He was drawing inspiration from his idol, Hunter S. Thompson.
3. There was initially a massive bidding war for the rights to the JackassTV show. Eventually MTV won, but Comedy Central was also interested, and SNL tried getting Knoxville to record a stunt for their show each week.
Nothing makes you feel more desirable than a bidding war.
4. The original title for the series was going to be A-Holes, but MTV rejected the idea because that would require significantly more censorship, and it's really hard to advertise a show when you can't even widely use it's name.
"The show with no name" just doesn't have quite the same ring to it.
5. This didn't put an end to the name problems though. In 2002, MTV's parent company, Viacom, was sued by a man named Jack Ass who claimed the show was defamation and copyright infringement. I think it goes without saying that he did not succeed.
Mr. Ass had changed his name from Bob Craft as part of a campaign against drunk driving, to tell people to be a smart ass not a dumb ass.
6. After discussing his substance abuse issues with Knoxville on many occasions, Steve-O was still hesitant on checking into rehab – so Knoxville took extreme measures. He hired ten burly men and told them to beat up Steve-O if he didn't go to rehab. Steve-O went to rehab. He has been successfully clean ever since.
Knoxville even banned all alcohol from the set of Jackass 3-D out of respect for his friend.
7. The series was supposed to be retired after the first film, but Knoxville's continued appearances on The Wildboyz caused Tremaine to approach him about continuing the series with a second film.
A second chance at Jackass life.
8. The Toy Car X-Ray stunt had to be very carefully edited to as to not actually show any of the act of putting it in, because then the footage would be considered pornographic, giving the movie an automatic NC-17 rating.
This was also the case with the horse semen stunt later on.
9. There were a couple reasons the filming mostly happened in Japan. Firstly, there were no swarms of teenage fans showing up to the stunts, but also because they didn't have to blur faces on non-consenting people in the footage because of Japanese laws.
It also gave them opportunities they wouldn't have had, like the Wasabi stunt.
10. Loomis Fall came up with the idea for the Night Pandas segment, and he was brought along on the stunt because no one wanted to break it to him that pandas are from China and not Japan.
If anything, I think that makes it funnier.
11. In the big finale where the building front falls around Knoxville, he was told not to move since the positioning was perfect. He of course flinched the first time, and his daughter, who was on set, immediately started scolding her dad for ruining the take, shouting "Daddy, what the heck! What's wrong with you?"
What makes it even better is that she was ten years old at the time.
12. The giant shopping cart was a prop used for the 1981 film The Incredible Shrinking Woman, but when Preston Lacy spotted it on the studio lot, the crew decided they had to make use of it, and thus a prank was born.
Take inspiration from your surroundings.
13. The lion's share of the censorship of pranks by MTV were ones performed by Steve-O, unsurprisingly. Most of these pranks were collected and released on a separate DVD titled Don't Try This At Home: The Steve-O Video.
The pranks that were too much for TV all in one place.
14. Knoxville has explained that old cartoons were a big inspiration for many of the pranks, especially ones like Tom & Jerry.
I feel like cartoons can get away with a significant bit more than them, but hey what do I know.
15. Brad Pitt made an appearance in the final two episodes of Jackass because he met Knoxville at Spike Jonze's house, and said he was a fan and wanted to be a part of something with them. So they pretended to kidnap him.
They also dressed up like apes and caused some mischief.
16. Johnny Knoxville says that the absolute best prank they've ever done is the "Child Beauty Pageant" prank from Bad Grandpa where his grandson enters as a girl and strips. Following these, his favs are the "Terror Taxi" and the "X-Ray Toy Car" pranks.
Still innovating and impressing himself to the very end.
What's your favorite Jackass prank? Let us know with a COMMENT!
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