Hi, I’m Erin Gold, Welcome to My Top 5 ‘Jackass’ Stunts
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Here’s a strange detail that too many non-Millennials fail to grasp: MANY women and girls were absolutely locked in for the entire Jackass franchise.
Case in point: I vividly remember sneaking into the movie theater as a 16 year old in 2002 to see the first Jackass movie. (In other words, I’m an ancient forest crone who remembers a world before smartphones and when MTV was still appointment television.)
This bit of lore tends to short-circuit people’s brains. Wasn’t Jackass only for teen boys fueled by Mountain Dew and untreated concussions? That’s certainly the stereotype. Cultural memory might paint Jackass fans as a horde of suburban boys launching themselves into the sun via shopping carts, but that’s not how my friends and I remember it.
A massive part of the appeal was that the Jackass guys were the punchline. In a society that routinely treats teen girls like irrational little dumbasses for liking literally ANYTHING, it’s satisfying to see an entire franchise built around men making fools of themselves in a deeply uncool way.
Nobody was trying to be James Bond. These were grown-ass men getting shot with paintballs while dressed as old ladies. They got tasered, stapled, launched, and never asked to be authority figures. For once, men and their ridiculous bodies were the objects of ridicule. They were more than willing to look stupid, and they relished it.
Seeing that as a young woman was oddly freeing. James Bond would never get his dick punched by physics, but Johnny Knoxville built an empire around it.
Jackass was never about pain. It was about turning pain into performance art, and somehow turning it into an impromptu documentary about friendship happened along the way. Underneath the explosions, nudity, and alarming encounters with hammers, a democratic message emerged: everyone’s a dumbass.
In that spirit, here are my five favorite Jackass stunts from across the franchise.
5. Party Boy (Jackass)
Chris Pontius invents a new form of psychological warfare.
Most folks spend their lives avoiding embarrassment. Chris Pontius looked at embarrassment and asked, “What if I wore less and danced?” Party Boy wasn’t a particularly complicated skit. No engineering or explosives here, just a nearly naked dude appearing unexpectedly in public and dancing with the confidence of a Roman emperor. The genius was that Pontius never made it seem ironic. Instead of making fun of confidence, he WAS confidence incarnate, baby! This is basically watching a man achieve enlightenment… in a thong.
4. Jet Engine (Jackass 3)
Everyone volunteers for one of the worst ideas conceived by humans.
The setup is simple enough: do normal things in a field while an actual jet engine blows you aside like last week’s Shein haul. At some point, there’s someone in a flying squirrel suit. A bright red Converse gets chunked in the air. Do we need to see the glee everyone gets from tomatoes flying? Yes. Yes, we do. It’s like poetry in that it gives regular life meaning.
3. The High Five (Jackass 3)
Johnny Knoxville turns friendship into ballistics.
By the time a giant mechanical hand appeared in the first movie, the Jackass crew had proven that anything, given enough momentum, could be dangerous. The High Five perfected that guiding premise. But the real genius lies in how perfectly this stunt captures the crew’s dynamic like nothing else. Knoxville was never the craziest crew member. Instead, he played the role of carnival barker, begging his pals to step right up and get knocked in the goddamn guts. The anticipation, betrayal, and immediate laugh explosion from everyone involved makes this an all-time slapstick classic.
2. Toro Totter (Jackass Number Two)
The crew’s lifelong quest to get the shit kicked out of them by bulls. Cinema!
No rivalry in entertainment history has been as consistent as the Jackass crew versus bulls. Mechanical… actual… It doesn’t matter the kind. What makes this particular rodeo stunt memorable is the legitimate mix of joy and fear. At one point, they’re all excited to be playing a game, rodeo clowns cheering on. And then not two seconds later, they’re running for the fences while laughing their asses off. It’s a thing of beauty.
1. Big Red Rocket (Jackass Number Two)
The platonic ideal of a jackass.
Jackass is a culmination of many different influences: Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Vic Armstrong, and of course, Evel Knievel. This iconic stunt has Mr. Knievel’s name allllll over its bad decision-making. The prop Big Red Rocket doesn’t work at first, but that doesn’t stop the crew from trying way too many times until it hurts their bodies and spirits. Big Red Rocket captures what makes the Jackass franchise so special: it’s elegant but silly, high-risk but with a big payoff, and of course, features a bunch of good-natured giggles to go around. If a friendly alien landed on earth and requested to see what Jackass was all about, you’d show them this one.