Top 10 Favorite Jackass Stunts/Pranks

 

Jackass The Movie (2002) via The Sun

    I couldn't for the life of me begin to try and remember the exact year of when this all happened, but I have one of the best stories for how I even found out about Jackass, what parts I saw, and my exact thoughts on it to this day. Estimating from my memory of this, I think it happened either late 2003 or sometime in 2004, but my brothers Rayden & Ryland went to Wal-Mart with my grandma C. one day and showed up later to my grandma R's house, where I was at at the time with her and my older cousin Charles, with a DVD copy of Jackass The Movie. The cover caught my eye, the iconic shopping cart hill bomb from the opening credits sequence. Our older cousin Charles got up and took it right out of the DVD player and basically stole it after we got to the part where Dave England puts the muscle stimulator on his gooch. Rayden, Ryland, and I were laughing our asses off in the meantime. Many years later, I would finally watch it after it was aired on Comedy Central one night.

    Enough of my rambling, and to get into individualistic ramblings, here's MY top 10 favorite Jackass stunts/pranks as of June, 2022.

10. Roller Disco Truck - Jackass: The Movie (2002)

the cast of Jackass (besides Johnny Knoxville) in Roller Disco

    An instant hilarious classic from the first Jackass film in the franchise, the Roller Disco Truck was something the Jackass guys did that we all really wanted to try with our friends. Like most Jackass stunts (especially on my list here), the idea is very simple: everyone put on roller skates and have a disco party in the back of a moving box truck. As you can see by the photo above, this stunt involved every core Jackass cast member besides Johnny Knoxville. On the DVD commentary track for this movie I believe Johnny Knoxville had a reasoning for why he wasn't participating in this one, but I'm too lazy to put the DVD in and go to this exact part just to find out why. So, looks like you might have too.

    Either way, I remember thinking when I was younger that if I ever had the chance, I would completely do something like this some day in the future. And I probably still would to this day, but I don't want to have to be the one to organize it. And what's the point even, Jackass already did it and they did it so much funnier and better than me or anyone probably could ever do. There are some total weird YouTube geeks that try, and they succeed at getting hurt but fail to make me laugh.

9. Bicentennial BMXing - Jackass Number Two (2006)

i'm not sure where this gif orginated, Ryan Dunn in Bicentennial BMXing

    I have no idea why, but every single time this short segment comes on in Jackass Number Two I laugh the whole entire way through. I guess probably because it's completely dumb, and that may or may not be the point sometimes in these movies, but this one I feel was always dumb for the sake of being dumb. Johnny Knoxville's plunge face first onto the concrete below after hitting a mound of snow and flying over the handle bars is graphically but comically gut-wrenching. Ryan Dunn riding alongside Johnny Knoxville just for the sake of riding alongside Johnny Knoxville is perfect in almost every sense of the word, as Dunn adds a dogpile more of comic relief the whole time.

8. Marching Band - Jackass Forever (2022)

via Jackass Forever, Paramount Pictures

    Short, simple, and sweet. That's what we like around here at Rhetter.com. From the new film Jackass Forever, Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O, Jasper Dolphin, Dave England, and Chris Pontius march in line and to their impending concussions single file onto a large treadmill that is moving extremely fast. And even though this is the only stunt in the new movie that features Bam Margera, which I'm glad he was able to be in it someway or another, I have to say that I probably would have still counted this as one of my favorite Jackass stunts of all time even if Bam wasn't in it and was replaced with Dark Shark. Every one of them takes a nasty hit and is violently spit and spun out onto a concrete floor. Knoxville ends up being the only one bleeding, and Steve-O is left stiff and unconscious after hitting his head and getting knocked out. Well, he hits his head twice technically. Once on the treadmill, and then again on the concrete floor.

    It doesn't get any more entertaining than this. I mean, this entire film watched in a movie theater with people around you that you don't know and every one of you are laughing hysterically at every scene is completely magical. I am actually happy I got to attend a Jackass film in theaters (not counting Bad Grandpa, because I DID see that in theaters in 2013), even though I could've went to Jackass 3D, I was too late and it was out of theaters by the time I could really even go. Sad time.

7. Ceiling Fan - Jackass: The Movie (2002) 

via Gifer

    In the actual film, I think Steve-O jumping into the ceiling fan lasts for only 15 seconds, works incredibly hilariously perfect for an interstitial short stunt that leads into the next much longer/larger stunt. Thanks to the DVD special features however, there's a much longer cut version of Steve-O and his ceiling fan, where he literally destroys it entirely, ripping the cable from the ceiling down into the wall. I've always really thought this part was cool when I first saw this movie as a kid. I remember in my brain, I was thinking, "how the fuck did he do that and not get more hurt?"

    Steve-O just so happens to be the man. That's all there really is to it.

via Giphy

6. Cajun Obstacle Course - Jackass 2.5 (2007)

the spittoon part of the course, screengrab from the YT video of this scene

    When I was younger, I found this particular stunt to be hard to watch, especially at the end. Now, as a fully grown adult, I find this stunt to be hard to watch, especially at the end just as much as I ever did. Not to SPOIL anything for anyone random that has never seen Jackass 2.5 before, but basically the Cajun Obstacle Course involves Bam, Wee Man, Knoxville, Dave England, and Chris Pontius as they go crawl under barbed wires through a muddy pit of small alligators, get covered with raw dead fish, crawl through pigs and their filth, get shot with paintballs rapidly and horrifyingly, and finally drink the spittoon, which was just those redneck guy's loogies in shot glasses. Pretty bad right? That's why I just had to include it on my list, it's just as funny watching a friend or someone who hasn't seen it squirm at this one when it comes on the screen. Just perfect.

5.Beehive Tetherball - Jackass 3D (2010)

via Jackass 3D, Paramount Pictures

    When I first saw this movie in 2010, this was always one of my favorite parts of Jackass 3D. Manny Puig, nature expert; Jackass affiliate, starts this stunt off in the best way by telling Steve-O and Dave England that it takes 100 stings from a bee to kill a man. I'm too lazy to google whether the verification of this is true, so tell me if you know, but Dave's stunned and not pleased reaction to that news makes it all the funnier to me. So, of course they 'play ball', smacking it back and forth while both getting violently stung by pissed off bees. If you buy the DVD or Blu-Ray release, it should have the Jackass stamped 3D glasses included with it. Watch the whole movie in 3D, it DOES happen to be worth it.

    Either way, this one is just an instant classic Jackass stunt; pretty much guaranteed to fail from the start like most Jackass stunts go pretty much. But, I add it as number five on my list because I could watch it over and over again.

4. The X-Ray - Jackass: The Movie (2002)

The X-Ray, via New York Times

    This stunt here was coordinated and captured absolutely fantastically and I don't think a more iconic image could have come from the Jackass gang. But, that x-ray is Ryan Dunn, who stepped up to the plate, swung, and delivered a home run the day Steve-O backed out of shoving a toy car up his ass, and he just knew he had to be the one to do it. Even when I first saw this way back in the day, I couldn't believe that it was actually even happening and I wasn't sure how to feel about Ryan Dunn or Jackass after that. Of course, I'd come to love Ryan Dunn and Jackass so I wasn't bothered at all soon after watching the movie again, and again, and again. Plus, Viva La Bam was on every single day, re-run after re-run (and even caught some the last of the new episodes of season five), so everything Jackass related soon became basically the only things I could re-watch hundreds of times.

    This stunt was just iconic and everyone who has seen this movie and sees that x-ray anywhere afterwards automatically knows who it is and where it's from.

3. Night Pandas - Jackass: The Movie (2002)

Wee Man in Night Pandas from Jackass: The Movie (2002) Paramount Pictures

    According to basically the entire Jackass cast, this bit was written by none other than close Jackass affiliate Loomis Fall. And even though they were in Japan at the time when causing havoc as the pandas, they didn't have the heart to tell Loomis that pandas actually come from China, not Japan. Obviously, this is a select group of the cast in the suits, Ryan Dunn, Wee Man, Loomis Fall, Johnny Knoxville, Preston Lacy, and Steve-O and they basically run amuck the city streets of Tokyo with a skateboard, destroying shoe racks at department stores, and generally disturbing the public. Many times though, the public join the fun and laugh along with them, as you can see above in the photo, even wearing the panda heads at one point. All around, just a fun segment from the first movie, very memorable.

2. Riot Control Test - Jackass Number Two (2006)

Bam Margera, Johnny Knoxville, and Ryan Dunn in Riot Control Test via iMDB

    This one was just completely insane. Well, besides the toro-totter, and the anaconda ball pit, and the rest of Jackass Number Two, I give praise to Bam, Knoxville, and Dunn for participating in this one. I would never do this willingly in my life, and I hope I'm never in an area where one of these is needed to be used, because if that's the case then I'm in the wrong place and around the wrong crowd. Every time I see this stunt I have to cringe and squint my eyes just a little because I can imagine being in their positions and just feel the pain of a bunch of small rubber balls blasting against my skin. (In the wrong context, that last sentence is hilarious, anyways..)

    But, alas, this stunt in my brain is the full monty; fear, pain, comedy.. what else did you order here? Bam, Knoxville, and Dunn were always at the top of my favorite cast member totem poll in terms of being able to participate or do the harshest and craziest stunts in Jackass history. They stamped their stunt resume sheets with this Riot Control Test business.

1. Shopping Cart Opener - Jackass: The Movie (2002)

    Ah, of course. My number one favorite Jackass stunt just so happens to be the iconic opening scene to the first Jackass movie where the entire cast hill bombs on a shopping cart while getting blasted with debris, dust, dirt, and rocks. So iconic in fact, that it became the worldwide theatrical poster, and VHS/DVD cover you most definitely saw nearly twenty years ago at your local movie rental place. This movie at the time of its release, especially the home video releases, sparked a pop culture phenomenon that years afterword if anyone around you talked about it and you hadn't seen it, they'd look stunned at you and say, "You mean to tell me that you haven't seen that movie where that guy shoves a toy car up his ass? What about that part where that guy took a shit in the hardware store toilet?"

    And to me, as a very very very young kid, this is what started it all for me. Thank God my grandma bought that DVD for Rayden, but still pissed off about 18 years later it really wasn't cool for my cousin to take it away. I caught it on Comedy Central years later (after I had already seen Jackass Number Two) and even though it was censored and their were commercials, I loved every minute of it and because I was a cry baby as a kid my parents actually caved in and bought it for me for Christmas I think about two years or so after I had seen it on Comedy Central.

    So there you have it, my top 10 favorite Jackass stunts (from the movies). I wish I could understand why I enjoy Jackass so much but I probably never will and I doubt anything could ever make me hate Jackass. The only thing Jackass related that I kind of hate a lot is this part in either Steve-O Vol. 2 or Steve-O: Out On Bail, that didn't involve Steve-O or anyone from Jackass at all, but some punk ass with a skateboard trying to be funny bashes some guy over the head with his skateboard, even after the dude falls to the ground. The nuts on that man though... He still got up and continued to walk towards the punk ass with the skateboard to try and settle it. What a boss. Whoever that skater dude is though, he's a dumb fuck.