Jackass Stunts The Cast Refused To Film
"Jackass" is a stunt franchise so wild, so dangerous, and so popular that it has stood the test of time. All programs within the "Jackass" cinematic universe seem designed to defy death, physics, and common sense itself. Since its 2000 debut, multiple "Jackass" TV shows and movies have been made, countless injuries have been sustained, and times have been changing — and so have the Jackasses themselves.
Johnny Knoxville, the sparkliest star in the "Jackass" skies, even swore off serious stunts after he suffered a severe brain injury during the filming of "Jackass Forever." In 2023, Knoxville told Fortune, "I can do little stunts where if I, you know, break a hand or an ankle or whatever, no one cares about that. I just can't — no more concussions for me."
Still, It took Knoxville 23 years of "Jackass" to swear off concussions. In the meantime, he and most of his fellow stunt cast spent years finding very few stunts too stupid or life-threatening to attempt. Knoxville has admitted to Entertainment Weekly that "At the end of the 'Jackass' TV show, I think, we lost all our insurance. So that wasn't great." Considering the stunts the "Jackass" crew willingly lost their insurance for, which ones did they actually turn down? Put on the nearest safety harness (or don't) and read on for "Jackass" stunts the cast refused to film.
No ifs, ands, or butts
Stunt regrets from Steve-O are always going to be interesting. This is a man whose name puts smiles onto prank-loving faces and strikes fear into insurance agents' hearts. His memoir is even titled "A Hard Kick in the Nuts: What I've Learned from a Lifetime of Terrible Decisions." But amidst all the things he was willing to do on camera, he refused to let a toy car drive up his own exit ramp.
While shooting "Jack-Ass: The Movie," Steve-O turned down the chance to shove a toy car up his bum on camera. Ryan Dunn took over the too-fast, too-furious prank duties in Steve-O's stead.
In an interview with All Things Comedy, Steve-O claims he turned the prank down because his dad was bothered by the nature of the stunt. Steve-O admits that it's the first time he turned a stunt down, and even in the interview years later, it's clear from his wistful tone that he regrets not letting this prank ride.
Don't flip out
Doing a simple flip off a high-dive at a YMCA Olympic pool would never be prank enough for one of the "Jackass" boys. This is why, during the early days of filming the "Jackass" TV show, Steve-O was supposed to do a flip off a high-dive at a YMCA Olympic pool while completely shaved of all body hair — and wearing stilts.
From this YouTube clip he posted about his stunts, Steve-O clearly didn't turn down his shave and a haircut. But the high-dive stilted flip proved to be too tall an order — at least at first. Steve-O chickened out of the flip at the last second, and did a straight jump into the pool instead.
While many would think jumping into a not-so-bottomless pool with giant wooden leg extenders is extreme enough, Steve-O admits in the clip that Johnny Knoxville called him out for not flipping. Steve-O was able to flip into the pool on his second stunt attempt, proving to himself he could actually do it — and that peer pressure works.
Castle in the sky
During shooting for "Jackass 3D", the entire cast backed out of filming a stunt that would involve them sledding down a ski jump in an inflatable bouncy castle. They were apparently worried about the bouncy castle's generator crushing them to death. Wimps!
All joking aside, the bounce house stunt sounds terrifying to the non-stuntperson's ear. It even spooked the cast, especially because they would have such a low amount of control over safety within the bounce house itself. But even that wasn't exactly what stopped the cast from doing this stunt.
"Even though we hated the idea of our heads clashing together in the bounce house, we probably still would have done it," Steve-O says on his YouTube page. But the bounce house was kept inflated by a roughly 500-pound generator that would have to ride the slope behind them during the prank. "We just were not willing to have that generator land on us and crush us to death," Steve-O said, proving once again that in the face of some danger, even the bravest pranksters sometimes just have to bounce.
An eyebrow-raising stunt gets cut
It's surprising how infrequently face tattoos make an appearance in the "Jackass" media empire. One clear chance at face tattoo stunt magic was stolen from audiences during the shooting for "Jackass 4.5" for Netflix — and Steve-O seems to regret not taking it. Even more than he regrets letting an eagle rip out his eyebrows.
Here's how the stunt was supposed to go, according to Steve-O: An eagle rips out his eyebrows, then Post Malone would tattoo a member of the male anatomy to the healed skin left in the eyebrows' place. It's a clever take on the bald eagle, but sadly, hasn't happened yet.
As Steve-O describes on his YouTube page and his "Steve-O's Wild Ride!" podcast, at the last minute, Knoxville showed some restraint and insisted there was already too much eggplant-shaped humor in the movie. And so, the stunt was abandoned, and Steve-O's forehead was saved. Hopefully, if Steve-O scrapes off any skin during another stunt, Post Malone's tattoo schedule stays open.
Bad vibes only
Too much body part humor isn't the only thing that makes the "Jackass" cast back out of a stunt. Sometimes saying no to a stunt is merely a matter of good taste. Johnny Knoxville once told reporters he called off a ski stunt because a skier died on the same slope earlier in the day. While the skier's death was unrelated to the "Jackass 3-D" filming that was underway, Knoxville and his cast wanted to show some respect.
"You know the only time that we won't do a stunt or I won't do a stunt is if there's a negative vibe going around the set and it just kind of puts a dark blanket over everything and then I'll just say, 'Let's not do it. Let's not do it today.'" Knoxville told U-Wire when discussing the canceled stunt in 2010.
Knoxville also realized there were additional bad vibes surrounding the possible stunt site, and added that the ski slope, "was on the same mountain the Donner families cannibalized themselves on. We were getting ready to do a big stunt and it just felt weird. We called it off but that is super, super rare."
Binder? I hardly know her
Even though Johnny Knoxville thought "Jackass 4.5" had too many genitalia jokes to have Steve-O tattoo some to his face, Knoxville had no qualms about stuffing some delicate male body parts into a three-ring binder for the thrill of it all.
Of course, Knoxville didn't want to throw his own man bits in the slammer – he wanted Steve-O to do this stunt, which brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "Trapper Keeper." Seriously, how does Knoxville come up with this stuff? Does he let his imagination run wild while shopping for school supplies? He really might have missed his calling as a designer of medieval torture devices.
According to Steve-O's YouTube Page, Knoxville pitched Steve-O the idea of snapping his little Steve-Os in a binder's soul-piercing rings. While Steve-O has surely performed some stunts as painful or even more painful than this, he was able to refuse the stunt using Knoxville's own rationale: there was already way too much genitalia humor in the movie. Don't let anyone tell you those "Jackass" boys don't have a touch of class — especially when it comes down to literally saving their own skin.
Don't hang in there
Who among us hasn't wished to fly through the skies on a contraption fashioned from sticks, dreams, and a whole lot of hubris of man? Like us and Icarus before him, Steve-O was set to take a flying leap off the nearest hill on a homemade hang glider during the filming of "Jackass 2". The stunt did not go well. In fact, it didn't go at all.
Steve-O is filled with regret over that fact. He describes in a YouTube video that the hang glider build took all day, and a king's ransom of bamboo, tarps, and, from the looks of it, the skill of at least one person who won their grade school Egg Drop.
Still, despite the investment of time and glue invested in Steve-O's hang glider stunt, Steve-O ultimately got too scared to take flight. "I wimped out so bad, man," Steve-O says on his YouTube page, adding: "Kinda running down a hill was the closest I got to any footage. It was pathetic!" Steve-O has actually expressed such regret at not taking wing with this stunt, that we wouldn't be surprised if one day he attempted it again. You know what, now that we think about it, Steve-O would make a great host for Red Bull's Flugtag competition.
Hunka hunk of burning nope
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and Steve-O usually took the road more stunted on. However, for all the wild stunts of Steve-O's career, he is deeply regretful of so many less-traveled stunt roads left untaken. Steve-O can't be the only "Jackass" cast member haunted by regret, but unsurprisingly for his personality, he is the most vocal.
During the filming of "Jackass 2" in India, Steve-O couldn't bring himself to pedal a unicycle across a balance beam stretched over a bed of burning hot coals. But really, who among us could? And who could blame him for chickening out?
Steve-O, of course, blames Steve-O. "I couldn't fully commit both feet to the pedals. I wimped out just so bad. That one kills me the most," Steve-O says on his YouTube page, clearly wishing he could get a redo on the stunt. Is a "Stranger Things" spin-off doing any casting? Maybe Steve-O will get his chance to redeem himself on this stunt while riding around in The Upside Down.
Don't jump
"We change, but 'Jackass stays the same,'" Johnny Knoxville told NME in 2022 during a retrospective interview. While fresh blood (literally and figuratively) was brought into "Jackass" in the form of a new cast by then, Knoxville and Steve-O still do stunts with the outfit. And whether they have new concerns or old fears, Knoxville pointed out that Steve-O used to have a big stunt no-no: Bungee jumping.
"Steve-O, who will let you put a hook in his mouth, swim up the ocean, and then cast him out to sea to catch a shark with his body, you can do that to him, but we tried to get him to bungee jump and he was like, "F you dude, I'm not doing it.'"
It's wild that of all the dangerous stunts Steve-O has pulled for "Jackass" and his other work over the years, the one stunt that would really freak him out is performed by amateur thrill seekers all the time. It's almost charming that Steve-O would refuse to jump from a great height using a relatively safe cord and harness system considering he has literally used himself as human shark bait.
Jumping anyway
Only on "Jackass" could bungee jumping in a Porta Potty full of fecal matter be a sign of personal growth. After years of legendarily refusing bungee jumping and skydiving stunts for "Jackass," Steve-O decided to take a real leap of faith while filming the "Poo Cocktail Supreme" stunt for "Jackass 3D." The "Poo Cocktail Supreme" stunt involves rollercoasters, bungee jumping, and yes — poo.
Steve-O got sober in 2008, and maintained sobriety while shooting 2010's "Jackass 3D." He told Thrillist that when they were shooting the film, he felt a need to prove to himself and his cast that he could still be a funny daredevil, even without substances. He also admitted he felt a renewed interest in not dying or risking paralysis for stunts.
"I think it was the first time where I felt like I actually had something to lose, you know? I had a future to look out for," Steve-O told Thrillist. So while Steve-O initially refused stunts like this, the "Poo Cocktail Supreme," somehow designed to be supremely safe, proved to the world that Steve-O is a survivor — as well as a complete maniac.
Aw, nuts
Clearly, even when the "Jackass" cast initially refuses a stunt, never doesn't necessarily mean never. In fact, most of their refused stunts end up getting pulled eventually — whether that takes years or their change of heart happens in a matter of minutes. The latter is the case with "The Cup Test" stunt in "Jackass Forever."
The stunt relies on one of comedy's golden rules — getting hit below the belt is always funny. "Jackass" cast member Ehren McGhehey was slated to get hit in the balls as many times and in as many ways as humanly possible, all while wearing a protective cup. Objects, hands, and other forces of destruction would be applied to McGheyey's bits with varying levels of force. Hilarity would ensue. McGhehey was on board with this stunt — until he took one look at the lightweight boxer designated to punch him repeatedly in the junk.
"All of a sudden, Francis turns the corner and he's huge," director Jeff Tremaine tells MovieMaker. "He is physically scary. And Ehren was like, 'No.'" Well, eventually, McGheyey was like, "Yes." He took the hits for the stunt in a way that seems endless, making us all feel like we need an ice pack.
Well, shoot
We've talked about stunts the "Jackass" cast refused to do, but what about the stunts that refused the "Jackass" cast? This stunt comes from way back when "Jackass" was merely a glimmer in the wild eyes of Johnny Knoxville. Knoxville wanted to make a name for himself by doing a stunt called "Self Defense," which would feature him testing different weapons on himself while wearing protective gear. But no one would agree to fire the handgun into Knoxville's questionably safe, bargain basement Kevlar vest.
Steve-O told The Hollywood Reporter, "Nobody was willing to do that because they didn't want to be the one who killed him. So he's in the footage, turning the gun on himself, and he's saying, 'Man, I wish somebody would shoot me.'" Knoxville did end up shooting himself. Of course, he lived to tell the tale — and start a lucrative franchise.
But why was Knoxville so willing to take such a risk? Because, as he tells The Hollywood Reporter, "My then-girlfriend got pregnant, and I was like, 'I've got to do something quick.' And this was my best guess." "Jackass" was born from such madness. Talk about shooting your shot.
Bye-bye, big stunts
No matter how safe the stunts may be (sort of) or how fearless the daredevils are, even the "Jackass" cast is not invincible. After getting a brain hemorrhage while shooting "Jackass Forever," Knoxville publicly retired from serious danger.
After getting slammed into by a bull, Knoxville suffered serious cognitive damage and depression, per this interview with Howard Stern. The treatments and therapies Knoxville had to endure after the injury sound effective but extensive. While Knoxville admits he is now able to discuss his "attraction to danger," as Stern describes it, as a self-worth issue with his therapist, he knows he no longer wants to endanger his life.
"I knew going into this movie that this was going to be the last time I was going to do big stunts because I've got kids and I've had so many injuries. I feel like I could go out good in this film by being my last with big stunts. I've got nothing left to prove in that area," Knoxville tells NME about "Jackass Forever." What exactly qualifies as a "big stunt," coming from the mouth of the ultimate daredevil? It's hard to say — but we're sure his wife, kids, and possibly even his "Jackass" co-stars are relieved.