Jackass: Why Johnny Knoxville Regrets One Infamously Unaired Prank
While every generation of teens has at least one show that their parents definitely don't want them watching, one of the most extreme has to be "Jackass." The reality series follows a group of young men who undertake increasingly ridiculous and dangerous stunts, many of which went on to be imitated by the show's impressionable young viewers.
However, there are the occasional pranks that even the cast members themselves regretted participating in. "I put on a prison-orange jumpsuit and get handcuffed and get my hair all dirty and my face full of mud," the show's star Johnny Knoxville recalled on an episode of "Steve-O's Wild Ride!" "And I go in the hardware store out of breath, and I'm like, 'Oh, can you help me get these off?'"
Though the prank would naturally be amusing in hindsight, it wasn't nearly as funny on the day the "Jackass" star attempted it. "It got a huge reaction, and four or five carloads of cops show up, and they all have their guns out," Knoxville said. "[Series co-creator] Spike [Jonze] and [fellow cast member] Jeff [Tremaine] are like, 'What do we do? Do we take off, or...?'"Â Knoxville shared that it wasn't just because law enforcement came that he regretted this "Jackass" stunt, though. It was also because the prank led to the arrest of one of the series' producers.
The outrageous prank led to an arrest but still held some humor
"One of our producers got arrested," Johnny Knoxville recalled. "Veena Mehta got arrested, and I regretted that because I was on the set. I was the one who should have got arrested, but I really didn't know how things worked."
While the situation got extremely tense when the police showed up, Steve-O did mention another moment that he thought was hilarious during the stunt. "The best footage was that one of the cops pulls up, screams into frame ..." Steve-O explained. "The cop gets out of their car but doesn't put it in park. So this cop jumps out of the car, and this cop car continues and crashes into a f***in' telephone pole."
Though there are countless "Jackass" pranks that fans can likely drum up as their favorites from the popular series, they would probably love to see this cut stunt nonetheless. Unfortunately, given that everyone involved seems to feel bad about it, it's unlikely we will ever get the chance to see the scene in full.