Johnny Knoxville Said This Was The Stunt That Made Steve-O Famous
Over the course of Steve-O's 22-year tenure with the "Jackass" franchise, fans have watched him complete countless life-threatening, painful, and just plain gross stunts for the sake of entertainment. From drinking a cup of Preston Lacy's sweat to wearing a toxic jellyfish as a hat to tight-roping over an alligator pit with raw meat in his underwear, Steve-O is always up for anything, no matter the risk.
His antics continue in "Jackass Forever," which made $23.5 million during its opening weekend February 4 (via /Film). Steve-O, Johnny Knoxville, and all of their friends are back for all-new hilarious and dangerous stunts in their sixth docu-comedy. The crew's first feature-length film, "Jackass: The Movie," was released in 2002, the same year as the MTV show of the same name — which catapulted their careers — came to an end.
Since the premiere of the series in 2000, Steve-O has built a name for himself as one of the craziest daredevils to appear on TV. Even after getting sober nearly 14 years ago (via AP News), the outrageousness continued. Now, at age 47, Steve-O is still pushing his body to the maximum limit. Though Knoxville applauded the "Jackass" cast for getting funnier with age, he credits a very early, often forgotten stunt with putting Steve-O on the map.
The goldfish stunt made Steve-O famous
In Johnny Knoxville's opinion, a stunt from Episode 2 of the TV series garnered Steve-O a following. A recent MTV interview (via YouTube) tied to "Jackass Forever" featured long-time cast members, including Knoxville and Steve-O, looking back at their memorable stunts. One of the clips they reviewed was "The Goldfish" stunt. In the scene, Steve-O is tasked with guzzling a cup of water and a living, breathing goldfish, and then bringing it all back up and into a fish bowl. Not only did he complete the challenge, but the goldfish is still alive and swimming after its unexpected journey into a human's digestive system. Steve-O reflected on how, at the time, Knoxville told him, "Well, Steve-O, if you're not already famous, I'd say you're gonna be now."
In a separate video on Steve-O's YouTube channel, the "Jackass" star elaborated on his fish-drinking adventure, which didn't go according to plan. He intended to drink a gallon of water to "create a safe environment for the fish" in his stomach and "make it super easy to puke it all out at one go." But the stunt was ready to be filmed before he could do so. "I just didn't have a lot of water in my stomach and that made it so that it took forever for me to get this thing up," said Steve-O, who actually gifted the regurgitated fish to a random passerby after cleaning the bowl and water.
Despite "The Goldfish" not happening as Steve-O wanted, Knoxville's prediction proved to be true. "Sure enough man, my life was 100 percent different as soon as that came out on MTV," he reflected.