On ‘Jackass Forever’the fourth and last official installment of the franchise that 20 years ago elevated to the category of cinematographic work the collection of jerks and idiot jokes output of the wildest program in the history of MTV, Johnny Knoxville and his gang of lunatics present themselves as a brute and kamikaze version of the protagonists of ‘Amici miei’ by Mario Monicelli: men in their fifties unable to give up one last bullshit and willing to pay a price for laughter.
But, alas, this time the price has been painfully high. During production, Knoxville, Steve-O, Wee-Man, Chris Pontius, and the rest of the insane ‘gang’ learned the starkest possible truth: with age, the body’s resistance to physical punishment decreases (and recovery time is lengthened). No other film in the series had caused as many serious injuries and hospital admissions as this last one, whose filming had to be interrupted earlier than planned for strictly medical reasons. On the occasion of the premiere of ‘Jackass Forever’, we review here some of the most serious (and stupid) mishaps occurred in the very checkered history of the franchise.
Break your ass. Literally
Brandon Cole ‘Bam’ Margera he was already a pro skater accustomed to falls and fractures when he joined the ‘Jackass’ troupe. He immediately stood out as one of the gang members with a less developed survival instinct. In the fourth episode of the second season of the series, Margera participated in a suicide wheelbarrow race down a slope and suffered a spectacular accident that resulted in a coccyx fracture. Despite the severity of the injury, Margera’s main concern was that in the x-ray the silhouette of his penis was clearly visible. Thanks to the unexpected endorsement of MTV, those responsible for ‘Jackass’ were able to exhibit the image without censorship to the mortification of the affected person, who assured again and again that the X-ray did not show “the complete package.”
Boxing is not for everyone
Johnny Knoxville thought it would be funny to challenge a professional boxer to a fight in one of the gags from the first ‘Jackass’ movie (2002). The first option was Mike Tyson, but the former world champion declined the offer, so the assignment fell to Eric Esch aka Butterbean, a mass of 170 kilos known for the brutality of his punch. The fight, which took place in a clothing store (and can be seen here), lasted just a few seconds, long enough for Butterbean to knock down Knoxville twice, opening a hole in his head that required several stitches and causing a concussion as a result of which the actor suffered from permanent vertigo for several weeks. Still, Knoxville didn’t lose its sense of humor; Just after regaining consciousness after the chilling KO, he had the nerve to ask the camera: “Is Butterbean okay? & rdquor ;.
The dangers of the horse
The ending scene of ‘Jackass 2: Even More’ (2006) is a sophisticated number that, in its raunchy way, pays homage to the great Hollywood musicals. The ‘Oklahoma!’ consists of a shot of Johnny Knoxville, Bram Margera and Ryan Dunn dressed as cowboys and singing; the last two have their feet tied to a rope; at the other end of the rope, a horse. As Knoxville spurs the animal on and it starts to run, Margera and Dunn are thrown out of frame. Hilarious. What is not seen is that Ryan Dunn fell in a very bad position and the consequent muscular injury caused him a life-threatening blood clot. He had to undergo surgery and, as a result of the treatment, fell into a depression that kept him away from the ‘Jackass’ gang for a couple of years. In June 2011, Dunn was in a car accident when he was driving his Porsche 911 at over 140 miles per hour after drinking. He died instantly.
the evil motorcycle
In 2008, the ‘Jackass’ gang participated in a tribute to legendary stunt pilot Evel Knievel. Johnny Knoxville was not scheduled to appear on camera, but seeing that everyone seemed to be having a great time, he insisted on attempt to perform a back somersault on a motorcycle. That he had barely ridden a motorcycle before did not seem to be an obstacle. The culmination of a series of failed attempts, Knoxville let go of the bike’s handlebars too soon and the bike, after rising several feet, went to fall right on top of his crotch. “I hope this is pee and not blood & rdquor ;, was his first comment. Diagnosis: urethral rupture. For months, the actor had to use a catheter to urinate.
kaffir dentistry
You know that home dentistry technique that involves extracting a loose tooth by tying it to a door with a string? Well, the team ‘Jackass 3D’ (2010) decided to go a step further and tie, with an extraordinarily strong fishing line, one of Ehren McGhehey’s incisors to the back of a Lamborghini. What should have been a simple extraction turned out to be a very serious injury. Although hardly visible in the film footage, his tooth was so firmly implanted that the brutal pull caused McGhehey serious internal damage, with skull fracture included. Of course, his tooth ended up giving way.
This never happened to Mary Poppins
We continue in ‘Jackass 3D’. One of the ‘gags’ of the film consisted of reproducing an old ad for Maxell cassette tapes in which a guy was shaken by the hurricane power of the music. Here it was about recreating it to the beast -this is ‘Jackass’!-, placing the specialist Ryan Dunn right behind the rear engine of a jet plane. Once the scene was shot, the boys in the band wanted to take advantage of the presence of the plane to continue being a bit of an idiot. The one who came out worse off was the singer-songwriter Loomis Fallwhich attempted to use the force of the engine’s exhaust gases to perform a Mary Poppins flight hanging from an umbrella. But instead of gracefully rising, he shot out like a cigarette in a cyclone and landed awkwardly. When he got up by his own foot, Fall had a broken collarbone and several hand bones.
The ultimate onslaught
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stand in front of a bull for the sole purpose of being rammed funny on camera was one of Johnny Knoxville’s favorite pastimes. In ‘Jackass Forever’ he did it for the last time. After being run over several times by an imposing but not spectacularly ferocious bovid, the actor wanted to do a more spectacular new take, this time facing a ruthless bull named Pecker Wrecker. The least that can be said about Pecker Wrecker’s performance is that he lived up to it. After meeting him, Knoxville was admitted to the hospital with a brain bleed, a severe concussion, a broken rib, and a broken wrist, and did not recover his cognitive abilities for two or three months. The shooting of the film was completed ahead of schedule. The Pecker Wrecker bull finished off ‘Jackass’.