Top 20 Jackass Stunts Gone WRONG

“Jackass” (2000-07) “Jackass” star Johnny Knoxville revealed the story behind this injury during a 2019 interview with Vanity Fair’s YouTube Channel. This one goes all the way back to when the “Jackass” crew were shooting the pilot episode of their television series. While Knoxville was on roller skates, he attempted to jump over a small section of the L.A. River. It…did not go according to plan. Knoxville took a very ungraceful dive into the water and later emerged with a broken ankle for his trouble. While this stunt may have gone wrong, it was just the beginning. Over the years, Johnny would go for more dangerous stunts and have even worse injuries.

#19: Little Red Wagon & BB Gun

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Top 10 Jackass Stunts Gone Wrong

“Jackass” (2000-07) & “Jackass 3D” (2010) Unfortunately, Steve-O didn’t even immediately get to enjoy the fruits of his pain with these two stunts. Neither of them actually aired near the time they were shot. Fortunately, footage later emerged of these painful stunts in 2016. In one clip, Steve-O takes a perilous fall in a little red wagon. An encounter with concrete caused him to lose some skin on his posterior. This unaired clip was paired with another painful stunt. While Steve-O got some pushback, he decided to try and shoot his nipple with a BB Gun. The round from that shot went on to be lodged inside of him for his trouble.

#18: Extreme Fails

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“Jackass: The Movie” (2002) Skating legend Tony Hawk and pro BMX legend Mat Hoffman joined Bam Margera for this sequence from “Jackass: The Movie.” The trio are set up in super-sized suits and attempt to work their athletic magic as best they can while on wheels. Admittedly, the final result is fairly impressive. But not everything goes according to plan. During the shoot, Hoffman takes a dive and ends up being knocked unconscious. He woke up with a broken wrist for his trouble. While the participants on the stunt looked cushioned, Hoffman wasn’t protected from the impact. So like many “Jackass” stunts, don’t try this at home.

#17: The Bungee Wedgie

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“Jackass: The Movie” (2002) This is one of the only instances on this list where a stunt going wrong for the “Jackass” crew actually might have ended up being a good thing. From the start, building a “Bungee Wedgie” that hangs from a tree didn’t really sound like a 100 percent solid idea. Even “Jackass: The Movie” director Jeff Tremaine can be seen on camera wondering whether or not it will work. As Raab soon finds out, it doesn't. When he jumps from a tree branch into the apparatus, he just sort of, well, falls. No wedgie. But Raab did wind up naked, so at least there’s…that?

“Jackass: The Movie” (2002) If you own the home video release to “Jackass: The Movie,” then you’ve likely seen the footage that turned Steve-O’s “Poo River Pole Vaulting” into the eventual “Tropical Pole Vaulting” skit. Here, the raw (pardon the pun) footage showcases Steve pole-vaulting clear into a very gross section of liquid waste and sewage. All manner of sludge can be seen floating in the water. Since Steve-O takes a deep and nasty dive into the stuff, it wasn’t surprising to hear there were consequences. He apparently ended up developing a serious infection after the stunt. Who knew that falling in that would be a bad idea?

“Jackass Presents: Mat Hoffman's Tribute to Evel Knievel” (2008) This injury is yet another one Johnny Knoxville recalls during the aforementioned video for Vanity Fair. Here, the Jackass is seeking to backflip a motorbike like the pop culture daredevil, Evel Knievel. Everything seems to be going relatively ok during the first few tries. But on the final attempt, the bike shoots high up into the air. It ends up falling between Johnny’s legs. Understandably, Knoxville was left dazed from this extremely painful blow. Supportive cast members immediately ran to his attention. While Knoxville gets up under his own power, the stunt mishap left him with a torn urethra. It took nearly four years of life with a catheter before he was back at 100 percent.

“Jackass Forever” (2022) “Jackass Forever” wasn’t the first time our favorite knuckleheads played with a bull and got the horns. However, it will likely be their last. Actually, make that definitely their last, at least where Johnny Knoxville is concerned. He told Howard Stern in 2022 that the impact was “the worst I’ve taken from a bull, or maybe period.” Knoxville was out immediately after getting hit. He further revealed that the incident left him with brain damage. Knoville’s injuries were so severe, that he had to take medication to deal with the mental side effects. It’s definitely understandable why he wouldn’t face down another bull after that.

“Jackass Forever” (2022) Shot for “Jackass Forever”, the injury that resulted from this stunt-gone-wrong didn’t make it into the final cut of the film. That’s probably a good thing considering the consequences Steve-O suffered. He revealed during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he ended up with a broken collarbone from an unspecified stunt. According to the stuntman, screws were required to keep him together in the wake of the deleted injury. This was unfortunately not the first time Steve-O had injured this area of his body. A clip from the 2001 “Don’t Try This At Home” video showcases him getting a similar injury with similarly painful results.

“Jackass Forever” (2022) 2022’s “Jackass Forever” proved that aging didn’t make any of the core crew and their friends more careful. While the “Marching Band” segment looks silly enough on the surface, it left people with resounding pain. Although the costumes and instruments look like they were tons of fun, it got a lot less amusing after they started taking turns jumping on a giant treadmill. Once anyone dares to step on the device, it sends them rocketing into the ground with no protection. Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O seemed to get the worst of it by suffering some scary blows to their head and neck regions. However, anyone trying to run through this stunt was destined to faceplant.

#11: Another Cup Test

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“Jackass Forever” (2022) “Jackass” member Ehren McGhehey didn’t originally try the Cup Test stunt during the original series. Back then, Johnny Knoxville had to endure some severe trauma to his nether regions. While he didn’t have to get stretchered out after administering the Cup Test, Ehren sadly wasn’t so lucky. It was bad enough when UFC fighter Francis Ngannou was tasked with hitting the stuntman below the belt with a powerful punch. However, the worst of it came when McGhehey sustained a blow from a pogo stick. That blow sent him to the hospital with reports that something delicate had been ruptured. In the future, we hope that part of the cup test is cut from the exam.

#10: The Toro Totter

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“Jackass Number Two” (2006) Playing with bulls is no joke. The Toro Totter saw Knoxville, Pontius, Dunn, and Bam on a four-way seesaw. A bull was then released into the ring, prompting them to dodge the raging animal by raising and lowering the seesaw. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for the stunt to go off the rails. Dunn fell off and was immediately chased by the bull, who proceeded to slam into his back. Bam bailed without his partner and Pontius fell off not long after, leaving Knoxville all by himself with the violent animal. He was thrown around like a ragdoll, and it’s a miracle that he didn’t get seriously hurt. You know it’s bad when Pontius isn’t laughing and Steve-O is covering his mouth in shocked concern.

“Jackass” (2000-02) The show is positively tame when compared to the movies, but the cast still saw their fair share of injuries. Case in point - Bucket Cars. This stunt saw Bam and his buddies riding down a hill in wheelbarrow-like carts and going off ramps. Bam was pushed off a shoddy-looking wooden ramp and flew out of the cart, with his back landing on the hard lip on the way down. His pain was obvious, and he immediately declared that his tailbone was broken. Dunn, ever the great friend, simply laughs it off and makes a quip about humans not needing tailbones anymore. Bam’s immediate diagnosis was right, as the footage then cuts to him in the hospital receiving a rather crude x-ray depicting his broken tailbone.

#8: Jet Engine

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“Jackass 3D” (2010) Here, we have the infamous jet engine stunt from “Jackass 3D”. The premise was simple in execution, but definitely not in budget - stand behind a jet’s powerful exhaust and do silly things, like try to catch a football traveling at mach-10. Or hold an umbrella and jump off a trampoline. That is exactly what Loomis Fall did, and it resulted in a pretty nasty injury. Director Jeff Tremaine told MTV that Fall broke both his hand and collarbone performing the stunt. It’s definitely one of the more serious injuries that a “Jackass” performer has ever endured, which isn’t exactly surprising given the nature of the stunt.

#7: Keep God Out of California

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“Jackass Number Two” (2006) Sometimes a prank fails before it even gets off the ground. In this case, quite literally. “Jackass Number Two” looked to resurrect the popular “Keep God Out of California” prank from the show, which sees Pontius dressed as the Devil and walking through crowded streets while proclaiming his hate for God. The bit begins hilariously enough, with Pontius being launched out of a hole. However, he landed on his head and the skit sort of just fell apart. Pontius wasn’t very committed to the bit, slurred words, and stumbled around while mistaking the number of states. In the end, he simply stated that he was “f-ed” before walking away, ending the skit after thirty seconds.

“Jackass” (2000-02) Skateboarding is dangerous enough. Never mind blindfolded skateboarding. Danger Ehren rides through a skate park while blindfolded and wearing a stunt suit, and while he continually falls, he suffers no serious injuries. That is, until he decides to drop-in on a 4-foot vertical ramp. He doesn’t so much ride the ramp as he does fall straight to the ground, his full weight bearing down on his right arm. The kids’ audible gasps say it all. The footage then cuts to Ehren recovering from the fall, his reddened hand physically twitching. Ehren credits it to “the nerves in [his] hand” going haywire. Whatever is causing it, a twitching limb cannot be good.

#5: Golf Cart Antics

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“Jackass: The Movie” (2002) The first movie was significantly crazier than the show, and it didn’t take long to prove it. One of the first bits was Golf Cart Antics, which saw Knoxville, Bam, Dunn, and Brandon DiCamillo riding golf carts around an abandoned course and performing goofy stunts. Dunn decided to drive over a pig statue, but it ended up flipping the cart and sending both him and Knoxville crashing to the ground. Knoxville got it the worst, as he was caught inside the cart and landed on his head. Luckily, and somehow, he was not seriously injured in the crash.

#4: The Brand

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“Jackass Number Two” (2006) The concept of The Brand is simple - Dunn heats up a phallus-shaped branding iron and pushes it into Bam’s butt cheek, leaving behind a funny imprint. Unfortunately, Dunn proves way too cautious and Bam jumps around too much, resulting in a slew of different shapes and figures. Dunn ends up branding Bam four different times, much to Bam’s pain and frustration. Furthermore, the brand ended up giving Bam a nasty infection. When he ends up showing his mother three days later, she’s so shocked that we’ll spare you the gory images. There was really no winning here.

“Jackass: The Movie” (2002) For the first movie, Johnny Knoxville decided to take on professional boxer Butterbean inside a random department store. Butterbean has been professionally boxing since 1994, weighs over 370 pounds, and has 58 wins by knockout under his belt. Knoxville is Knoxville. The fight goes as well as one would expect. It lasts mere seconds and ends with Knoxville unconscious, quite literally snoring on the ground.. It left him truly dazed, and he can barely comprehend what he’s seeing upon waking up. Knoxville later told GQ that he suffered a concussion and experienced vertigo for some time after the fight. At least it gave us one of the all-time great Knoxville lines - “Is Butterbean OK?”

#2: Big Red Rocket

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“Jackass Number Two” (2006) One of the most memorable stunts in “Jackass” history, the Big Red Rocket failed through no fault of a stuntman’s own. Rather, Knoxville was nearly taken out via an unfortunate mechanical failure. The rocket exploded while taking off, sending a piece of shrapnel hurling out the side and into the water. As Knoxville later shows, the shrapnel was mere inches away from his chest, with a few degrees here making all the difference. Luckily, Knoxville takes it all in stride, even laughing after telling the camera what the outcome could’ve been.

#1: The Finale

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Top 20 Jackass Injuries You ACTUALLY See in the Movie

“Jackass Number Two” (2006) The closing number of “Jackass Number Two” resulted in a slew of accidents and injuries. Preston Lacy was hurt after flying 20 feet into a camera stand. (xref) Knoxville was crushed by a prop building after panicking and moving away from the cut-out window. But perhaps the worst fate befell Ryan Dunn. Dunn and Bam were yanked off their feet by a horse, and Dunn injured his shoulder in the landing. The injury resulted in a life-threatening blood clot, as the clot was situated near his heart and brain. The treatment and stress caused Dunn to become depressed, and he withdrew from the public eye for multiple years. It showcases both the physical and mental toll that “Jackass” has taken on its stars.