The new Jackass feature film is spectacularly shitty - in an awesomely gross kind of way. And because it's shot in 3D, the excrement literally comes flying right at you, giving the MTV-rooted franchise the opportunity to connect with its audience in a whole new, and yet familiarly meaningless way.
I don't mean that disrespectfully - it's just that it's important not to overthink things when it comes to Jackass's intentionally lowbrow brand of entertainment. Creators Johnny Knoxville, Spike Jonze and Jeff Tremaine, and cast members Steve-O, Bam Margera, Chris Pontius and Dave England have been doing silly stunts for shits and giggles - and increasingly large amounts of cash - for a decade now, and the interplay between the beloved faces is as important as the feces and flying dildos. It's this timeless male bonding, which appears evident and genuine on screen, that's perhaps the key to Jackass's popularity, longevity and charm. As Steve-o succinctly puts it, "The chemistry definitely makes it work."
SuicideGirls spoke with professional pranksters Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O by phone this past weekend about the secrets of Jackass 3-D's undeniable allure.
Nicole Powers: I noticed that Jackass 3-D has got over 2 million followers on Facebook.
Johnny Knoxville: Oh, that's good.
NP: SuicideGirls have got just under 1 million and you guys have got 2 million, which means twice as many people want to see you guys naked.
JK: That's just filthy. That's just absolutely filthy.
NP: You should be very proud.
JK: Yeah. We're bringing male nudity back.
NP: This movie, it's kind of homoerotic. Kind of like 300 - but not.
JK: Kind of? Don't you mean a lot?
NP: Well, I think more people get hurt in this movie.
JK: Yeah, we do take our lumps.
NP: How are you currently feeling?
JK: I'm recovered pretty good from shooting. We stopped shooting back in early August, so I'm pretty much healed up.
NP: What was the worst injury that you sustained during shooting?
JK: On this one I had a concussion, whiplash, dislocated shoulder, stitches in my hand and I had my molar knocked out by a dildo bazooka.
NP: I was watching Letterman, and I saw you point to where your tooth got knocked out. It was really far back. I mean, I understand how a front tooth might get knocked out by a flying dildo, but how do you explain a tooth that far back?
JK: I'll tell you how I explain it. Spike had them load an air cannon with all these dildos and turned it up full blast and put it four feet from me.
NP: I just figured it might be some off camera dildo action that was really responsible for that.
JK: No. It was in the last bit where the bowl of dicks blew up in my face and they had some from the side come in and take me out. I was shocked at how hard they hit me. I was disappointed, but I wasn't surprised. Actually I wasn't disappointed. I think it's funny.
NP: I mean this in the nicest possibly way, but this is probably your shittiest movie yet isn't it?
JK: Not really. It's probably our movie with the least amount of disgusting stuff in it.
NP: But there's a lot of actual shit quantity wise?
JK: Well, in the two scenes where there is poo poo, there is a lot. But other than that, it's our least disgusting film.
NP: I was trying to figure out; how do you prepare for the poop volcano stunt? That was pretty impressive projectile poop.
JK: Oh, the Poocano.
NP: Yeah, the Poocano. Even with my worst case of stomach flu, I've never achieved that level of projectability.
JK: He ate a lot of awful, awful, awful stuff. Like, he knows the stuff that makes him really...He's a professional, first of all.
NP: A professional pooper.
JK: Yeah, he is a professional pooper. No one else can poop or Dave England gets mad. He ate a bunch of horrible stuff and right before we shot, [Chris] Pontius stuck an enema in him and they said, "And rolling!"
NP: How do you come up with the ideas for these stunts?
JK: I usually write my ideas in the morning. I just sit at home and think of bad stuff to do to me and my friends, and then I'll write it down. Or sometimes I'll draw really crude drawings, a stick figure drawing of something bad. Then, Jeff and I, we've shared an office for 10 years, we just go back and forth telling each other ideas, trading drawings and giggling.
NP: This is a theatrical release with an "R" rating. What restrictions did you experience when you were figuring out what you could include in the movie?
JK: We had more cock in it, but we had to take some of the cock out to get an R rating.
NP: How did you decide what cock to leave in and what cock to take out?
JK: Well, I don't like taking any cock out. But you turn in the first pass of the movie to the MPA and they're like, "No, this is NC-17." They don't tell you specifically what's wrong, they'll just mention bit titles. So you're like, "Oh, well, what didn't they like? All they gave us was, "Cut the cock back a little on this scene," and then you keep trimming down and trimming down until they say yes.
NP: Sounds painful. I guess that means there's a lot of spare material for the DVD extras.
JK: Well we shot two movies worth of material and we have too much for a DVD extra, so we're coming out with a whole new DVD in January. 3.5 will be all of the great stuff that didn't make it.
NP: What's your favorite?
JK: There's a bit called "Incredible Nut Shots." You know online they have montages of great basketball shots people make? We did the same thing but with the nuts in place of the basketball. I did one nut shot off a Ferris wheel into a trampoline back into England's nuts. That one took about 9 hours. We did one off the Fourth Street Bridge into my nuts, which took 13 hours over 3 days to get. We did 30 nut shots, so imagine all the hours we spent just trying to hit each other in the nuts.
NP: I would imagine it's not particularly fun when you have to do retakes.
JK: Well, if you get hit in the nuts, if you get the shot, then you've got it. But if it's coming from 5 or 6 stories high and it hits you in the knee or the leg - that sucks because the basketball is going super fast then.
NP: There are nut shots a plenty in this movie. What cracks me up is when you're all standing around watching the guy that's going to get nutted - the nuttee so to speak - you all kind of cover your own nuts in sympathy. You'll be in the background cracking up and all your hands are sympathetically over your crotches even though yours may not be in peril in that particular shot.
JK: No, no, no. That's not sympathetic. That is protective. Just because the guy over there rolling around just got hit, that doesn't mean that you're not going to be targeted in two seconds.
NP: Is it a reflex action in day to day life at this point?
JK: Yeah. If I'm around anyone, I always cover my nuts.
NP: Are you covering them now?
JK: I was. [laughs] But for a completely different reason. Just joking.
NP: One of the most pleasant things about the movie is watching the camaraderie between all of the Jackass crew.
JK: Yeah. We give each other complete hell but we do love each other. Cast and crew, we've been together 10 years. I know it hurts sometimes, but we love it.
NP: When you stop, are you going to miss the pain? On some level, you've got to get a kick out of it.
JK: No, I don't really care about the pain. I don't miss it or really look forward to it. It's just part of it. I'm pretty indifferent to it.
NP: Can you imagine a career beyond pain and getting nutted?
JK: Getting nutted [laughs]. That sounds so nice with your accent.
NP: Anything sounds proper when someone from England says it.
JK: I know. It sounds great.
NP: What's next for you beyond the nut shots? I understand you've got some more serious movies planned for 2010/2011.
JK: Well, we released a couple of documentaries in 2010. Dickhouse TV did one, The Birth of Big Air, the documentary on Matt Hoffman, and Tribeca Films picked that up. We did another one on a crazy hillbilly family from West Virginia called The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia. Tribeca picked that one up too, so we're pretty psyched on both of those documentaries. I'm looking to start doing movies again and I'm looking at scripts right now.
***
Nicole Powers: I'm told we've got 10 minutes. Since there's no time for small talk, I'm going to launch straight into the shit shake (a.k.a. the "Poo Cocktail Supreme" - Steve-O's homage to Knoxville's original "Poo Cocktail" from Season 1, Episode 1). What were you thinking?
Steve-O: I don't know. I was just thinking that everyone had great footage and it was time for me to do something awesome. I really wanted to give it my best, you know. I didn't expect it to be pleasant. I expected it to be great and I think that's kind of how it turned out.
NP: I'm just sort of going through the logistics of that in my mind. How did you collect the poo?
SO: There's some weird business that collects dog poo. It was all dog poo.
NP: Oh, right. I was thinking that if that was cast and crew poo, from people you knew, that would be really weird.
SO: Yeah. I don't know. They weren't supposed to have human poo in there, but I'm pretty sure that some cast and crew felt like integrity was more important than rules, so I understand that it was dog poo and human poo.
NP: I'm sure Knoxville sneaked one in there.
SO: Yeah. [laughs] Yeah.
NP: How did you clean up after that?
SO: I jumped into a filthy lake. I showered later on that night I guess.
NP: What other stunts did you feel particularly pushed the bar for you personally?
SO: I don't know. Pushing the bar isn't really what it's all about. It's just doing stuff that's funny. If we're all laughing then that's how we know something is good. The purpose is to have a good time and laugh. We certainly did that. You've seen the movie yourself?
NP: I certainly have. Well, I saw about 90 percent of the movie. I must admit, there was about 10 percent that I couldn't watch.
SO: Right on. Everyone seems to really enjoy it.
NP: I was groaning and laughing at the same time.
SO: Yeah, that's about right...Are you from England?
NP: Yes. You grew up in England too right?
SO: I went to the American School in St. John's Wood. All four years in high school.
NP: A terribly civilized area. How did you go from St. John's Wood to shit shakes?
SO: I don't know. That's a good question. I'm not really sure.
NP: You're two years sober now - congratulations on that.
SO: Thank you.
NP: How has your outlook changed since you've been sober?
SO: I'd like to make a living being silly for as long as I can get away with it. That's got nothing to do with sobriety. I certainly didn't get sober because I had a problem of stapling my balls to my leg.
NP: Stapling your scrotum to your leg must work for you on some level beyond the paycheck.
SO: Yeah. I don't know. I always wanted to get a reaction.
NP: Well you got a reaction from the Louisiana police department. Didn't you get arrested?
SO: Yeah. I sure did. There's been a lot of celebrities that got arrested for felony obscenity and none of them got convicted.
NP: Your case was ultimately settled, wasn't it?
SO: Yeah. I felt like that one put me in the ranks with some real American heroes like Larry Flynt and Jim Morrison and Lenny Bruce.
NP: Well, congratulations on that. Talking of being in good company, I understand you're also a vegan now.
SO: That's right. I love being vegan.
NP: Why vegan as opposed to vegetarian?
SO: I don't know. It's so much healthier and just better in general for everything. As far as a compassionate lifestyle and [it being] healthy for me, for the planet and all the life on it, vegan is really the best way to go. It helps me a lot. I really believe that I'm doing something good for me and for everyone else every time I eat, you know.
NP: What else do you do to stay fit?
SO: I have two little dogs that I rescued and they keep me busy.
NP: Awe. What kind of dogs?
SO: One's a Chiweenie, a Chihuahua and Dachshund mix. And the other one is an American Eskimo mix. I'm just so in love with them. It's awesome. They definitely keep me active.
NP: I was noticing in the movie you had the disclaimer at the end that said some of the stunts were monitored by the Humane Society, and in the stunts that were monitored no animals were harmed.
SO: Yeah, you know, I'm glad you mentioned that. When we started filming the movie, I felt pretty conflicted about working with animals. I was really aware that it's sort of inconsistent with my lifestyle right now, to do stuff with animals.
I remember it was like the first week or two of filming, and we did that bit in that pen with the ram. My job was to play a trumpet and to have this ram charge with its horns into my nuts. My instincts kicked in and I kept reaching down with my hand, blocking this ram. Nothing that would hurt the ram, but reaching down...the ram was running into my hand.
That was in February. That was over 7 months ago, and my hand has still not healed. The tendons got so messed up. My hand should've probably fully recovered, but it hasn't. I feel like my hand's going to be messed up for the rest of my life.
Every time I shake someone's hand and they're some kind of a macho man dude - like they have something to prove with their strong handshake - it hurts like hell and injures my hand more. I don't think my hand is ever going to get better and I have that as a permanent reminder not to be cruel to animals. You are never going to see me mess with animals again. I don't know - I can't say never to anything. But today, it's not my intention to do anything with animals.
NP: It's funny that you mentioned that scene because that's the only scene that I felt that the animal might be in distress - just because the sound of the trumpet could have been painful.
SO: Yeah, I had permanent consequences from that - and I'm glad. Karma got me on that one. But, anyways, I've got to wrap it up...I do really appreciate you asking about being vegan, you know. That's something I really believe in. And being vegan, I can tell you, has benefited every single area of my life. It's a majorly big deal to me and I really appreciate you asking that.
I don't mean that disrespectfully - it's just that it's important not to overthink things when it comes to Jackass's intentionally lowbrow brand of entertainment. Creators Johnny Knoxville, Spike Jonze and Jeff Tremaine, and cast members Steve-O, Bam Margera, Chris Pontius and Dave England have been doing silly stunts for shits and giggles - and increasingly large amounts of cash - for a decade now, and the interplay between the beloved faces is as important as the feces and flying dildos. It's this timeless male bonding, which appears evident and genuine on screen, that's perhaps the key to Jackass's popularity, longevity and charm. As Steve-o succinctly puts it, "The chemistry definitely makes it work."
SuicideGirls spoke with professional pranksters Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O by phone this past weekend about the secrets of Jackass 3-D's undeniable allure.
Nicole Powers: I noticed that Jackass 3-D has got over 2 million followers on Facebook.
Johnny Knoxville: Oh, that's good.
NP: SuicideGirls have got just under 1 million and you guys have got 2 million, which means twice as many people want to see you guys naked.
JK: That's just filthy. That's just absolutely filthy.
NP: You should be very proud.
JK: Yeah. We're bringing male nudity back.
NP: This movie, it's kind of homoerotic. Kind of like 300 - but not.
JK: Kind of? Don't you mean a lot?
NP: Well, I think more people get hurt in this movie.
JK: Yeah, we do take our lumps.
NP: How are you currently feeling?
JK: I'm recovered pretty good from shooting. We stopped shooting back in early August, so I'm pretty much healed up.
NP: What was the worst injury that you sustained during shooting?
JK: On this one I had a concussion, whiplash, dislocated shoulder, stitches in my hand and I had my molar knocked out by a dildo bazooka.
NP: I was watching Letterman, and I saw you point to where your tooth got knocked out. It was really far back. I mean, I understand how a front tooth might get knocked out by a flying dildo, but how do you explain a tooth that far back?
JK: I'll tell you how I explain it. Spike had them load an air cannon with all these dildos and turned it up full blast and put it four feet from me.
NP: I just figured it might be some off camera dildo action that was really responsible for that.
JK: No. It was in the last bit where the bowl of dicks blew up in my face and they had some from the side come in and take me out. I was shocked at how hard they hit me. I was disappointed, but I wasn't surprised. Actually I wasn't disappointed. I think it's funny.
NP: I mean this in the nicest possibly way, but this is probably your shittiest movie yet isn't it?
JK: Not really. It's probably our movie with the least amount of disgusting stuff in it.
NP: But there's a lot of actual shit quantity wise?
JK: Well, in the two scenes where there is poo poo, there is a lot. But other than that, it's our least disgusting film.
NP: I was trying to figure out; how do you prepare for the poop volcano stunt? That was pretty impressive projectile poop.
JK: Oh, the Poocano.
NP: Yeah, the Poocano. Even with my worst case of stomach flu, I've never achieved that level of projectability.
JK: He ate a lot of awful, awful, awful stuff. Like, he knows the stuff that makes him really...He's a professional, first of all.
NP: A professional pooper.
JK: Yeah, he is a professional pooper. No one else can poop or Dave England gets mad. He ate a bunch of horrible stuff and right before we shot, [Chris] Pontius stuck an enema in him and they said, "And rolling!"
NP: How do you come up with the ideas for these stunts?
JK: I usually write my ideas in the morning. I just sit at home and think of bad stuff to do to me and my friends, and then I'll write it down. Or sometimes I'll draw really crude drawings, a stick figure drawing of something bad. Then, Jeff and I, we've shared an office for 10 years, we just go back and forth telling each other ideas, trading drawings and giggling.
NP: This is a theatrical release with an "R" rating. What restrictions did you experience when you were figuring out what you could include in the movie?
JK: We had more cock in it, but we had to take some of the cock out to get an R rating.
NP: How did you decide what cock to leave in and what cock to take out?
JK: Well, I don't like taking any cock out. But you turn in the first pass of the movie to the MPA and they're like, "No, this is NC-17." They don't tell you specifically what's wrong, they'll just mention bit titles. So you're like, "Oh, well, what didn't they like? All they gave us was, "Cut the cock back a little on this scene," and then you keep trimming down and trimming down until they say yes.
NP: Sounds painful. I guess that means there's a lot of spare material for the DVD extras.
JK: Well we shot two movies worth of material and we have too much for a DVD extra, so we're coming out with a whole new DVD in January. 3.5 will be all of the great stuff that didn't make it.
NP: What's your favorite?
JK: There's a bit called "Incredible Nut Shots." You know online they have montages of great basketball shots people make? We did the same thing but with the nuts in place of the basketball. I did one nut shot off a Ferris wheel into a trampoline back into England's nuts. That one took about 9 hours. We did one off the Fourth Street Bridge into my nuts, which took 13 hours over 3 days to get. We did 30 nut shots, so imagine all the hours we spent just trying to hit each other in the nuts.
NP: I would imagine it's not particularly fun when you have to do retakes.
JK: Well, if you get hit in the nuts, if you get the shot, then you've got it. But if it's coming from 5 or 6 stories high and it hits you in the knee or the leg - that sucks because the basketball is going super fast then.
NP: There are nut shots a plenty in this movie. What cracks me up is when you're all standing around watching the guy that's going to get nutted - the nuttee so to speak - you all kind of cover your own nuts in sympathy. You'll be in the background cracking up and all your hands are sympathetically over your crotches even though yours may not be in peril in that particular shot.
JK: No, no, no. That's not sympathetic. That is protective. Just because the guy over there rolling around just got hit, that doesn't mean that you're not going to be targeted in two seconds.
NP: Is it a reflex action in day to day life at this point?
JK: Yeah. If I'm around anyone, I always cover my nuts.
NP: Are you covering them now?
JK: I was. [laughs] But for a completely different reason. Just joking.
NP: One of the most pleasant things about the movie is watching the camaraderie between all of the Jackass crew.
JK: Yeah. We give each other complete hell but we do love each other. Cast and crew, we've been together 10 years. I know it hurts sometimes, but we love it.
NP: When you stop, are you going to miss the pain? On some level, you've got to get a kick out of it.
JK: No, I don't really care about the pain. I don't miss it or really look forward to it. It's just part of it. I'm pretty indifferent to it.
NP: Can you imagine a career beyond pain and getting nutted?
JK: Getting nutted [laughs]. That sounds so nice with your accent.
NP: Anything sounds proper when someone from England says it.
JK: I know. It sounds great.
NP: What's next for you beyond the nut shots? I understand you've got some more serious movies planned for 2010/2011.
JK: Well, we released a couple of documentaries in 2010. Dickhouse TV did one, The Birth of Big Air, the documentary on Matt Hoffman, and Tribeca Films picked that up. We did another one on a crazy hillbilly family from West Virginia called The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia. Tribeca picked that one up too, so we're pretty psyched on both of those documentaries. I'm looking to start doing movies again and I'm looking at scripts right now.
***
Nicole Powers: I'm told we've got 10 minutes. Since there's no time for small talk, I'm going to launch straight into the shit shake (a.k.a. the "Poo Cocktail Supreme" - Steve-O's homage to Knoxville's original "Poo Cocktail" from Season 1, Episode 1). What were you thinking?
Steve-O: I don't know. I was just thinking that everyone had great footage and it was time for me to do something awesome. I really wanted to give it my best, you know. I didn't expect it to be pleasant. I expected it to be great and I think that's kind of how it turned out.
NP: I'm just sort of going through the logistics of that in my mind. How did you collect the poo?
SO: There's some weird business that collects dog poo. It was all dog poo.
NP: Oh, right. I was thinking that if that was cast and crew poo, from people you knew, that would be really weird.
SO: Yeah. I don't know. They weren't supposed to have human poo in there, but I'm pretty sure that some cast and crew felt like integrity was more important than rules, so I understand that it was dog poo and human poo.
NP: I'm sure Knoxville sneaked one in there.
SO: Yeah. [laughs] Yeah.
NP: How did you clean up after that?
SO: I jumped into a filthy lake. I showered later on that night I guess.
NP: What other stunts did you feel particularly pushed the bar for you personally?
SO: I don't know. Pushing the bar isn't really what it's all about. It's just doing stuff that's funny. If we're all laughing then that's how we know something is good. The purpose is to have a good time and laugh. We certainly did that. You've seen the movie yourself?
NP: I certainly have. Well, I saw about 90 percent of the movie. I must admit, there was about 10 percent that I couldn't watch.
SO: Right on. Everyone seems to really enjoy it.
NP: I was groaning and laughing at the same time.
SO: Yeah, that's about right...Are you from England?
NP: Yes. You grew up in England too right?
SO: I went to the American School in St. John's Wood. All four years in high school.
NP: A terribly civilized area. How did you go from St. John's Wood to shit shakes?
SO: I don't know. That's a good question. I'm not really sure.
NP: You're two years sober now - congratulations on that.
SO: Thank you.
NP: How has your outlook changed since you've been sober?
SO: I'd like to make a living being silly for as long as I can get away with it. That's got nothing to do with sobriety. I certainly didn't get sober because I had a problem of stapling my balls to my leg.
NP: Stapling your scrotum to your leg must work for you on some level beyond the paycheck.
SO: Yeah. I don't know. I always wanted to get a reaction.
NP: Well you got a reaction from the Louisiana police department. Didn't you get arrested?
SO: Yeah. I sure did. There's been a lot of celebrities that got arrested for felony obscenity and none of them got convicted.
NP: Your case was ultimately settled, wasn't it?
SO: Yeah. I felt like that one put me in the ranks with some real American heroes like Larry Flynt and Jim Morrison and Lenny Bruce.
NP: Well, congratulations on that. Talking of being in good company, I understand you're also a vegan now.
SO: That's right. I love being vegan.
NP: Why vegan as opposed to vegetarian?
SO: I don't know. It's so much healthier and just better in general for everything. As far as a compassionate lifestyle and [it being] healthy for me, for the planet and all the life on it, vegan is really the best way to go. It helps me a lot. I really believe that I'm doing something good for me and for everyone else every time I eat, you know.
NP: What else do you do to stay fit?
SO: I have two little dogs that I rescued and they keep me busy.
NP: Awe. What kind of dogs?
SO: One's a Chiweenie, a Chihuahua and Dachshund mix. And the other one is an American Eskimo mix. I'm just so in love with them. It's awesome. They definitely keep me active.
NP: I was noticing in the movie you had the disclaimer at the end that said some of the stunts were monitored by the Humane Society, and in the stunts that were monitored no animals were harmed.
SO: Yeah, you know, I'm glad you mentioned that. When we started filming the movie, I felt pretty conflicted about working with animals. I was really aware that it's sort of inconsistent with my lifestyle right now, to do stuff with animals.
I remember it was like the first week or two of filming, and we did that bit in that pen with the ram. My job was to play a trumpet and to have this ram charge with its horns into my nuts. My instincts kicked in and I kept reaching down with my hand, blocking this ram. Nothing that would hurt the ram, but reaching down...the ram was running into my hand.
That was in February. That was over 7 months ago, and my hand has still not healed. The tendons got so messed up. My hand should've probably fully recovered, but it hasn't. I feel like my hand's going to be messed up for the rest of my life.
Every time I shake someone's hand and they're some kind of a macho man dude - like they have something to prove with their strong handshake - it hurts like hell and injures my hand more. I don't think my hand is ever going to get better and I have that as a permanent reminder not to be cruel to animals. You are never going to see me mess with animals again. I don't know - I can't say never to anything. But today, it's not my intention to do anything with animals.
NP: It's funny that you mentioned that scene because that's the only scene that I felt that the animal might be in distress - just because the sound of the trumpet could have been painful.
SO: Yeah, I had permanent consequences from that - and I'm glad. Karma got me on that one. But, anyways, I've got to wrap it up...I do really appreciate you asking about being vegan, you know. That's something I really believe in. And being vegan, I can tell you, has benefited every single area of my life. It's a majorly big deal to me and I really appreciate you asking that.