Jackass is as much a state of mind as it is a wildly successful comedy franchise that first launched as a surprise MTV hit back in 2000.
More than a quarter of a century and 16 concussions later, Johnny Knoxville is bringing the crew back to theaters for one last rodeo. Subtitled Best and Last, the new film, out today (June 26) and once again directed by co-creator Jeff Tremaine, arguably serves two clear purposes.
For one, its blend of old and new footage gives longtime fans a well-intentioned celebration of the Jackass legacy while poignantly hammering home the undeniable passing of time. But it also, perhaps less intentionally, serves as a forceful reminder of just how influential Jackass has been over the past 26 years, and how much American pop culture, specifically, is indebted to it in its wake.
Below, we take a closer look at Jackass’s history.
Jackass debuts on MTV, becoming surprise hit
Jackass—created by Jeff Tremaine, Spike Jonze, and Johnny Knoxville—proved to be immediately controversial upon its MTV debut in October 2000. All told, fans were given three seasons before Knoxville and his co-stars, including Steve-O and Bam Margera, among others, took their unique brand of subverted masculinity to the big screen.
Jackass goes cinematic with its first movie, debuting at No. 1
Jackass: The Movie, released in 2002 (just one year after the series’ conclusion), proved to be an undeniable box office juggernaut. While the budget was widely reported to be meager by comparison, numbering in the single millions, its total haul at the domestic box office came in at more than $64 million.
Jackass Number Two, Jackass 3D, Bad Grandpa, Jackass Forever, and Jackass: Best and Last (not to mention several .5 quasi-sequels) all followed.
Jackass enters the video game space
Released in 2007 for PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS, Jackass: The Game calls on fans to take a directorial role, of sorts, due to an injured and thus temporarily-out-of-commission Tremaine.
Unlike the films, the game received no sequel. However, a mobile game, titled Jackass: Human Slingshot and featuring an entirely different setup, was released in 2022.
Jackass star Ryan Dunn’s untimely death
34-year-old Ryan Dunn, also a member of Bam Margera’s CKY crew, died in a car crash in 2011. Dunn, who was driving, was later determined to have been driving under the influence at the time. The passenger in the vehicle, Zachary Hartwell, was also killed.
In a statement shared after Dunn’s memorial, Knoxville remembered his late friend as being “as loyal as they come” and “a great listener” during times of need.
“I’m just very sad because I lost my brother and my world got about 134 percent less funny,” he said at the time. “I don’t know what else to say right now, so I will close with: I love you, Ryan. I have a lot of emotions swirling, but I want you to know I love you so very much.”
Jackass heavily influenced early 2000s media, but also carved out an impressive TikTok presence
The Jackass effect was immediately apparent after its blockbuster MTV run and subsequent theatrical successes. For example, numerous pop-punk bands at the time, including modern genre progenitors blink-182 and Canadian stalwarts Simple Plan, took on what could easily be argued as a Jackass-esque production style in their own visual work during this period.
As a sign of its longevity, the Jackass influence remains steadfast to this day, with TikTok and beyond having readily embraced viewing the world through Knoxville and the gang’s unique comedic lens.
Simultaneously, the underlying subversion at the heart of the franchise, namely its nudity-heavy embrace of intimate male friendships, has continued to receive praise from across generations of fans. Most recently, Knoxville and members of the Jackass crew, including newer school recruit Rachel Wolfson (who made her debut in 2022’s Jackass Forever), brought the love full circle with a float in the West Hollywood Pride Parade.
“Jackass has and will always be gay,” Wolfson later wrote on X in response to a shit-for-brains critic of the parade appearance. “You must be new here.”
Bam Margera’s falling out with the Jackass crew
Bam Margera, to be clear, does appear in the new Jackass film, albeit only in archival footage. His falling out with the franchise creators was a decidedly public one dotted with stories about Margera’s substance abuse struggles, with the larger disagreement hinging on a contract dispute related to Jackass Forever, from which he was fired. More specifically, Margera took issue with (and ultimately legal action) over what was described as a “wellness agreement” in his contract.
These days, Margera, 46, is sober and doing much better, though he told the Philadelphia Inquirer in a recent interview that he’s “not ready to reunite with anybody” just yet.
Is Jackass: Best and Last really the end?
It’s unclear whether the franchise will continue in some capacity, be it short-form videos or another TV project. But if Knoxville is to be believed, Best and Last is making good on its title by bringing Jackass, at least as we know it, to a close.
“It’s definitely, unfortunately, the last—and fortunately,” he told Fandango earlier this year. “I think we did the thing, and the ‘best’ is, like, we knew this was the last one so everyone really stepped it up. This one’s special. This is how we want to go out: strong.”
