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Before Jackass premiered on MTV, Johnny Knoxville turned down an offer to pull stunts and pranks as a solo act on Saturday Night Live.
Before Jackass premiered on MTV in 2000, Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels offered Johnny Knoxville a weekly gig pulling stunts and pranks for the NBC sketch show.
In The Hollywood Reporter’s oral history of Jackass, Knoxville explained that while he and the Jackass crew were in the process of pitching the show, he was asked to do a solo version of it on SNL. “They were going to give me, like, five minutes each week to do what I do, but that would just be me,” he said. “And I couldn’t do both. Our show was about to go. So I kind of bet on us as opposed to on myself.”
He continued, “I was really flattered that Lorne Michaels asked me to have lunch with him at the Polo Lounge, but I said, ‘No, I’m going to do this instead.'” Despite never becoming an official cast member, Knoxville went on to host SNL in 2005.
Knoxville, along with Jackass co-creators Jeff Tremaine and Spike Jonze, eventually sold the show to MTV, bringing with them a lovable crew of misfits such as Steve-O, Bam Margera, Chris Pontius and Jason “Wee Man” Acuña. The hit series aired for three seasons before spawning three feature films: 2002’s Jackass: The Movie, 2006’s Jackass Number Two and 2010’s Jackass 3D. The old gang is back together again for the fourth installment in the franchise, Jackass Forever, which also introduces a new generation of jackasses.
The recently released final trailer for Jackass Forever promises plenty of extreme stunts and hilarious pranks, including Knoxville being shot out of a canon and Steve-O using an exploding porta-potty. Another painful stunt dubbed the “cup test” features UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou delivering a devastating punch to Danger Ehren’s groin in order to test the durability of the cup he’s wearing.
One particularly dangerous sequence involving a bull resulted in Knoxville suffering a brain hemorrhage and several other injuries. “Jackass Forever features by far my gnarliest bull hit,” Knoxville recently revealed, referencing a scene where he’s leveled by a charging bull while decked out in full matador gear. “I spent the rest of the weekend in the hospital with a broken wrist, broken rib, concussion and brain hemorrhage.”
To celebrate the release of Jackass Forever, Paramount Pictures will hold a special “fan appreciation night” in select theaters on Feb. 3. The one-night event will include “extended bonus content” shown after the film’s credits, including “a special cast & filmmaker round-table discussion curated specifically for fans seeing the film on the big screen.”
Jackass Forever hits theaters on Feb. 4.
Source: THR
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