The Funniest Stunts from the Jackass Movies

Jackass was the ultimate show your parents didn’t want you to watch. During its ultra low-budget days on cable, the show’s gang of skateboarders and their friends—Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Wee Man, Preston Lacy, Danger Ehren, Dave England, the late great Ryan Dunn and more—provided us with hours of simple, ludicrous, low-brow comedy gold. Their short stint on the air launched a mega-franchise including a series of spinoffs and four feature length films. It’s crass and stupid at times, but Jackass is the weird, fun, comfort content that’s ripe for revival in 2022.
In celebration of the upcoming fourth film, Jackass Forever, which opens in theaters on Feb. 4, we take a trip down memory lane to rank the 10 funniest and most ridiculous stunts from the first three Jackass films.
10. Golf Course Airhorn—Jackass: The Movie
Jackass productions are a giant compilation of stunts and a few pranks that usually stay amongst the cast. Rarely does the franchise mess with the public, and when it does, it’s respectfully more a matter of making a scene in public to draw confused stares. Golf, however, is where the cast and I make a big exception. Watching golfers’ backswings get destroyed by air horns and the fury that follows is delicious and earns the boys hero status in my book.
9. Golf Cart Antics—Jackass: The Movie
It’s a simple premise that harkens back to the TV days of Jackass: recklessly driving some golf carts. The franchise’s low-budget origins were highlighted by taking mundane toys, sports equipment, and small vehicles to radical and needlessly dangerous heights, like urban kayaking, extreme pogoing, weird bucket cart racing, and shopping cart follies. In the first movie, golf carts are sent barreling down hills, soaring over ramps, driving through fences, and flipping over putt putt monuments. It’s the crew’s version of good clean fun and we delight in watching their bodies fly up to smack the top of the golf carts as they scramble about, barely staying intact.
8. The Bungee Jump—Jackass Number Two
Preston Lacy and Wee Man are a classic Jackass pairing performing stunts that highlight the two ends of the physical size spectrum. In the sequel, Lacy serves as the anchor for a bridge bungee jump for Wee Man. There is no better display of the duality of this team than when Lacy gets yanked off his perch only for his fall to whip an ascending Wee Man back down even faster. The ridiculousness of the scene is magnified by Bam Margera’s childish sketch of the stunt.
7. Electric Avenue—Jackass 3D
Electric Avenue is that rare stunt that reminds us that these boys have their limits. No matter how dangerous the wild animal involved, or what precious body parts are put in peril, the cast always seems giddy as hell to hurt themselves, so it’s a rare sight to see everyone wrecked with anxiety over a stunt. No one is having fun as they (after much hesitation) scramble through a tire course in a narrow hallway outfitted with hurdles and tasers suspended from the ceiling. You can’t help but choke out some schadenfreude giggles as Bam is zapped out of the air while two cattle prods spin madly like a crude, real life double-bladed lightsaber.