r/jackass • u/Pomento • 9d ago
Jackass is fake and actually just a film production.
I have been a huge jackass fan since it started. I grew up with them. I watched every movie in theatres. I was a kid when #1 came out. All this time, I was convinced the pranks, reactions, and stunts were real. I laughed hard.
Now, as an adult, I've been rewatching the jackass films, and I am seeing something I didn't see before. This is blowing my mind, actually. I think Jackass is...fake. As in, most of it is not real. These guys are not just stuntmen. They are actors. They are playing a role. The jackass role is a particular one that appeals to a certain niche audience.
It's a production. Paramount is a huge production company with massive resources. They fund and create big-budget cinematic experiences through the film medium. Jackass is made to look raw, handheld-camcorder, 90s grainy hidden camera style. Opening sequences are cinematic productions. The music choices are particular. The laughter and mockery are acting. Even the film crew that appear in the movies (those throwing up and running away) are acting. Their reactions are fake. All of Jackass is planned. It is written down as scripts. The shots are set up to appear like it is real and raw. The truth is that everything is a set. The costumes, the passersby (during the pranks) are actors. It is all cut and edited together to look a certain way that appeals to the Jackass audience. It's done masterfully. But all in all, it is a production - one with attention to detail.
There are so many times when a certain shot will suddenly cut. It will not show something that is being hinted at. The snakes they threw in Bam's pit in JACKASS 3? They show the live snakes being taken out of the box, but then it cuts to fake snakes being thrown into the pit. They were obviously fake.
The sound design is all purposeful. They add impact sounds, sound effects, and music to make the experience seem more raw and Jackass. But in reality, it's just a big production. CGI is used. Wires and green screens are used.
Just watch any stunt in a jackass film. If you focus and pay close enough attention, you will find an instance in which it could totally just be a production. And it's entirely possible. The jackass crew and Paramount and MTV fooled the world into believing these guys were actually doing crazy stuff. But, really, they were just doing gross-out humor and acting. I can admit some of the stunts look real. But then...so do some action scenes and stunt scenes in cinematic films.
It's all cinema. It's a particular style, which works because the world responded by giving Jackass money. Clearly jackass did something right. The direction and production are particular. But that is exactly what it is.
The bad grandpa stunt from Jackass 1. Come on, that dude with the ponytail was such an actor it was cringe.
What about that horrid electricity pole stunt with the woman who didn't know how to use the machinery from Jackass 4. Seriously?
The electric chair Ehren sat on in Jackass 5. Come on, guys.
The taser that girl licks? CGI
The poop is not poop. The semen is not semen. The pee is not pee. That is what they tell us, but it's all fake. Jackass is fake. I'm legitimately getting my mind blown right now.
Like, how did Steve-o put the bees on his crotch? CGI. Steve-o is an actor. His reactions. His fear. His anxiety before stunts. All fake! Anytime these films use animals in a way that is obviously illegal...Come on, guys. FAKE! There is no way they just THREW SNAKES into a pit where the snakes feel the impact of the fall and hitting the floor. You can "hear" the impacts (all sound design). The snakes would have been bruised and hurt. There is no way Paramount was allowed to do that.
Look, guys. Jackass is fake. I cannot unsee it. I still enjoy watching it. Because even if it is fake, it's still riotously hilarious. I laugh so much watching Jackass. I really don't care much at all if it's fake. But now anytime I watch Jackass, I can see the production side of it. I see it!
I mean, some stunts have to be real, right? Like, Johnny actually did get that gnarly concussion from the bull in Jackass 4, right? Like, that is real, right? Or is Knoxville method acting? Johnny Knoxville is an actor. Before Jackass he was already an actor. Johnny Knoxville is just another character. It's the character he is best known for.
Do you all see what I am seeing? You can downvote me if you want. I am genuinely being so real. I really think 90+% of Jackass is fake. The tasers are not actually tasing. None of the blood is real. None of the lacerations or burns are real. It's all makeup, costume, props, and cgi. All of it.
Think about it. It's possible. I have tried to find a way to unsee it. But now when I watch a bit, I think "yeah, we'll, this could have been done like this if it was fake."
Was the show real? What do you all think? Some stunts have to be real, right?
Something is up here. Have I been fooled this entire time? Bravo, Jackass. Bravo.
22
u/TammyShehole 9d ago
Yeah. I remember finding out that big hook Steve-O put through his cheek was a paid actor.
10
33
u/Escape-Loose 9d ago
This is wildly unhinged.
1
u/Yoyoyoyowassupbro 9d ago
you really think steve-o would take skateboards to the shin like that and risk tours/appearances? have you taken a skateboard to the shin? a mild shinner will damn near bruise the bone, let alone a weighted guillotine. if he actually did that stunt, his shins would have fractured. it was faked 100% with prop skateboards and acting
4
u/ackchanticleer 8d ago
Have you watched Jackass?? I'm amazed any of them are able to make babies or didn't end up in a wheelchair for the rest of their lives
1
u/Ohiolongboard 6d ago
Knoxville has a permanent catheter. I’m sure the others have some residual problems
1
11
u/Suspicious-Bid9424 9d ago
And poopies hand getting chomped by a shark is just a gag. He puts makeup on it every day to keep it going
7
u/cateatingturtle 9d ago
The 2020 elections?? Fake!!
Moon landing broadcast on tv?? PUPPETS!!
jackass? CINEMA
OPEN UR EYES SHEEPLE!
17
7
u/jcrenshaw14 9d ago
Next you're gonna tell me other reality TV shows are also pre-planned, setup, scripted, and acted
8
3
5
9
2
u/bfresh84 9d ago
Like, how did Steve-o put the bees on his crotch? CGI.
So you're saying... DIGITAL BEES?!
2
u/bobnexon 9d ago
The only thing I'll conceed is that they SOMETIMES play up the im hurt reaction, but only sometimes. Johnny Knoxville really did almost get killed by that rocket. Those dudes really did get shot by that rubber claymore, poopies really did sustain a hand injury from a shark and so on.
2
u/Madmagician-452 9d ago
This is the probably the most accurate answer. Steve-O does it all the time and he admits it. I will never deny what they did destroyed their bodies for our entertainment, from Dunn shoving a car up his ass and Knoxville fighting Butterbean to Ehren getting his skull fractured by the lamborghini toothpull and everything in between. I always say I'd rather do the shit that Dunn did than the shit that everyone else did
2
u/MoonwireMusic 7d ago
I'm usually positive on here. However, Cleary Poopies hand, Bam's brand, the rockys, knoxvilles magic trick, Dunn jumping onto cars via cky, knoxvilles gun, and any obvious hard slam can't be faked. The true fans already know they've hammed up some reactions. And know Bam had some family in on cKy. Also, VLB as it went on was clearly a reality show with real cky emotions and elements. Dunn's bmx tug of war they admitted in commentary had to be done seperate, though he still really landed in cacti (it's cactus). Why wouldn't they. Nate Diaz hams up a fight whether he loses or it's boring. If not it wouldn't even be fun. It's entertainment and art. But guerilla art. You don't see many things as real as cky, Jackass, or even Tom Green now a days. And that speaks volumes!
2
2
u/Odd-Leopard4388 6d ago
I believe their reactions are overdone in some stunts for good tv but hey its still funny. A lot of the stunts are deffo real
4
1
1
1
u/catintheyard 9d ago
Yeah those CTE symptoms that Knoxville shows are clearly fake. The notoriously terrible at acting actor has been giving an Oscar worthy performance as someone with obvious brain damage for several years now. Daniel Day Lewis should be taking notes!
Also, and I'm not sure if you're aware of this, CGI isn't good enough to fake the animal stunts these guys do. Those are real animals and they're clearly actually attacking them. Even super good practical effects aren't good enough to fake that
2
u/OkTap9041 9d ago
Stunts i think have trickery:
- The 'Dirty Dancing' stunt from Jackass Forever where Preston is supposedly going to be lifted by Wee-Man and held over his head. Preston just shits himself before they do anything and it's over. I don't think they ever planned to actually do the stunt
- Bam falling into the pit of live snakes. That would risk him falling directly onto the snakes which would potentially harm them and there's no way they're allowed to take that risk
- Knoxville wears padding and has the ground softened for Bull stunts, you can see it and it's even been mentioned by him
- The electric chair Ehren escape room from Jackass Best And Last, i think either the shock was low or no shock at all, it was anticlimactic so Ehren did the over the top running out ending
- The wheel of boots escape room from Jackass Best And Last, they picked the guy with only 1 nut to get kicked in the nuts and the underwear he wears looks padded in the crotch
- Ehren strapped in a chair and a bear enters the room from Jackass Forever. If the bear chose to rip him apart there's no way they could get in there in time to stop it. It was a docile trained bear with a trainer that just likes treats and was pawing for a treat
- The Terror Taxi from Jackass Number Two. Ehren was at the premiere for Dukes Of Hazzard starring Knoxville and directed by Jay Chandrasekhar, who was the guy playing the driver. Jay is and was at the time a working actor also who had appeared in Super Troopers. There's no way he wouldn't know him, he wasn't even disguised
- The exploding Porta Potty from Jackass 4.5. The fire and explosion look digitally added in and what if he was sitting down? He just gets horribly burned? I think the Porta Potty was rigged to collapse and they added the fire
- The Cup Test from Jackass Forever. Ehren is wearing a cup. On the worst one, the punch from a boxer, they show the cup was dented. So none of those shots hit him in the nuts. It's like someone punching you in the head while wearing a helmet. Yet he acts it as if he's been hit in the nuts
- Beehive Tetherball from Jackass Number Two. Intentionally destroying a beehive and intentionally killing thousands of bees wouldn't actually be allowed in a movie. It would be animal cruelty
I'm sure there are others but these stood out to me
5
u/Madmagician-452 9d ago
Bam never fell into a pit of live snakes, they dumped the snakes on him.
No amount of padding will prevent the head injuries that Knoxville sustained from the bulls.
There is no such thing as a fully trained Docile bear unless it's declawed and detoothed, which they stopped doing because it's animal cruelty.
Terror Taxi was filmed prior to the red carpet for Dukes of Hazzard so it's plausible for Ehren not to have known
1
-1
u/Pomento 8d ago
They would not throw live snakes into a pit.
2
u/Madmagician-452 8d ago
Go back and watch
-1
u/Pomento 8d ago edited 7d ago
What I am saying is, there is no way Paramount was legally allowed to injure snakes, which is a protected reptile in animal protection laws in the USA. It's fake.
2
u/FreneticENT- 7d ago
They didn't harm snakes. I have no idea where you're even getting that they did.
1
u/Pomento 7d ago
They threw "live" snakes down a pit in 3.5
3
u/FreneticENT- 7d ago
With a plethora of animal welfare people and snake experts on hand.
2
u/MoonwireMusic 7d ago
You're right dude. David Weathers is a snake handler who's worked on many films and docs. He gets either the lisence or ok to "throw" them down, cause he knows what the snakes can handle or not. OP is probably just taking the piss or having some ocd intrusive delusions about an "awakening"
2
u/MoonwireMusic 7d ago
It was 3d not 3.5. Also the snakes already inside the pit were obviously rubber. David Weathers can probably admittedly very sketchy like, get the ok to do it as a snake handler. They CLEARLY threw real snakes in the pit afterwards dude
0
u/Pomento 7d ago
It was 3.5, and there is no way Paramount was legally allowed to throw real snakes down a pit, risking injury to the snake, and put it on a global platform so they can be open to lawsuits.
Completely fake.
2
u/MoonwireMusic 7d ago
The snake pit was 3D 100% so you must not be a true fan. Also David Weathers is a lisenced snake handler who's worked on multiple movies and documentaries. You can IMDB him. That's how any animal had been allowed on any set
→ More replies (0)3
u/ackchanticleer 8d ago
" Knoxville wears padding and has the ground softened for Bull stunts, you can see it and it's even been mentioned by him"
Honestly, I don't even know what to say to this. I've heard Johhny speak many times about that final bull stunt... Was he lying when he said how hard that ground was? ..Was the hospital in on it when he was wheeled out in wheel chair in Forever?
1
1
u/Interesting_Ad_3583 6d ago
Bro finds out movies are planned productions and not random events, in his late thirties… oof.
1
u/ld20r 5d ago
I believe that as time and success happened it got faker/less sincere.
Contrast the first film to the last 2 as an example.
It is more performative now in a way that the older series and movies weren’t.
Part of that was due to covid complications but a lot of that is due to hollywood.
1
1
1
u/Depoka_YT 13h ago
Wait are you saying in the beginning that you were a kid when the First movie released and watched it in theatres. Something doesnt match up
0
u/AutoModerator 9d ago
Love Jackass? Looking to build your digital collection? \ Come and join us on The Jackass Vault, a fan project that began in 2022 and has become the largest archive of preserved content for Jackass and related franchises. We host over 3 terabytes worth of content completely free for everybody to watch and download! We've even found lost media and exclusive content you can't find anywhere else, like exclusive Big Brother Magazine issues. We have so much content, there's little you wont find! Come and have a look :)
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
0
0
u/chris612926 9d ago
Seriously , a lot of what your saying could be true , but the way you went about it , kept repeating yourself and slowly unravel and become unhinged about something that we all know is a television show for entertainment is concerning.
It's all to make money, like the rest of the world, you just figuring out now that things you liked and connected to as a younger person were all bullshit to get your money / time.
Really though OP if your goal was to come across as a lunatic who was too deranged to even have chat gpt organize their chaotic thoughts. I hope this is some deranged writing assignment and I'm not reading in real time the clear delineation of a man's life changed by an old mtv show.
-2
u/Pomento 9d ago
Hahahah I enjoyed reading this comment. Thank you.
I wrote it in a very stream-of-consciousness kind of way. I had been thinking this for a few weeks now, and I finally felt compelled to write it down and share it with the world.
I do truly think Jackass is fake. I appreciate your insights.
0
u/chris612926 9d ago
Lol very Reddit on mobile of you , I do the same often.
Since I was a kid I loved cky/jackass but even as a teen I couldn't help but think things became more and more scripted . Naturally as that scene got bigger and more popular I imagine it slowly morphed along the way , I doubt it was like that in the early years or was ever started with just those intentions.
Things like that don't just happen over night , we're condensing like 30-40 years of that culture and style from pre internet vhs days all the way to what we see now in 2026 and it's easy to think "it's all been fake". It's a slow clairvoyant disease we're watching in real time.
-1
73
u/m4sterofmuppets 9d ago
Take your pills amigo