10 Best Jackass: The Movie Moments
Jackass: The Movie was a cultural phenomenon. Made for a meagre (by film standards) $5million, much of which was reportedly spent on taking the crew to Japan, the balls-out MTV Films production made $80million around the world, some sixteen times its budget, and went on to further solidify the Jackass crew’s place in the zeitgeist. For many, it’s difficult to think of early 2000s film and television without thinking of Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera and Steve-O.
Of all the silliness that made the television show so memorable, it is arguably Jackass: The Movie that best represents what the world’s most beloved team of jackasses are, its hard R rating allowing all the cursing and male phalluses they had to cut from the TV show but were no doubt ever-presents of the crew’s life on the road.
In this Movie List from The Film Magazine, we’re looking at all the pain and all the puns that made the first Jackass movie such a beloved hit, analysing the effectiveness of Bam’s Firework Wake-Up Call in comparison to the Golf Cart Derby, the BMX Tug-of-War in comparison to the Golf Course Air Horn, for this: the 10 Best Jackass: The Movie Moments.
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10. Golf Course Air Horn
The attitude of the Jackass crew can be summed up in this one short, but laughter-filled and quite anti-authoritarian skit.
Three of the Jackasses, led by Johnny Knoxville, hide in the bushes of a golf course sounding an air horn each time a well-to-do golfer takes their swing. Shot from the bushes, you see old ladies and company men react angrily to the disturbance, with one pair of golfers even going so far as to shoot golf balls and throw their clubs at the Jackass crew.
Even after revealing that the whole skit was a prank, Johnny Knoxville has said that it was difficult for him to get the golfers to give their permission to use the footage such was their anger.
Loud, juvenile in nature, and very in the face of the suited status quo, this is Jackass at its most Jackass.
9. Preston’s Bench Crash
In amongst the consistent stunts and gross-out humour of the Jackass movies are a bunch of skits planned to fool the public via the means of traditional comedy hijinks. One of the best examples of this in the first film is Preston Lacy’s park bench crash.
In the skit, Preston (Jackass’ largest cast member) sits atop a bench to eat some food. Upon sitting on one side of the bench, a see-saw effect sees him crash to the floor, the unsuspecting public caught up in the joke. As he turns to lift himself from the floor, Preston’s pants have rip and expose his bare ass. It’s a quick 20 seconds or so, but one of the best intermediary segments of any Jackass movie to date.
