The Jackass cast have sustained many gruesome injuries across their long and zany stunt careers, and Jackass Forever is no exception to this trend. First aired on MTV in the summer of 2000, the Jackass brand has since become synonymous with pain, as its performers compete in increasingly grandiose, dangerous, and dunderheaded stunts en route to making its troupe rich and famous. Even more jaw-dropping than some of the Jackass crew’s stunts, however, is the stat that the group is now responsible collectively for over $20 million in injuries since filming began in 1999. A fair amount of this is from injuries from Jackass Forever, too.
The fourth main installment in the Jackass film series, Jackass Forever was a 2022 theatrical release from Paramount Pictures. By and large, the core cast of the previous franchise installment Jackass 3D starred again in Jackass Forever, with Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Dave England, Wee Man, Danger Ehren, and Preston Lacy all returning. They were also joined by a slew of new Jackass stunt performers. While former Jackass member Bam Margera was fired from the production in February 2021, Jackass Forever‘s leading man Knoxville confirmed Margera would still feature in portions of the movie filmed before his dismissal.
The return of many original Jackass faces was essentially a guarantee for carnage throughout Jackass Forever, as backed up by its R rating and revised credits disclaimer. Knoxville and company have been hurt many times before, and their final swansong promised a fresh glut of injuries and mayhem for audiences to sink their teeth into. Here are the worst injuries the cast has sustained over the years, including all Jackass Forever injuries.
Severe Concussion – Johnny Knoxville
Jackass: The Movie retains some of the franchise’s most memorable and iconic moments to this day. Stunts such as “The Giant Shopping Cart” and “Off-Road Tattoo” have become some of the most-watched and revered Jackass stunts. Yet, it was “Department Store Boxing” that proved the most dangerous stunt of the first movie in terms of pure damage. Jackass‘ Johnny Knoxville partners with Butterbean (real name Eric Scott Esch), a then-heavyweight boxer whose impressive career was defined by a whopping 65 knockout wins total.
Butterbean simply does not pull his punches in this stunt, pummeling Knoxville again and again. It quickly becomes clear Knoxville wants to end the fight inside the department store, but Butterbean forces him to stand one last time to line him up for a knockout blow. Knoxville reportedly took days to recover from the severe concussion he sustained, while the Jackass star also had to get stitches in his head to close Butterbean’s handiwork. It is also worth noting Knoxville filmed the entirety of Jackass: The Movie with a broken ankle, although he was not aware of this particular injury’s severity at the time.
Torn Urethra – Johnny Knoxville
Knoxville’s movie career jumped again when he managed to top his Butterbean-induced battering in the subsequent long-delayed sequel, Jackass Number Two, in what will inevitably go down as one of the worst injuries in the annals of Jackass history. During Jackass Number Two, Knoxville attempts a backflip on a moving motorbike, Evil Knievel-style, but ends up taking himself out of commission for weeks on end. As Knoxville jumps, he loses control of the bike, causing the Jackass member to land awkwardly on the ground. Later hospital scans would reveal a torn urethra and a bucketload of regret for the Jackass production’s leading man.
Life-Threatening Blood Clot – Ryan Dunn
Prior to his tragic passing in 2011, Ryan Dunn developed a reputation alongside longstanding Jackass member Steve-O as one of the most reckless. Jackass Number Two‘s final climactic scene was designed as pure, unadulterated chaos as the main core of the Jackass boys are dressed in Western-themed attire before being tormented by other stunt crew members. The worst of these machinations is undoubtedly tying Dunn and Bam Margera’s legs to horses, who promptly bolt once the bulk of the scene’s drama erupts. Dunn and Margera are predictably pulled out of the frame, with Dunn landing horribly on his right shoulder and causing a blood clot to form alongside his severed muscles. The blood clot’s position in Ryan Dunn’s body was considered life-threatening because it was closely located to his heart and brain, although the clot was successfully removed in the following days.
Broken Skull – Ehren McGhehey
McGhehey has had at least 25 surgeries due to unscripted Jackass antics over the years, including three broken backs and a whopping nine knee surgeries. Yet, it was the “Lamborghini Tooth Pull” stunt that eclipsed all others in terms of pain for McGhehey, whose face literally broke from his tooth to his eye in the moments following the stunt. The simple premise of pulling a tooth using the force of Bam’s Lamborghini was accepted by McGhehey nonchalantly during the Jackass 3D stunt, but the force from the sports car’s acceleration was so great it ended up slamming his face into the concrete below. While there is far less blood than expected, it is McGhehey’s screams that are hard to hear, with filming subsequently delayed as McGhehey was hospitalized for over a week.
Flayed Skin & Lost Nipple – Steve-O
While many of the worst Jackass injuries seem to be sustained on movie sets as the crew ups the proverbial ante on each other, the energetic raspy-voiced Steve-O‘s lost skin confirms his total commitment to his stunts, whether on TV or otherwise. In the same year of dangerous stunt filming, Steve-O managed to lose 30% of the skin on his posterior and take home a permanent souvenir that lives within him to this day. In a stunt for MTV’s Jackass series, Steve-O careers down a hill in a little red wagon before falling onto the concrete below at speed. The result was an almost complete loss of skin on portions of his bottom, with the Jackass star unable to sit for two weeks and filming on pause during recovery.
No sooner had Steve-O returned to the Jackass set than he was lined up for another stunt, in which a BB gun pellet is shot through his nipple. Once again, this stunt did not go exactly to plan, with Steve-O’s nipple being blasted off and the pellet being wedged inside his skin, where it still nestles to this day. Most gallingly of all for Jackass star Steve-O, this stunt was not even aired, with the footage only released in January 2016 – some six years after the incident had taken place.
Which Jackass Crew Member Has Been Injured The Most?
The “Jackass Injury Rich List” via Nova Legal Funding is a sight to behold, with the crew racking up some eye-watering high medical bills across the course of their careers. The total estimated number of injuries to the Jackass stunt performers is in the thousands, with Johnny Knoxville taking the crown of most injured both through his number of injuries and total costs incurred. Knoxville has kept Jackass popular by racking up a mammoth total cost of $8,663,000 in medical bills, followed by Ehren McGhehey at $7,380,000, and Steve-O sitting in third with a total of $5,820,000 during his career.
Were There Any Real Injuries Filming Jackass Forever?
There were multiple injuries on the set of the latest Jackass movie. Jackass Forever amassed the largest injury list of all franchise entries to date. As reported by Hot New Hip Hop, only a few days after filming began, Knoxville and Steve-O had already been taken to the hospital for treatment after a stunt involving musical instruments and jumping on a treadmill going full speed went awry. Things only went downhill from there for the new and returning Jackass alumni. Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O bore the brunt of the Jackass Forever stunt injuries, but the rest of the cast was far from injury-immune. Here’s every injury sustained filming Jackass Forever.
A Broken Rib, Broken Wrist, Concussion, and Brain Hemorrhage – Johnny Knoxville
In typical fashion, Knoxville suffered the most during filming and received a broken rib, broken wrist, various concussions, and a hemorrhage in his brain from a single stunt involving a bull. The accident left Johnny Knoxville with significant injuries and received international press coverage. Speaking on Howard Stern’s show, Knoxville revealed that the bull stunt left him with brain damage it took him months to recover from. “I can’t take any more hits to the head,” he said (via Howard Stern). “My brain was just playing tricks on me. I got really depressed and over-focused on things… I did have to start medication for the first time in my life.”
Dislocated Shoulder And Lost Eyebrows – Steve-O
While Johnny Knoxville received the most injuries, fellow returning Jackass start Steve-O did his fair share of time in hospital while filming Jackass Forever. One of the most notable Steve-O injuries filming Jackass Forever was the moment he dislocated his shoulder and lost both of his eyebrows in a stunt involving wax and a trained eagle. This was one of several injuries Steve-O endured during filming, many of which didn’t even make it into the theatrical cut of Jackass Forever (although a few, including the eagle stunt, made it into Jackass 4.5)
Broken Collarbone – Steve-O
Steve-O revealed that he broke his collarbone during a Jackass Forever stunt that didn’t make the theatrical cut. Steve-O described the incident in an interview following the release of Jackass Forever (via The Hollywood Reporter). While he didn’t go into detail about what he was trying to do and what went wrong, he did explain that the recovery process from his injuries was pretty intensive. “I broke my collarbone really dramatically. Like fully in half. So I had it put back together with two plates and a bunch of screws, but that footage didn’t make the cut.”
Ear Canal Filled With Dog Poop – Steve-O
While it’s not the most life-threatening injury from the Jackass Forever set, the mishap with Steve-O’s “poop cannon” stunt is definitely the grossest. It’s another stunt that was cut from the theatrical release and one of the few Jackass stunts available online not in any version of the show or movies. Steve-O revealed (via his YouTube ) that the “poop cannon” skit landed him in the hospital because he had an ear canal lodged full of liquidized dog feces. The material entered his ear canal with a considerable amount of force, and Steve-O didn’t think to wear ear protection. Thankfully there was no permanent damage or hearing loss as a result.
Multiple Unspecified Injuries – Steve-O and Johnny Knoxville
One stunt landed both Knoxville and Steve-O in hospital with multiple unspecified injuries. For the stunt, which took place only two days into filming Jackass Forever, multiple members of the cast dressed up in marching band attire, complete with instruments. Coincidentally, this is one of the few Jackass Forever Bam Margera appearances. The Jackass marching band jumped onto a moving treadmill, which catapulted them across a concrete floor into a corrugated iron wall. This went worse than expected, and both Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O found themselves needing time out to recover. The incident was widely covered by the media at the time and helped to promote Jackass Forever as a return to their renowned extreme hijinks.
Ruptured Testicle – Ehren McGhehey
“Danger” Ehren McGhehey had to leave the Jackass Forever set in an ambulance following one incident when a stunt-gone-wrong left him with a ruptured testicle. Danger Ehren was recreating the infamous “cup test” skit from the first Jackass movie. For the uninitiated, this involves testing the efficiency of sports-grade testicle protection by dropping/throwing/shooting heavy objects at Johnny Knoxville’s crotch. For Jackass Forever, the skit was recreated by McGhehey, although things didn’t go according to plan. One of his testicles ruptured, requiring an ambulance trip to the ER.
Broken Wrist – Aaron “Jaws” Homoki
The first Jackass Forever injury occurred before filming had properly begun. Skateboarder Aaron “Jaws” Homaki broke his wrist only two days into test-filming for Jackass 4. Not much is known about the specifics of the incident, however.
Did Jackass 4.5 Show New Injuries?
In traditional Jackass fashion, much of the unused Jackass Forever footage was edited together and released as Jackass 4.5. Jackass 4.5 contained Steve-O’s eyebrow-removing stunt with the eagle and wax, for example. However, it appears that most of the significant injury-causing stunts were used in the Jackass Forever theatrical cut. Jackass 4.5 was released on Netflix. While the stunts are entertaining, the team clearly used the most outrageous for the main movie. Interestingly, not every injury sustained in filming made it into Jackass Forever or Jackass 4.5, as stunts like the poop cannon were deemed too outrageous even for a direct-to-streaming release. They instead found their way to viewers via various cast members’ social media channels and YouTube.
- Jackass Forever (2022)Release date: Feb 04, 2022
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