jackass - ranked

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“If you’re gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough.” – Roger Alan Wade

Fun Fact: A comprehensive study conducted by Nova Legal Funding tracked the documented, major medical trauma suffered by the core cast. The crew has racked up over $24 million in lifetime medical bills as a result of their many stunts and antics. 

The Lifetime Injury Breakdown of the core cast: Most severe trauma

Johnny Knoxville

• 16 Verified Concussions: Culminating in a severe brain hemorrhage and cognitive damage from his final bull hit in Jackass Forever.

• Torn Urethra: Sustained during a motorcycle backflip stunt, requiring him to use a catheter for years.

• Fractured/Broken Bones: Broken collarbone, broken hand, and a fractured ankle from jumping the LA River.

• Orbital Blowout: His left eye literally popped out of its socket after he blew his nose following an alpine slide crash.

  
  

Ehren McGhehey ("Danger Ehren")

• 3 Broken Necks: Fractured his neck three separate times across the franchise's run.

• Facial/Skull Fractures: Ripped his teeth out and fractured his face all the way up to his eye socket during the Jackass 3D Lamborghini tooth-pull stunt.

• 9 Knee Surgeries: Massive ligament and meniscus damage from various landing failures.

• Ruptured Testicle: Suffered a brutal below-the-belt rupture after taking a pogo stick hit in Jackass Forever.

  
  

Steve-O

• Skin Graft Burns: Suffered severe, third-degree burns covering 15% of his body after being covered in jet fuel and set on fire.

• Fractured Skull & Broken Bones: Broken collarbone, broken nose, and fractured cheekbones.

• 7 Broken Teeth: Completely shattered his front teeth on seven separate occasions.

  
  

Ryan Dunn

• Life-Threatening Blood Clot: Sustained severe shoulder and nerve damage after being dragged by a horse in Jackass Number Two, which formed a clot near his heart.

• Broken Back & Wrist: Multiple fractures sustained from a catastrophic high-speed golf cart crash in the first film.

  
  

Bam Margera

• Internal Bleeding: Suffered severe internal trauma after a high-speed shopping cart crash.

• Tailbone Fracture: Cracked his tailbone after a deliberate 40-foot drop into a backyard pool.

  
  

Dave England & Wee Man

• 15+ Broken Bones: Dave England has broken his collarbone, nose, and teeth, and famously operates with only one testicle due to a pre-Jackass snowboarding accident.

• Broken Foot: Wee Man fractured his foot during a high-speed miniature-board skateboarding crash.

  
  

Chris Pontius ("Party Boy")

• Severe Internal Abdominal Bruising: Suffered deep muscular and internal trauma after being directly blasted by the explosive "Riot Control Test" claymore mine in Jackass Number Two.

• Facial Lacerations: Sustained multiple deep facial stitches after an aggressive alligator bit him directly on the nose during an early film segment.

  
  

Preston Lacy

• 4 Concussions: Suffered multiple head injuries, primarily from high-velocity treadmill stunts where his head slammed into the ground at full speed.

• Ankle and Knee Ligament Tears: Massive cartilage wear and structural joint tears from being tasked with crushing, lifting, or falling directly onto the smaller cast members.

  
  

Loomis Fall (Recurring Core Musician/Cast Member)

• Compound Fractures: Shattered his collarbone completely and broke his hand during the infamous Jackass 3D "Jet Engine" stunt, where hurricane-force winds threw him off a tricycle.

  
  

Summarized Injury Statistics

According to personal injury tracking data, the crew's combined major injuries include:

• Head Injuries & Concussions: 36

• Broken Bones & Fractures: 28

• Alligator/Shark/Snake Bites: 4

• Surgeries Required: 50+

At its core, jackass is stupidity with a blank check. It’s what happens when grown men refuse to truly grow up. And thank god they didn’t because these last 24 years have been phenomenal. Steve-O once described jackass as “wholesome”. Elaborating, he said jackass is, “...devoid of anything mean-spirited. There’s nothing hateful about it.” He goes on to say, “...we give ourselves and each other a very hard time, but we’re all such attention whores, we’re begging for it.” He concluded with, “We’re just here to brighten up people’s day.” I think there’s something beautiful about that sentiment. 

To be friends for nearly 30 years and to do it while becoming famous for being endlessly dumb, but undeniably tough, is nothing short of astonishing. To create five movies like this with zero tragedies is remarkable. 

jackass is a premise that should have by any logic been a one and done forgotten time capsule of a by-gone era. Although this is a ranking, it’s all special in its own right. These jackasses helped raise me. And for that I am forever grateful. Thanks boys. It’s been real. 

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10. jackass: bad grandpa .5

The .5s are naturally going to be the weaker additions but hijinx and chaos still ensues. So this might be at the bottom, it’s still damn funny. Knoxville as Irving Zisman is one of the best things to ever happen to jackass. This is excess. This is extra. And much like cheese, you can never have too much of this particular naughty, elderly gentlemen. And by gentlemen I mean highly inappropriate, extremely vulgar, undeniably hilarious hope that we can all be so lucky to become such a ladies’ man.  

9. jackass 2.5

This was the first example that while the main movies are just skits and stunts, there’s a cohesiveness that just isn’t there with the .5s. It’s also the first foray into extra goodies but it’s also the first time that truly shows just how much footage they really shoot. With an average of five months of principal photography, all the way up to nine months in extreme cases, this was the beginning of letting the rest of us see just a small glimpse into the mental and physical fortitude it takes just to survive the day to day on a jackass set. 

8. jackass: bad grandpa

I’m not putting this higher on the list simply because it’s not strictly speaking a jackass movie. But it goes without saying that Irving Zisman alone with a psychotic little menace traveling across America is a recipe for disastrous hilarity. Little Billy entering the “Little Miss America” pageant, Irving using his grandson as his wingman, and of course the funeral. It has the spirit of a jackass movie with the added absurdity of an actual, kind of, sort of, plot.  

7. jackass 3.5

This is the extra madness from my personal favorite jackass movie. It showcases even more slow motion insanity while actually showing how these shots were achieved. It’s surprisingly both ridiculous and informative. Who would have ever thought of jackass as technological pioneers – flying dildos and all. 

6. jackass 4.5

For me personally this was the most unexpected .5 of them all simply because the advertising leading up to jackass forever suggested that was it. It was the end. So this certainly was a pleasant surprise. It’s also the first set of extra footage featuring the newbies who added a welcome injection of energy and questionable lip filler in the form of a scorpion. 

5. jackass

This was the beginning of the truest form of jackass. The television series is great in its own right but with a theatrical release and an R rating, jackass fully bloomed for the first time. It’s clear they were still finding their stride but there’s something endlessly watchable about its low quality, rudimentary editing and relatively small budget. It also proved that this franchise had legs to run for many years to come – 24 years to be exact. 

4. jackass: best and last

This entry is a bit of a conundrum because its strengths and distinct perspective from the rest of the movies is also what holds it back from being even greater. It’s also exactly what it needs to be. It needs flashbacks and revisiting old skits and stunts. But it’s because so much of the runtime is spent on old footage any fan of jackass has seen a thousand times, it makes the minimal new footage feel somewhat sparse. It’s also a reminder of all that makes this franchise so special. It highlights that while at its most basic, it’s a franchise of stupidity and absurdity and dangerous physical comedy, it’s also about the beauty of lifelong friendship. It’s also a bittersweet goodbye to our random heroes (R.I.P. Dunn). Because even our greatest heroes get old. Life moves on and this had to happen eventually. Unfortunately, even after nearly two and a half decades, it's still too soon. 

3. jackass 2

This is when everything went up – the budget, the stakes, the inordinate amount of full frontal male nudity. It’s also when jackass truly came into its own. Perhaps too it showcases the best of the openings featuring the entire main cast running from angry bulls. And of course it wouldn’t be jackass if they actually got away. The beehive limo. The toro totter. The unhinged riot control test. They upped the ante in just about every way. It also has the best ending skit of all-time with the Terror Taxi that is equal parts daring, stupid, indelicate, and side-splitting hilarious.  

2. jackass forever

While it would come to pass that they had one more in them, jackass forever truly felt like the end. With the added madness of the pandemic, somehow it allowed for the production to thrive. The beauty of jackass is their ability to pivot and adjust and come out even better than their original plans would have allowed. It was the premiere of Poopies, Zach, Jasper, Rachel, and Dark Shark. Each movie has allowed for one member to outshine the rest. In forever, it was Ehren McGhehey’s time to be the hero we all needed. For all of the carnage endured, one of the most difficult to watch stunts is the cup test. Particularly when Dave England used a pogo stick to land on McGhehey’s nuts causing a ruptured right testicle. And of course, Knoxville’s final encounter with a bull. In a single burst of violence, he sustained a brain hemorrhage, a severe concussion (Knoxville’s 16th concussion), a broken wrist, and broken ribs.   

1. jackass 3

For my money, this is jackass at full strength. It has Bam before he left it behind and of course thee Random Hero himself, the beloved and missed, Ryan Dunn. It was the debut of The Phantom Camera allowing for extreme slow motion sequences including a fantastic title opening and scenes including dildos launched from pvc launchers into the faces of both cast members and members of the crew. Steve-O faced his fears in The Poo Cocktail Supreme – getting launched 150 feet into the air as gravity took over, lifting gallons of shit (fun fact: it’s dog shit. They weren’t allowed to use human feces) and dumped all over a screaming Steve-O. The giant high five that wholly and violently launched Bam on his ass with extreme prejudice. The jet engine stunt. The beehive tetherball. And oh god the sweatsuit cocktail. 

On a personal note: I saw this for the first time in a packed theater and it is, to this day, one of my favorite theater experiences of all-time. Normally I want to destroy anyone who talks during a movie. But the magic of jackass is that crowd participation added a whole new dynamic that only lifted the chaos and comedy to new heights.