Talk about tortured artists.

7 Jackass stunts that resulted in gnarly real-life injuries

Talk about tortured artists.

By Sezin Devi Koehler

June 26, 2026 12:48 p.m. ET

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The 'Jackass' crew promoting 'Jackass: The Movie' in 2002. Credit:

As the *Jackass** *theme song goes, “If you’re gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough.” And for the creators and cast of *Jackass*, being tough means withstanding some pretty gnarly real-life injuries from their on-screen shenanigans.

Created by Jeff Tremaine, Spike Jonze, and stuntman Johnny Knoxville in 2000 — and starring Knoxville, Steve-O, Bam Margera, Ryan Dunn, Ehren McGehey, Dave England, Chris “Party Boy” Pontius, Jason “Wee Man” Acuña, Preston Lacy, and Brandon DiCamillo — he original MTV series was built around one simple premise: What highly idiotic physical stunts could they pull off without killing themselves — and get it all on camera? The series ran for three seasons between 2000 and 2001, shattering television conventions and quickly becoming a cult favorite.

But as Knoxville's movie career took off in the wake of his *Jackass* notoriety — and Jonze (*Being John Malkovich*) became a critical darling — the crew brought their small-screen hijinks to the big screen. There, the stunts grew more elaborate and extreme, and the injuries suffered by a group of best friends with questionable judgment only became more severe.

With their fifth film, *Jackass: Best and Last** *hitting theaters this weekend, we've rounded up the *Jackass *stunts that caused very real and sometimes very long-lasting injuries. Do not try this at home.

Department store boxing

Johnny Knoxville after getting knocked out by Butterbean.

What’s ultimately surprising about Johnny Knoxville’s 16 — maybe 17 — concussions is that there weren't more of them, given the nature of his work on *Jackass*.

One of his most severe happened during the "Department Store Boxing" sketch of the first *Jackass *movie, wherein Knoxville squared off against professional heavyweight boxer Butterbean. Knoxville later told **: “Well, it wasn't much of a fight. It was as one-sided as a train wreck.”

This particular train wreck, however, sent Knoxville to the hospital with a severe concussion and stitches. Adorably, and without a hint of irony, the skit ends with Knoxville being taken away in an ambulance and asking, “Is Butterbean okay?” No bro left behind.

That’s not to downplay the severity of the injury, of course, which had lasting effects. "I got vertigo, and that lasted for a few weeks," he recalled. "Every time I would sit up the room would spin, if I drove around a curve the room would spin. That was pretty crazy."

Johnny Knoxville’s last rodeo

Johnny Knoxville about to get destroyed by a bull.

Butterbean wasn’t the only force of nature to ravage Johnny Knoxville during the making of a *Jackass *film. A rodeo bull aptly named Pecker Wrecker, featured in *Jackass Forever*, might have been one of Knoxville's favorite costars.

He previously told EW that bulls are his favorite scene partners. “They've been so good to me, bulls. They've been so good to our franchise. They're really selfless — they just want to get you good footage, no matter the cost. They're not thinking about themselves, they're just thinking about that idiot standing in front of them. They just hate anything that moves. If it's moving, they want to make it stop moving forever. So for that, we bless them."

But this beast absolutely went to town on Knoxville, leaving him with a prolonged hospital stay, one of the worst concussions of his life, a brain hemorrhage, a broken wrist, and a broken rib. Production typically saved Knoxville's most dangerous stunts for the final days of filming, but the damage from this one was so severe that he couldn't complete the handful of skits he still had left to shoot.

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Bam Margera’s (infected) penis butt brand

Bam Margera cooling off his branded bum in 'Jackass Number Two'.

Broken bones are par for the course on *Jackass*. Bam Margera broke his tailbone in two places during the first season of *Jackass*, telling *Berrics *for their “Battle Scars” show that a broken tailbone it’s a grin-and-bear-it injury since doctors can’t put a cast on it.

But perhaps the most on-brand injury for *Jackass* came during *Jackass Number Two**,* when Margera got his rear end branded with a penis stencil by Ryan Dunn. Because Margera understandably couldn’t hold still, Dunn ended up hitting him with the hot poker several times, creating what was at first a hilarious hologram penis effect.

But the amusement didn’t last long. Margera tried to soothe the pain by submerging his fresh brand in a tub of filthy farm water, which resulted in a life-threatening staph infection that landed him in the hospital.

Danger Ehren’s Lamborghini tooth pull

Ehren McGhehey after a Lamborghini ripped his tooth out.

If you’re gonna film in 3D, the stunts have to go that extra mile, too. And they literally did so in *Jackass 3D**, *with Ehren “Danger” McGhehey tying a fishing line to his tooth and the bumper of Margera's Lamborghini. The crew then floored the car, taking McGhehey's incisor with it. Yes, it looks as painful as it sounds.

It gets worse when you discover that this roadway dentistry didn't just yank McGhehey's front tooth — it fractured his upper jaw and the bones around his eye socket.

Like Margera's broken tailbone, these breaks aren’t the kind you can treat in a traditional fashion, so McGhehey simply had to go about his merry way until they healed on their own. While none of this seems funny in retrospect, it’s just a tiny bit hilarious that McGhehey was under the impression his tooth would grow back and is visibly shocked to find out it won’t. Maybe it’s all the concussions?

Steve-O’s broken bones and severe concussions

Steve-O in 'Jackass Forever'.

Yeah, yeah, yeah — broken bones on a *Jackass* set almost seem passé at this point. But some of these broken bones are kind of important ones and could have killed or paralyzed the stuntmen had they not been treated quickly.

In a stunt that's shown only briefly during the *Jackass Number Two* credits, for example, Steve-O fractured his back while falling down a flight of stairs in a bellhop cart. "I was out of filming for [months]," he recalled in a 2020 YouTube video. "That's why I had so little footage in *Jackass 2* because I was just laid up with a broken back."

In a 2022 video, Steve-O revealed that he went to the hospital the most while filming *Jackass Forever*. One of his more serious injuries occurred when he was knocked unconscious while performing the marching band segment on treadmills. He has no memory of getting to the hospital, even though he had regained consciousness and was filming videos for social media and promoting his upcoming stand-up tour on his phone.

Another *Jackass Forever* stunt resulted in Steve-O snapping his collarbone on camera, requiring surgery and metal pins and plates to put his shoulder back together. And after all that, the entire scene ended up getting cut from the film. Rude.

Danger Ehren’s ruptured testicle

The moment before...

They don’t call him Danger for nothing! While filming *Jackass Forever, *McGhehey ruptured a testicle after convincing costar Dave England to jump on his groin with a pogo stick. The cup he was wearing only provided so much protection, and he ended up in the hospital.

While we’re on the topic of McGhehey, he's up there with Knoxville and Steve-O in terms of on-set injuries. He also suffered a broken back after riding a shopping cart at 30 miles an hour off a ramp and into Lake Tahoe.

He made a tally of his severe and sometimes life-threatening injuries in a 2010 interview with *Willamette Week*. “Once I started filming [*Jackass]*, I broke my arm. I've had two surgeries on my finger. I broke my nose four times. I've had nine surgeries on my knee total. Lost a total of now three teeth basically. Broke my back. Sunburned my body so bad that it took three months for it to actually heal and I still have the Speedo line and my legs swelled up so bad."

Ryan Dunn’s horse-drag blood clot

Ryan Dunn and Bam Margera being dragged by horses in 'Jackass Number Two'.

Ryan Dunn was one of the more low-key members of the *Jackass* crew, often gravitating toward the more skit-friendly than stunt-heavy segments. Who can forget the "Butt X-Ray" from *Jackass: The Movie*, featuring an unwitting proctologist and a surprise toy car tucked in Dunn's posterior?

However, in *Jackass Number Two*, Dunn did a dangerous stunt where he was dragged behind a horse, during which he was slammed into the ground several times. The stunt left him with shoulder and nerve damage, which eventually led to a life-threatening blood clot that required surgery because of its proximity to his heart and brain. Speaking with Film Threat, he revealed that he also contracted Lyme disease while he was "bedridden" from that injury.

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Dunn’s last role was in *Jackass 3D*. Shortly after its 2010, release, he died in a car accident at the age of 34. *Jackass Forever *was dedicated to Dunn and concluded with a moving tribute to their fallen comrade.

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Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Comedy”