The title could be a threat or a shout of joy, it depends on the point of view. Viewed impartially, “Jackass Forever” is the fourth feature film of a phenomenon somewhere between drinking game humor and failed extreme sports stunts, which hit the music channel MTV in 2000: The show “Jackass” brought the world a never-ending parade of urine ice cream cones, wasabi – Snuff and beer enemas. Bawling teenagers balanced in panties studded with chicken over crocodile tanks, got tattooed on a mogul slope in an off-road vehicle or were catapulted into the air on bungee cords in the well-stocked dixi toilet. Subtle gags are different, but after the first season inventor Johnny Knoxville and his gang stars and their stunts became iconic.
Opponents still consider the show to be disgusting and irresponsible – a danger to imitative youth in particular and subtle wit in general. For fans of the phenomenon, however, there is hardly anything more cathartic than the anarchic comedy and ultimate self-mockery of the short episodes. Even more than twenty years after the first episode, the humor is still straightforward and the hooting is great when someone from the troupe doesn’t pull off their stunt.
Pain is on an equal footing here with situation comedy, which is repeatedly based on silent film slapstick and occasionally quotes sketches by Buster Keaton. But the focus of “Jackass” is not on making the stunts appear as simple and flowing as possible. Failure is clearly factored in. Where a Buster Keaton with an impassive stoneface walks through the tornado and towers through falling building facades, Knoxville and his crew shove each other into the catastrophe, hooting and with faces contorted in pain. For all the roughness of the stunts, the heartiness of the laughter that follows is not only contagious, but also has something liberating about it in its childlike innocence.
At its core, it’s about this crew’s friendship and their laughter
More important than any gag is always the mutual pat on the back, because at its core it’s about the friendship of this crew and their ability to laugh about themselves and their own bodies completely free of shame. Nudity is the great leveler here: Bodies big and small are just as funny as thin and fat, straight and crooked, as you watch them slide down a soft soap chute through the desert in super slow motion and land in the dirt. The number of penises bared in “Jackass” is arguably unprecedented in pop culture, but it’s also restfully de-sexualized as the troupe seeks comedy, finding each other’s weak points. In any case, they don’t seem to be running out of ideas.
Co-creator Spike Jonze, director of ludicrous independent films like “Being John Malkovich” (1999) or “Where the Wild Things Are” (2009), likes to tell in interviews that he believes Knoxville keeps confusing life with cartoons. Many of the stunts have their origins in the similarly brief scenes in the Looney Tunes. In one of his most famous clips, while Wile E. Coyote straps himself to a rocket to finally catch up with the Roadrunner, Knoxville falls into a lake with a huge bang on the same rocket. In the new film, he lets himself be shot into the sky as a human cannonball – in an Icarus costume, which is of course intended to be doubly ironic. The presumption of the Greek mythical Icarus is part of the concept here.
While the experience hasn’t shattered the recklessness with which Knoxville and his gang challenge each other, it’s also taught these now middle-aged guys to procrastinate. They always knew that getting punched between the legs by a heavyweight boxer would probably hurt. You can now estimate very precisely in advance how much it will hurt. The eyes wide open at the sight of the athlete are then an event in themselves, which within seconds combines the fear of the actual pain and disbelief at one’s own colossal stupidity.
Jackass Forever, USA 2021 – Director: Jeff Tremaine. Screenplay: Jeff Tremaine, Spike Jonze, Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O. Starring: Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Jason “Wee Man” Acuña, Chris Pontius, Dave England, Preston Lacy, Ehren McGhehey, Rachel Wolfson. Paramount. Theatrical release: March 10, 2022.