In the late 1990s, aspiring actor and writer Johnny Knoxville had moved from Knoxville to Los Angeles and landed work in commercials in order to support his wife and infant daughter.
In 1996, Knoxville was contacted by Big Brother, a skateboarding magazine for which Jeff Tremaine was an editor, and convinced Knoxville to do the stunt and film it. The stunt featured Knoxville testing out pepper spray, a stun gun, a taser, and a .38 caliber gun with a bulletproof vest. Other contributors to Big Brother at this time were Chris Pontius, and Dave England, who went on to become a part of the Jackass crew, Dimitry Elyashkevich, who became a cinematographer, Rick Kosick who became a cameraman, and Sean Cliver, who became a photographer.
Around this time, Pennsylvania resident and professional skateboarder Bam Margera was filming his family and friends, collectively known as the CKY crew (short for "Camp Kill Yourself") and released them on home video as part of the CKY video series. The videos featured stunts, pranks, and skateboarding with a cast that included Ryan Dunn, Brandon DiCamillo, Raab Himself, Rake Yohn and Margera's family, mother April, father Phil, uncle Don Vito, and elder brother Jess. Like the Big Brother videos, the CKY releases became a cult hit and attracted the attention of Tremaine, who flew Margera to Los Angeles in 1999 and saw the second CKY video, CKY2K.
The video convinced Tremaine that the CKY group would suit the idea of a stunt and prank television show that Knoxville, Spike Jonze, and himself had been planning.After demo footage had been shot and pitched to several networks, Saturday Night Live offered to make them subject of a recurring segment on the show. The offer was rejected, as a bidding war between Comedy Central and MTV resulted in the three accepting a deal from the latter for a half-hour weekly show and greater creative control.
Soon after the MTV deal, Tremaine approached Florida native Steve-O where he worked as a clown at a flea market, and had him film videos of his stunts for the television show, but none were cleared by MTV management. To round out the cast, England brought in his friend Ehren McGhehey, a fellow Oregon resident and extreme stunt participant. Preston Lacy would be the last of what is now considered the main cast to join, after he and Knoxville worked together with Knoxville's ex-wife's clothing line. Knoxville told Preston that he was making a new TV show and he asked him if he could write some ideas. Knoxville then convinced Preston to perform the stunts himself.
In a 2001 interview with Rolling Stone, Knoxville questioned how long the MTV show could last, and soon after announced that the series would end after its third season aired. He also stated discontent with MTV and the censors, who, from the start of season two, increasingly gave notes regarding what the show could and could not depict. In addition, Steve-O claimed that the cast salaries paid by MTV were meager. Because of problems with MTV's standards and practices department, the Jackass crew did not attempt to create a finale to bring the show to a close.
Ryan Dunn was an American stunt performer, television personality, actor and comedian. On June 20, 2011, at around 3:30 a.m, Ryan and Zachary Hartwell, a production assistant on Jackass Number Two, were returning from Barnaby's West Chester bar, in Ryan's Porsche 911 GT3 when Ryan veered off the road and struck a tree, after which the Porsche burst into flames in West Goshen Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Both Ryan, who had turned 34 nine days prior, and 29-year-old Zachary were killed in the crash.
