Johnny Knoxville, fresh off bringing laughs and tears in equal measure with the theatrical rollout of Jackass: Best and Last, is giving his take on the definitive ranking of the most iconic stunts from across the beloved franchise’s history.
Sitting down with Complex’s Jordan Rose for the latest episode of Re-Rank, the Jackass star and co-creator was presented with a unique challenge from the jump: Pinpointing what he personally considers the best Jackass stunt. Naturally, he opted for an unforgettable one featuring the late Ryan Dunn, who died in 2011 at the age of 34.
“It’s one of the early ones, and just because it involves Ryan Dunn, the wonderful Ryan Dunn,” Knoxville told Complex when bringing up a stunt from the first Jackass film involving the insertion of a toy car into Dunn’s ass, adding that he has a “big place” in his heart for it.
For those unfamiliar, Dunn, using anal lube and a condom, does indeed manage to give the toy car in question a new temporary home inside his body, followed by a visit to a doctor to secure an X-ray.
Dunn goes on to tell the doctor he was simply “partying last night with some frat guys” and has been unable to “walk right since,” which was enough for him to secure the coveted X-ray image.
“We thought it would be funny if someone stuck a car up their ass,” Knoxville recalled during his conversation with Complex. “Initially, it was supposed to be Steve-O. He had to back out. Not his choice. But Ryan Dunn stepped in to shove the toy car up his ass and go get an X-ray because we wanted it to be, like, the perfect shot of a toy car in his ass. And I’ll be damned if that’s not exactly what happened.”
Knoxville said that he and the Jackass crew were not expecting the doctor to be so “wonderful” and “sweet,” which only added to the hilarity, as did the accompanying nurse who clearly “hated” them. As for Dunn, per Knoxville, he managed to pull off the perfect performance despite the absurdity of it all.
“Dunn played it perfectly,” he said, as seen in the full interview below. “When you’re doing a prank and it’s an outrageous premise, you gotta play it straight, in my opinion. He played it so perfectly straight.”
As always, feel free to re-rank Jackass’s most painfully funny moments yourself by heading this way, then be sure to dive deep into an in-depth look back at the franchise’s history by reading this.
