The Jackass franchise, currently enjoying its last theatrical bow with a fifth and final film fittingly dubbed Best and Last, is indeed “really gay,” per Johnny Knoxville himself.
In a recent interview with Michael Sebastian for Esquire, Knoxville, who co-created the film and TV (and video game) franchise with Spike Jonze and Jeff Tremaine, was asked about the “positive masculinity” at the heart of its appeal, leading to a mention of the then-imminent debut of a Jackass-themed float in the West Hollywood Pride Parade.
“It’s just kind of funnier if you’re naked,” Knoxville said. “And then, if you’re naked, you’ve got all kinds of possibilities. Speaking of, me and the guys—and I think I can retire after this—we get to have a float in the Gay Pride Parade in West Hollywood and I am ecstatic. I feel like we’ve arrived, and we’re all thrilled about it.”
Asked about the LGBTQIA+ community’s longstanding embrace of Jackass, Knoxville reiterated his enthusiasm for this reading of his work, which now spans over a quarter of a century.
“Well, Jackass is really gay, you know?” he said, as seen below. “So, we’re thrilled by it. It’s an honor to be in the parade, so we’re looking forward to it. I was picking out outfits today. I will be cute. Probably [wear] something nautical. My wife’s a costume designer. She’s helping me.”
To mark Jackass: Best and Last’s release last Friday, Complex took an extensive look back at the franchise’s history, starting with its MTV debut in 2000, and the subsequent superstardom that followed for Knoxville and company. As we highlighted then, Knoxville isn’t the only Jackass star to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ love the crew has gotten over the years.
“Jackass has and will always be gay,” Rachel Wolfson, one of the more recent additions to the Jackass team, said on X this month.
Take a deeper dive into the Jackass history here.
