History & Legacy
During the late 1990s, actor and writer Johnny Knoxville had moved from Knoxville to Los Angeles. At the time, he worked for commercials to support his wife and baby daughter. He came up with many ideas doing this kind of line of work. One of which was to create an magazine article that tested multiple self-defence devices upon himself as a tribute to his hero, gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. The magazines that got in touch with him all declined to provide coverage because of liability concerns. In 1999, Knoxville was approached by Big Brother, a skateboarding magazine, for which Jeff Tremaine, an editor for the magazine.. He convinced Knoxville to perform this stunt and film it. The stunt included Knoxville trying pepper spray, a stun gun, a taser, and a .38 caliber gun with a bulletproof vest which was part of Big Brother video entitled Number 2. This also featured an appearance by future Jackass cast member Jason "Wee Man" Acuña. Some others that contributed to Big Brother back then were Rick Kosick, Chris Pontius, and Dave England, who would later on become part of the cast for Jackass


Meanwhile, Pennsylvanian skateboarder Bam Margera just finished filming with some his family and friends which were known as the CKY Crew (Camp Kill Yourself). It was released on home video as part of the CKY video series. It had stunts, pranks, and skateboarding with a cast that included one of future Jackass stars, Ryan Dunn. Both the Big Brother videos and the CKYreleases became a cult hit. It got the attention of Tremaine, who flew Bam Margera to Los Angeles in 2000 where he saw the second CKY video, Landspeed Presents: CKY2K. This video inspired Tremaine that the CKY group would be a perfect fit with the idea of a stunt and prank television show that Knoxville, Spike Jonze, and himself had been organizing. After creating demo footage, it was pitched to several networks. Saturday Night Live offered to make them a recurring segment on the show. However, that offer was rejected and created a bidding war between Comedy Central and MTV. This resulted in the three creators accepting a deal from MTV for a 30 minute weekly show with greater creative freedom and control.




Shortly after MTV deal, Tremaine brought forth a Florida resident who called himself Steve-O. He was working as a clown at a flea market. They had his videos showing his stunts for the television show, but none of them got approved by MTV management. To add more to the cast, England introduced his friend Ehren McGhehey, a guy from Oregon to become another extreme stunt participant for the show. Preston Lacy would become the last of what is considered to be part of the main cast to join. He auditioned midway through the show's lifespan by eating four bananas with the peels on. The show first broadcasted on October 1, 2000. After the second episode had aired, MTV gained its highest Sunday ratings in its history, by gaining 2.4 million viewers. The majority of viewers were 12- to 34-year-olds, which was MTV's main target demographic.



The show would go on to have 3 seasons, with 28 episodes, multiple spinoffs, and three movies. There has been rumors of coming up with a forth movie, but the main cast and crew is divided on this idea. Some of the crew want to continue making more content for Jackass, while others want to expand or diversify their careers, or move on with their lives.

Controversy
Since the start, the show had been controversial. It had been criticized for its indecency and encouragement of dangerous behavior. Since the show first began broadcasting in 2000, Jackass had regularly displayed many warnings and disclaimers, reminding viewers that the stunts performed on the show were extremely dangerous and should not be tried at home. These warnings appeared before and after each episode, after each commercial break, and in a pop-up that ran along the bottom of the screen during some of the more dangerous stunts. The pop-up included their signature "skull and crutches" logo at the bottom right of the TV screen to represent that the stunt being performed was very hazardous. Despite all these warnings, the show still has been blamed for multiple deaths and injuries involving teens and children reenacting numerous stunts performed on the show.