I can't remember the first time I laughed at some idiot getting punched in the dick. The low blow has been a slapstick comedy staple for as long as there's been slapstick comedy, popping up in otherwise dramatic stories like 1969's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, to proudly inane boinkfests like 1994's Dumb and Dumber. It's classic comedy: surprising, painful, rude, and easily reciprocated. It's also pretty egalitarian as far as comic violence goes. Everyone who has a dick reacts to getting the shit slapped out of it the same way: doubled over in pain, vowing revenge. They'll probably get it, too. Only the biggest fools think they can execute a dick punch and not expect to receive one of their own some day.
For 26 years, Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Dave England, Danger Ehren, Preston Lacy, Jason "Wee Man" Acuña and the rest of the Jackass cast have elevated hitting each other in the crotch to, if not an art form, then a science. They have attempted, and likely invented, countless ways to inflict testicular trauma to one another, screaming the whole time, laughing even longer. (Let's not sell them short: They are also virtuosos with bodily fluids, angry bulls, stun guns, and collecting concussions.) Over time, this became endearing: What was once a boundary-pushing MTV show about young white guys behaving badly and a terrible influence on viewers is now widely seen as a moving ode to male friendship and positive masculinity.
If this shift confuses you, I understand. Are these not movies and TV shows about getting punched in the dick? Yes, they are. They never stopped being that, and worse. A guy drank horse cum in the second film, Jackass Number Two, Steve-O invited bees to swarm his dick in the fourth movie, Jackass Forever. These dudes are in their fifties now, and still giving and receiving dozens of cock punches, still filming pounds and pounds of shit pushed fresh from the ass, live on camera. Jackass: Best and Last does not shy away from that stuff, but it is persuasive that maybe all this vulgar camaraderie really might mean something.
The fifth (and by all accounts last) Jackass movie is a hybrid celebration of favorite/previously unaired stunts and new buffoonery, and it features a lot more of the Jackass cast talking about Jackass than any previous film. (In the other movies, there is almost zero talking about Jackass, just doing Jackass.) Twice, Knoxville is moved to tears because this is the end of the road for him and the gang, forced to hang up their jock straps for good thanks to the tides of time. It's not stated in the film, but a big reason for this is a stunt Knoxville performed in 2022's Jackass Forever, in which Knoxville resurrected a running gag in which he gets hit by a charging bull. The hit was violent and frightening, sending Knoxville to the hospital where he was told any more head trauma will kill him. Thus, in this final ride he is forced to mostly sit on the sidelines, taking a few electrocutions like a good sport.
From this angle, Jackass: Best and Last is about mortality, the cast respectfully saluting Death where past movies rubbed their balls in its face. The stunts are less extreme but themed around aging, with robot prostate exams and a colonoscopy-themed challenge where contestants chug laxatives and play a Twister-like game while shitting themselves.
But there's also all the past footage to think about. (Again, all meaning is post-hoc when it comes to Jackass; no one is thinking about this stuff while the camera is running.) There's 26 years of stunts represented here, depicting willfully foolish young men growing into willfully stupid middle-aged men. Hair turns gray, teeth are replaced, scars accumulate, and friends are lost. Two cast members are commemorated via archival footage, both the late Ryan Dunn, a core member of the team who died in a drunk driving accident in 2011, and Bam Margera, who is estranged from the cast after he allegedly violated a sobriety agreement during the shooting of 2022's Jackass Forever.
There's always been a tricky ouroboros-esque quality to the Jackass crew, the knowledge that they'd probably never do any of this crazy shit if they weren't a little messed up, and that doing all this stuff – in addition to the fame that came with it – likely exacerbated whatever their flaws were. Jackass director and co-creator Jeff Tremaine, referring to the cast's extraordinary mix of charisma and recklessness, called them "a collection of exceptional fuck-ups," noting that the magic of Jackass really is in these specific guys coming together in this specific way. This is the subtext to the damage they put themselves through, and the way they help each other up: Who else would do that? Jackass is about a group of guys who saved each other, and did so by developing a practice of pulling each other back from the brink of disaster on a nigh-daily basis.
Key to appreciating Jackass is knowing that, had your life turned out a little differently, you would be this stupid. Or you are this stupid, just in ways that are more socially acceptable, or at least more commonplace. Maybe you did well in school and had prospects, or were fortunate enough to have some social mobility, or your brand of stupidity does not involve such a juvenile fixation on penises. The average Jackass stunt is still a useful metaphor for the recklessness that makes us feel alive, for the friendship that can make any pain or humiliation endurable, for the vulnerability that comes with every wrinkle of your asshole becoming very familiar to your social circle. Jackass is a mirror. You stare into the pale glow of some guy's reflectively white ass cheeks and you see the kind of person you are. Maybe, as Niko Stratis movingly wrote about her transition, it helps you be brave enough to finally be the person you really are.
Writing too much about Jackass is its own kind of stunt; the word count creeps up and so does the likelihood you've embarrassed yourself somehow, like you've shit your pants in word form. It is silly to position these clowns and their subsidized chicanery as some form of cultural sin-eaters, as if any of us needs to know what it's like to shove a toy car in our rectum and get it X-rayed. But I think of the bad shoulder I have from the wrestling antics my friends and I pulled as teenagers, how fucking funny it was when Juanmiguel, a full head shorter than I and built like a goddamn Mack truck, ran faster than I thought humanly possible to spear my lanky frame into a swimming pool with such force that the wind blew out of my lungs and my ass skid across the bottom of the pool.
I'm not that same kind of moron anymore, but I am still pretty stupid. Stupid enough to do anything as long as I've got my friends with me. Stupid enough to think I've got a chance at a life that I want. Stupid enough to write about it all. And yeah: Stupid enough to laugh when I see someone get punched in the dick.
