• News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
Johnny Knoxville Says 'Cancel Culture' Will Never Affect Jackass

Home> Film & TV

Updated 11:48 8 Feb 2022 GMTPublished 09:49 1 Feb 2022 GMT

Johnny Knoxville Says 'Cancel Culture' Will Never Affect Jackass

Jackass Forever hits cinemas this week, and don't expect any half measures; if you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough.

Cameron Frew

Cameron Frew

Cries of 'woke' and 'cancel culture' belong nowhere near Jackass, according to Johnny Knoxville. After all, 'if you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough'.

It's among the most repeated whines to emerge from the half-life, volatile cycle of pop discourse: apparently, cancel culture is killing comedy. Chris Rock said, 'Everybody’s scared to make a move,' Dawn French claimed 'edgy' material would earn a comic 'haters', and even the inimitable Sir Billy Connolly believes he'd be cancelled for his 'fearless' material (of course, the Big Yin's stand-ups are impenetrable).

The opposing proof is in Jackass's sh*t-caked, bile-inducing pudding: just look at Terror Taxi, a skit where a white man poses as a terrorist with pubic hair on his face (I'll give you one guess on the racial guise); and The Switcheroo, where Preston Lacy swaps out for Phil Margera in the middle of the night and 'cops a feel' of April. Those moments, and plenty more, and Jackass has never been 'cancelled', so to coin the term – and it never will, because the notion is totally irrelevant to their modus operandi.

We're days away from the release of Jackass Forever, the fourth big-screen parade for MTV's loveable band of prank-hardy scoundrels. While there's not quite as many 'man on the street' japes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the boys (plus the first-ever lady Jackass, Rachel Wolfson) 'turned it up on themselves'.

I sat down with Johnny Knoxville to talk about the movie, the history of Jackass and why the series will never be subjected to the woes of so-called cancel culture.

Advert

When asked whether they felt a need to restrain themselves in today's more reactive climate, he said, 'No, we didn't have to bite our tongue at all, because slapstick... you can't really come at slapstick with the cancel culture.'

Johnny Knoxville (Paramount Pictures)
Johnny Knoxville (Paramount Pictures)

Look back to Terror Taxi (which just so happens to be a common favourite among the legacy stars): even while Danger Ehren sings to the devious cackles of his co-stars, supposedly based on his 9/11 research, he makes a point of noting how it's not intended to mock anyone specific; if anything, it's satirising other people's prejudices and paranoia.

And that's just the point: when it comes to Jackass, they're only ever laughing at themselves, nobody else. 'It's comedy, and the spirit of our films... you can't come after that. All the meanness happens to each other,' Knoxville continued.

Advert

'We're not mean to other people, and we're not meaning to make other people look like assholes. We wanna make ourselves the butt of the joke. That has nothing to do with Jackass.'

If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via [email protected]  

Featured Image Credit: Paramount Pictures

Topics: Entertainment, Jackass, Johnny Knoxville, Film and TV

Cameron Frew
Cameron Frew

Entertainment Editor at UNILAD. 2001: A Space Odyssey is the best film ever made, and Warrior is better than Rocky. That's all you need to know.

X

@frewfilm

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

6 hours ago
a day ago
  • Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images
    6 hours ago

    Trump supporters call for Jimmy Kimmel to be fired for ‘disgusting’ comments following Charlie Kirk’s assassination

    Charlie Kirk was fatally shot during an event at Utah Valley University last week

    Film & TV
  • Amy Sussman/Getty Images
    a day ago

    Fans shocked by Sydney Sweeney's 'incredible' transformation in new boxing movie trailer

    The sports biopic focuses on the Coal Mine's Daughter, Christy Martin

    Film & TV
  • Silver Screen Collection/Getty
    a day ago

    Hollywood legend Robert Redford dies aged 89

    Tributes have been pouring in for late actor Robert Redford

    Film & TV
  • ABC News
    a day ago

    News anchor speaks out with resignation after being suspended for 'honoring' Charlie Kirk on air

    Beni Rae Harmony quit the company after paying tribute to her former boss live on air last week

    Film & TV
  • Johnny Knoxville opens up on the Jackass stunt nobody wanted to do that made Bam Margera cry
  • Johnny Knoxville is being sued for prank which left victim 'traumatized'
  • Sister Wives star Christine Brown makes shock admission about first time having sex with ex Kody Brown
  • Man helping Bam Margera record Johnny Knoxville diss track claims he's just trying to help him