The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Johnny Knoxville

Episode Date: July 18, 2023

Johnny Knoxville joins Andy Richter to discuss the colorful characters of Johnny’s childhood in Tennessee, why Johnny chose to put “Jackass” on MTV instead of “Saturday Night Live,” finding your motivation through parenthood, and the new unscripted comedy series, “The Prank Panel.” Interview recorded June 15th, 2023.

Hi everybody, it's Andy Richter. This is the three questions and I'm excited today because I get to talk with one of my favorite people and I don't like people generally, but I'm talking to Johnny Knoxville today. We finally got this to happen. Yes, I'm very happy to be here. Thank you, and face-to-face and everything. Yes. What are you doing with yourself these days? You're promoting something particular, right?

Yeah, the prank panel on ABC. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I haven't seen a full episode yet because I've been a little busy getting married. Well, congratulations. Thank you, thank you. You can go on the Hulu to see a full episode. I got to see it because I love everybody involved, you and Gabby and Eric,

and I've heard some stuff about it, like Eric quitting because of you. Yeah, he quit three times in the first week. Wow. It was a stressful week. Like really seriously quit? Yeah. First time I was in Minnesota to see my girlfriend's parents, and Kim will call and say, like, Eric just quit.

I'm like, why? He's like, you're pranking him. He doesn't like it. I was like, oh, I didn't know what to say. You know, I thought that was part of the gig. Yeah, yeah. But, and so eventually he quit a second time a couple of days later. And then later that week, he was done.

Wow. He was done. And that's when I realized, I was like, okay, man, I just won't prank you anymore. You know, I think on his show, he's the hammer. Yeah. And he doesn't like being the nail, and I understand that. Yeah. And so, you know.

Yeah, I can see that. Yeah. Did you prank your kids growing up? Did you ever do stuff? No. I mean, small things, but nothing like I don't want to give them issues. You know? Any more issues.

If I start, then i get kind of lost yeah right and i get excited and it gets worse yeah i think it's funnier but it's worse for that person so i don't want to go like people when i'm doing films they're like oh you better not prank me i'm like i i won't yeah i'm not different yeah's a different, yeah, that's a different, you know. Yeah, that's a different hat that I wear. yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Were you always that way? I mean, you grew up in Knoxville. Were you always fucking with people? Yeah, well,

that's how my family showed affection to each other. That's sick. That's real sick. Is by just giving each other hell. Yeah.

Right? It's whoever got so upset, they ran upstairs and slammed their bedroom door. Then the whole rest of the family was thrilled. You know? Oh. I don't know why. It just, and that's kind of. Yeah.

Trying to cause that, I guess it's chaos. Yeah. You know? Yeah, yeah. It's ingrained in me. And so as I've gotten older, I've learned to like only apply that to work. Right, right. Because, you know.

Does there, because there is kind of, I mean, in my opinion, that kind of pranking and that kind of stuff, there is hostility in it. Like when you taste somebody, that's an act of violence. Yeah. That inflicts pain. You know what I mean? Right, right, right. Yeah. No, I get that.

Yeah. Do you think there's some part of you that's like like where there's a little seed of anger and all of this stuff? No, it's all in good fun i think just my what in my mind what is acceptable and normal is not the same for the person sitting next to me you know you play rough yeah yeah yeah and and with all the guys that's how we express ourselves within that group. Right, right. And if I thought about it, it would be like, that's maybe not a little abnormal, but it's been normalized. Yeah.

So pain, my relationship to pain is not your relationship to pain. Right. It's more comedic. Yeah. Pain is more comedic to me. Yeah. So, I mean, even when I get hurt, my nervous reaction is to laugh if I'm not knocked out.

Right. So. Yeah, no, I mean, everybody's seen that a million times. Yeah. I mean, not a million times. You know, you see it in the movies where you get up, where you've been fucked up by a bull or whatever and you're kind of laughing and like haha yeah yeah yeah i think

the time the one where the bull really gets you basically in the dick you're going oh yeah i think that was a jackass number two they got had me against a twirl top. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was sketchy. Because then you had to, like, shove a tube up your penis. Not from that, but from trying to backflip a motorcycle for. Oh, I thought it was on. No, no, I was trying to backflip a motorcycle for Matt Hoffman's tribute to Evel Knievel. We did one with Matt. Yeah, yeah.

And I didn't know how to ride a motorcycle. Oops. So Travis Pastrana was trying didn't know how to ride a motorcycle. So Matt or so Travis Pastrana was trying to, trying to tell me how to do it and pull the back flip. But I mean, he was having to let the clutch out for me. Oh, wow. And when someone's telling me how to do something in that, in those instances, I'm not listening at all. And I did the exact thing he told me not to do is like, when you come off the motorcycle, when you come off the ramp, don't let go of the handlebars because it will turn into a rocket and come back down and smash you. And that's what it did.

It went up about 20 feet and came back down and broke its handlebars off of my crotch. Oh. So, yeah. Now, is that fun? Like every day when you're having to deal with that? Like that isn't. I mean. Are there regrets during that?

Are you like. No. Really? Wow. No. I mean, I went straight to the hospital, but I mean, it was kind of frightening. It's a little frightening because you got my, I had, every time my heart would beat, blood would shoot out the head of my penis. So I'd never seen that before.

Yeah, no, it's not a normal thing. It's not, yeah. So that part was frightening, but it didn't really bother me that much, honestly. You should have taped that. That would go on YouPorn. It probably is. Somebody would watch that on YouPorn. I'm sure some cameraman got it.

Yeah. You know, but yeah, that would be. Penis shooting blood search hello louise um well were you a troublemaker growing up i mean you had two older sisters right so that kind of makes you the baby yeah eight and yeah they're eight and uh 11 years old wow yeah so you really were the baby. I was a baby. Wow. Yeah. And our house was the house to hang out.

So all their girlfriends were coming around and they were just, you know, giving. Doting on you. Yeah. Yeah. It was great. Yeah. You know, and I was, I had trouble. Well, my dad was such a huge spirit and huge personality.

And he was constantly fucking with his friends and employees at his tire company yeah yeah you know and so i grew up idolizing him and watching him he would stage gunfights at the christmas parties one year he staged a gunfight with you know uh he had two guys get an argument and they pulled out two blank guns and started firing at each other and everyone ran into the streets terrified. Jesus Christ. So the next year he had a couple of new employees. He's like, I know what we're going to do.

And we give you these blank guns and you're going to get in a fight and you're going to start firing them at each other and everyone's going to like freak out. But what he didn't tell those guys, as soon as they started firing blank guns at each other, he had a bunch of other people pull out guns and fire them at them and so those guys didn't come back or they quit oh my god yeah so he went pretty far wow yeah yeah that is like that's not normal yeah yeah i mean but it is like it is fun you know like you got you got an injection of like and i you know like i had an aunt that was like this to me who just like i said you know i gave a eulogy for when she passed away i said she insisted on having fun yeah and that was very

like formative for me yeah in terms of what i. And you're in the same boat, but it's just like elaborate and violent. Yeah. You know, and fucking with people, you know. And all the characters that work for my father. Yeah, yeah. Like the, you know, like Big George and ass kicking Robert and Big Sam. There's a guy named Woodrow Wilson Boxcar Johnson Jr. Wow.

And his father wasn't a senior. He just, that was his name. But he was the tire groover. Yeah. My dad's. She could re-groove the tires. And then I would sometimes go over and help black the tires. And he got a brand new tire.

But Boxcar was always getting in trouble with the law getting arrested for this or that yeah they they was at the police station and they're like um uh mr johnson we know you robbed the convenience store because we got your fingerprints he goes you don't got my prints because i was wearing gloves he was that guy yeah he was constantly you know he was so sweet but he was just a terrible terrible that he shouldn't have been in the thieving business because he wasn't that good at it right right man did your dad like stick his neck out for these people did he ever like you know bail anybody out course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like, I mean, he had these characters that worked there. Yeah.

Or like straight out of Cormac McCarthy just died. Yeah. And some of the people my father grew up with are characters that Cormac McCarthy wrote about. Yeah. And the characters at my dad's tire shop were just as crazy as the ones in the book. And there's so much crossover because they all knew each other. Wow. Yeah.

Wow, that's amazing. Yeah. It was an amazing crew. His best friend, Jackie Gilbert, he was a pro boxer, but he also was a crop duster who crashed 12 times in his planes, and he would hitchhike across Mexico or South Africa and always want dad to come along. He also kind of, you know, I think some things were flown into America on planes, some little contraband. Yeah, yeah. Sometimes we had a guy living with us for six or eight months. Wow.

And your mom was okay with all of this? Yeah, it was fine. She just thought everyone, my mom was the type, everyone's her little boy. Yeah. And she just babied all these guys that were probably pretty scary if you met them in an alley, but they all loved her. Yeah. Yeah. It was crazy.

Mom was a nut too. Mom was a nut, too. There was a story on Mom. She's got two of my sisters driving uptown in Knoxville, and there's a huge gang fight with guys with bats and chains. It was the 70s. That's people just annihilating each other. And Mom pulls her car into the middle of the gang fight and lays on her horn. She's like, hey, you boys stop that right now. Boys, stop acting ugly.

And they were so confused by this little lady pulling into the middle of the fights with her daughters in the car. They all dropped their shit and walked away. It's just like she was nuts. Wow walked away. Yeah. It's just like, she was nuts. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. That's fantastic. Yeah.

She was funny. Did you give them a lot of grief? I mean, did you? No, I didn't. Yeah. You were a good boy. I would get in trouble. I would go out on the weekends or get in fights or drink or whatever.

Yeah. But I never was disrespectful to my mom or dad right you know i would i would get in trouble but i would never like say anything right yeah and were they i mean how did they how did they react when you would get in trouble and i mean what are we talking about getting arrested are we talking about no like depends on what kind of trouble like if i if I got in a fight at school or something, but the other guy punched first. Yeah. No sweat. They didn't care.

But if something happened where someone punched me and I didn't punch back, then I would be in the basement. You know, I'd be in so much trouble. Wow. But did you ever punch first? Yeah, I always tried to. Yeah, yeah. But would that have been okay? Yeah, it depends on the situation.

Right, right. They just never wanted me not to defend myself. Yeah. Yeah, it was weird because mom wanted me to behave but she only liked boys that misbehaved yeah so it was it was very tough for me growing up trying to yeah you know how to handle that because i make signals like you know so yeah yeah um well she married your dad so she exactly he was wildly misbehaved can't you tell my love at what point do you start thinking that you want to get out of Knoxville and start doing something show busy? Because your career is kind of, it's just sort of, it's a, you know, no one else has had the career that you have had, you know?

Yeah, I mean, I think around I was early teens around 14 i'm like i can't if i stay here i felt like i'm going to get in trouble because a lot of my most of my friends either went to jail or became cops right it's that black and white yeah and i was like i just need to get out of here. And, you know, my cousin was a singer and songwriter, and he had a big influence. Roger Allen Waite. Yeah, Roger Allen Waite. Yeah. And I remember being in a bar with him. I mean, I'd be in bars at 14.

Yeah. And he gave me a copy of On the Road by Jack Kerouac, and it just blew my mind that you could let your mind go that free and live that way yeah and and that really opened my mind up just like there's a whole world out there and it's in Knoxville's a great town but I need to I need to go yeah and so I was like god maybe i'll try because my family watched we ate dinner around the tv watching andy griffith or sanford and son or you know a sam peckinpah film or so that's how we connected a lot and so i was always drawn to that and wanted to be an actor in some way yeah yeah and did you do that right out of high school or did you i left uh a few weeks after high school after i got graduated i went to the american

academy of dramatic arts in pasadena oh for their summer program yeah but i went for the first two weeks and didn't go back and just kind of partied and And then I spent all my money and I was like, God, I should. We go back to Knoxville, work for three months and come back after Christmas. And that's what I did. Yeah. So I've been here ever since. Wow. And you just came out here with an idea to, what were you hoping?

Like what would at that point your dream come true have been um at that point i just wanted to be a working actor yeah you know i just wanted to be a working actor yeah but you know when i came back out the second time it kind of turned into the summer before where i was just kind of spinning my wheels, partying a lot. You know, I'd try to get an agent or go on auditioning in the drama log or something, but I really wasn't focused. Yeah. So I spun my wheels for another five, six years until my then girlfriend got pregnant with my oldest daughter, Madison. At that point, I'm like, I have to do something.

Yeah. So that was like a back against the wall type of, you know, it was terrifying. I was terrified. Yeah. Terrified. Yeah. I couldn't even, like, my girlfriend, Madison's mom, Melanie, was pregnant, but I couldn't even really talk about that with her. You know?

I was so frightened. Yeah. And. Was the fear that you were going to fuck up as a dad, that you weren't going to, was it a financial you know well there's uh it's so many fears yeah like how am i going to support this little girl yeah who we didn't even know if it was a boy or a girl at that time yeah but yeah what what what does my life look like yeah and what is this baby's life what's it going to look like i've it's one of the most it's one of the most frightened i've been in my life i mean it

sounds i swear it sounds cheesy but like terrified for nine months can't even barely talk about it we get to the hospital the madison's delivered and it wasn't that easy i'm really but i mean they put her in my arms and i'm like all my fear just kind of went away it's just like god i think we got this yeah and uh well that was a stupid thing to feel yeah that was like that's when you should have started getting scared. You get this. I mean, because that's the thing. You go home with a baby and you've got to keep that thing alive.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, she's still alive. How about that? Yeah, no, I mean, yeah, I can relate to that. You know, I. Now we. But that caused me to like, I got an agent. I started writing for magazines.

I started doing everything. I started doing stunts I got an agent. I started writing for magazines. I started doing everything. I started doing stunts for magazines. I started, that was my best guess. Yeah. At how to make something happen. Make something. And it wasn't even so much like you were looking to get a job. You were just looking to make an impression, it seems like.

Yeah, I was trying, I was trying, definitely trying to make an impression. And I was also trying to, you know, get a job. I was trying to. Yeah, but you weren't trying to get a job selling furniture. You weren't trying to get a job. I was trying to, like, get employed in the area that, you know, what I came out to do. Right. So, thank God it worked out.

Yeah, yeah. Because I had no backup plan yeah yeah no i know i mean that's i you know for me like show business i and you know it's like i don't know what the fuck what the hell else paint houses maybe i know i can paint a house can you yeah yeah it's a brush and you know no no i've tried that was one of the when i when i left knoxville i came back for the summer and my my friend had a you know house painting business yeah and i helped him and like he's like just kind of do the trim around the top there and then kind of go i made such a fucking mess he had to redo everything stepped in the bucket. It was like a chaplain skit, you know? I envy you that

you can do stuff. I can't do anything. I was the baby of the family. I didn't have to do anything. I am, to say I'm not handy is an understatement. You don't even have tire knowledge? You have to overcome me.

I'm not going to help. Right, right, right. I'm a hurdle knowledge you have to overcome me you know i'm not gonna help you right right right i am yeah yeah i'm a hurdle that you need to jump over on the way to fixing things when during that period you know you said that five or six years that you were out here before you kind of you know knuckled under and started to work were you doing kind of you know stunty kind of things like is that something like were you jumping off of roofs and stuff or was that just simply something like i got a i get a baby now i'm gonna get tased yeah because that was wasn't that kind of the first one that sort of yeah the there was a few things like, you know, that was the first thing I got noticed on. But I was trying to, I was writing these articles for different mags for not a lot of money. And in one of the articles I wanted to write was, I was going to use my friend, dad's friend, Jackie Gilbert, the guy who hitchhikes across around the world, a fighter.

He rode the wall of death at the fair. Across around the world, a fighter. He rode the wall of death at the fair. He was a cop for one day in Sevier County because he got fired for doing handstands on the motorcycle going down the... I mean, this guy is... On his first day. On his first day. He lasted one day. This guy, a movie should be made about Jackie Gilbert. Anyway, he was a pilot, so I was going to get him to fly me into Mexico,

and I was going to swim the Rio Grande back into America just as a, you know, but. Yeah. But mags, they didn't, they liked the article, but they wanted to treat it as a negative pickup because they don't want to be associated if I get bought. A lot of my early magazine articles, everyone wanted to treat it as a negative pickup. Which means. Yeah.

I think the first Jackass, Paramount, it was a negative pickup. And what does that mean? It means that you go do it and finish it and then bring it to us and we'll. And we'll do it. We'll buy it from you. Yeah, yeah. But we don't want to be involved. Yeah.

But yeah, the testing self-defense equipment on myself was the first thing. Yeah. And the only mag that would do it and help me with purchase the laser guns, stun gun, et cetera, was a big brother, which Jeff Tremaine was the editor of. And he, you know,

created that with Jackass with Meat and Spike. That was like a skateboarder. Yeah. Culture. I mean, it wasn't just skateboarding. It was kind of also. Skateboarding and everything naughty.

Yeah. Yeah. It was just punk. Just bad, just general bad behavior. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was just. Kind of punk. Just general bad behavior. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was like in the 90s when skateboarding, skateboarders were really, you know, it was a gnarly time. Were you a skater?

No, no. Not at all. I broke my ankle. I was skating when I was around 14, but I broke my ankle coming down our hill. And dad took my Tony Alva board and just cast it into the woods because i was going to miss baseball you know right right and uh and that was more that was into my yeah yeah yeah now when i mean when uh when jeff remains finds you to do this i mean what's the next step what do you think like how am i gonna, are you, are you aware that like, I found a little niche here of like danger and stunts and.

I felt something was happening. And then I got to big brother and I really felt that like, there's this pretty special group of guys here. I, cause Jackass was people, most of, most of the guys that were either in big brother or worked at the mag um so i felt it was a special group yeah and so jeff and i were like well let's try and do something and i almost had this other show going i did have another show going but the executive producer didn't they didn't't see Jeff's value. They're like, we're going to pay you this,

but we'll give him this. And it was like, you're, that's wrong because he's, we're together. Yeah. Yeah. And,

so I turned that down. Was it a similar type of show? Yeah. Yeah. Similar. Yeah. Doing silly stunts and pranks. So I turned that down, and we were trying to think of what to do, a show to do.

And we're like, should I sit at a desk like Jon Stewart on The Daily Show? And then, you know, because we don't know. Right. Jeff's like, well, maybe we should call, because Jeff grew up with Spike Jonze jones he goes maybe we should call spike and see if he wants to do this with us and spike said uh yeah i'll do that with you and we're trying to see what we want to do for the show he's like i think you guys are already doing it for the big brother videos that jeff had been making and i ended up getting in the second one. And Jackass, if you look at the Big Brother videos, you take the skating out of the Big

Brother videos and it's pretty much Jackass. Yeah, yeah. Of course, we brought Ryan Dunn and Bam and the CKY videos they were doing on the East Coast and we kind of joined forces. But Spike let us know we're already doing it yeah that's why he's a genius well it's i mean jackass is like brilliantly clean and uncluttered and just like you know i just love that there's no voice you know there's just that that note of the the guitar the minute men song and then you just go you voice, you know, there's just that note of the guitar, the Minutemen song.

And then you just go, you know, whatever, you know, the egg beater enema or whatever. And then you do it, you know. Not a bad idea. You can write it down. But no, I mean, that was, when I first saw the show, that was like one of the things that really struck me was like, what good taste that showed. Seriously, to not like. I've never heard clean or good taste in describing jackass. And I love you.

Yeah, well, I mean, clean just in terms of like, you know, there's not like, hey, everybody, you know, welcome to jackass. Oh, right, right. You know, I'm jackass, the not like, hey, everybody, look, you know, welcome to Jackass. Oh, right, right. You know, I'm Jackass the Jackass. Right, right, right. You know, that it just was like, you know, it was like, it was like just porn with fucking, you know. No story. Just get right to the fucking. Yeah, get to the main idea.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And how, now, how does, how do you take that to people and they do it? Well, you said negative pickup, but in ongoing ways, they have to insure you to do all this stuff. And isn't that cost prohibitive for businesses? At the end of the TV show, I believe we lost our insurance. Oh, is that what killed it?

No. Oh. No, me quitting killed it. Oh. But there were reasons that I quit. But yeah, we were uninsurable by the end of the TV show. But when we did the first movie, you know, you just pay through the nose, Andy. Yeah, that's a lot of upfront costs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's, you know, that's a lot of upfront cost.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, and we see on the first film, and we didn't do it like this on any of the other films, but the first film they insured by bit. Like, we take an idea and say, okay, well ensure you know compartmentalize right right they go we'll do eggbeater enema but not yeah but not flamethrower omelet no they would do everything oh really no we we would self-edit more than the studio yeah would because you know what they're gonna do i mean we used to be the same with just like, with just like dirty stuff on our show. Like we knew what we could get away with. So rarely did anyone say you can't do that, you know, because we just knew like, well,

it's not even worth it. Right. And you know, and then you, there's a lot of things that are funny in the room. Yes. You know? Yes. And it's also fun to sneak in stuff anyway. Yeah.

You know, to sneak in stuff that they don't even know is is bad you know well that yeah we would do load a lot of red herrings for the you know we're trying to get a rating yeah you just put in stuff you know it's never going to get in but maybe some other things they'll let slide right they just saw this terrible yeah you know i want to set my head on fire they go no you can't do that. So then you're going, all right, well, I can reset this, you know, grocery cart on fire and push it into a theater, you know? Right.

It was more like things of a lascivious nature that would get shut down. Violence. America doesn't care about violence. Yeah. You know, they only care about sex. Yeah. Like, but we would shut down some things that we thought were, well, that's pretty easily imitated. Ah.

Because we don't want. Oh, wow. Yeah. How responsible of you. Yeah. I'm surprised by that. Yeah. Yeah.

No, some things were like, we would film things and we look at it and go. Kids are going to do that. Yeah. We would film things and we'd look at it and go, kids are going to do that. Yeah, because we had some stupid thing from Jackass No. 2 where Ryan Dunn was on a van, top of a van, and we gave him some terrible wolf mask. And we were redoing a scene from Teen Wolf. And he's supposed to hit the brakes and go out into the water, which would have been fine for him. But whoever was driving, I don't know, maybe bam or stop too soon.

And he just went like the water was that deep. It was just head first. It looked terrible. He was okay, but it looked gnarly. And we're like, we're not putting that in the film because that's exactly what's going to happen.

Cause somebody is going to do. Yeah. And it made Ryan so upset that we didn't put that in because, I don't know, he was just. He risked his life for something and nobody's going to see it. What really sucks is when you get annihilated on something and we don't use it. Yeah. It's, and, and because also there's a pride and it's what we do is very silly and dumb but if you get a good bit it's a good bit and there's pride in it and it

really hurt his feelings and it in it for uh a year so he was like upset with jeff at night wow yeah it was really hurt his feelings wow um and eventually we got back into a you know good place yeah but it was yeah you got it but you know what it's like i mean it's a similar thing in a comedy show you're they're bits you think of a bit and then you work on it and sometimes it doesn't like it was always really because conan and I would be like the, the final say for what, you know, we were like, we stood on the loading dock door. We were like the last step of quality control. And, um, you know, and writers would write bits, go shoot them, edit them, you know, costumes, props. And then they'd come in and we'd be be it'd be like right before the show sometimes

and they'd be like here's the bit i finally finished it and then yeah and then they you know we'd show it and usually i was like i was more i speaking of hand like i was the one that would be like nah no i don't think so and just it it would i i felt bad for him but it's like you gotta you gotta just get like calluses because it's just a volume business. Yeah, I know. I know. It is. You have to have that guy in that position.

Yeah. Because otherwise, what do you – you're just going to be, oh, I'm scared of hurting your feelings. So I'm going to let this go on. It's going to cost us. And a democracy, it doesn't work as a democracy in that sense. Somebody has to say, this is what we're going to do. Yeah. You know, because especially when something's either what you're doing, like with there's a, you know, like how do we, you know,

how are we going to do this stunt? Like there's eight different opinions. You just got to pick somebody. It's got to be the one that says. And there's eight different ways of being funny in something, but you got to go with the person that just happens to be in charge and then wait your turn to when you might be in charge. Yeah. It was really good with Jeff and I because we're on the set and, you know, it comes up to us and we're making the decisions. But, you know, he's a coach and I'm a player coach.

Yeah. So, you know, it's like just see a guy do something a lot of times. And like Jeff feels like, I think we got it. And he's like, I don't think so. We don't got it. We got to go again. And he's really good at like making them go again, where sometimes I get a little sympathetic. Yeah. Yeah. So he's the daddy. Yeah. I'm the, I'm totally the mom. I'm the, totally the mom. Yeah. Um, so, but you know, it, it, it works. Now when, when the Jackass show came on, and it was only on for a couple of years, right?

It was on. We did 24 episodes over. Like, we didn't even last as long as the Sex Pistols. It was like under a year, I believe. And it's so. Because to me, I mean, maybe it's just because it replayed so much. Yeah, for years. When I saw that, I was like, wait a minute, that show was on for longer than that.

Yeah, I know. But no, it wasn't. It was on, but they were just rerunning the same shit. And they couldn't run a lot of bits because of, you know, we weren't, we were just running gun then. We, you know, we would not get permits ahead of time or do anything. And sometimes- You wouldn't get a release from somebody and then they wouldn't put it on the air because somebody might sue. It's any number of things.

But we got much better about that later. Because when you're- Especially pranks. they're so hard yeah you know they're constantly failing and you're just trying to keep them you know salvageable yeah so we didn't want like us not having releases to be part of the reason it's failing so we got good at that yeah yeah that makes sense yeah so did was there a point during that, like when you get the show jackass, does the, does the, that sort of, I got to support my kid. Like, does that ever calm down?

Like during that period or are you still, is there still that drive, you know, that you got to like, it's not enough. know that you gotta like it's not enough well i felt like the as far as supporting the kid i felt you know i think i was i felt like i was doing okay but uh but the drive to you know because you got like that movie came out last year yeah what's What's next? Right. What are you going to do next? Right. So it's, you know, the drive kind of morphs. Yeah. But having children is an excellent way to, you know, light a fire under your ass.

Yeah, it sure is. It sure is. I also find, because I married someone, a single mom, so I have a three-year-old. I have a 22-year-old, a 17-year-old, and a three-year-old. Wow. And something that's occurred to me lately is like, I have given myself, you know, not late in life, but sort of later in my life, a reason to like not have to make any decisions because so much of your life is decided by having a little kid yeah that like what am i going to do with myself which has been like you know like i when i used to smoke cigarettes that was i felt like what the key to my addiction to cigarettes was it was always an answer uh to what should i do now oh have a cigarette right right and then it

just answered it answered that question that always is kind of looming. And now it's like, what should I do now? You know, my, what should I do today is always like, well, you got to feed that kid and then you got to exercise that kid. And then you got to, you know, clean up after that kid. And so it's like, in some ways, I think, did I just try to find a way to not have to be a grown – you know, I mean, I'm a grown-up in that way, but it's like – but all the stuff, you know, all the unanswered kind of, you know, like, I should be writing more. Like, now it's like, well, I can't write anything. I got a little kid, you know. I mean, I wish I could write.

Yeah. I mean, I got a kid. Oh, I would be – I'd be cranking it out if it weren't for that brat. So, but yeah, it is. And it also, I think too, I've always said it really makes you realize how unimportant other things are that you think are so important. Yeah, we really, it's like, because in our business, it's like our business is ourselves. Yeah. And like one of the many great things of having kids is like you're not thinking about, you have to think about them. That's what I mean. Yeah.

Yeah. It's like a chance to not think about yourself. Yeah, exactly. Which is good. Yeah. Now, you said that you quit the Jackass Show. Do you want to talk about why that was? Oh, I mean, we can.

We had some copycat incidents, and it was an election year. And some kids had burned themselves while, I mean, they had to go to the hospital and they were okay, but they got hurt and that sucks. Right. And Joseph Lieberman. Senator from Connecticut? Connecticut, yeah. Senator from Connecticut. Connecticut, yeah. He jumped all over that and made his platform, he's going to be tough on Hollywood. Yeah, yeah.

So he called out me personally, MTV, Viacom, and it created a lot of problems for us yeah next thing you know uh we have um all these safety people on the set and saying we can't you know osha people we can't jump off of anything four feet or higher you know higher than four feet or all these rules yeah were, you know, it was like, are they going to renew us for the next few episodes? And MTV started letting all the people in our office go. And I'm like, well, what we do is silly, but it means too much to me to, like, do it like that. Yeah, do it half-assed and shitty. Yeah. So, oh, no, we're shitty.

And half-assed. But you know what I'm talking about. Yeah. The wrong kind. Yeah. Yeah, so, oh, no, we're shitty and half-assed, but you know what I'm talking about. Yeah, the wrong kind. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I just gave an interview to my hometown newspaper and said I quit. Yeah. And MTV did not like that.

Yeah. There was a lot of talks back and forth. Threatening to sue you kind of stuff. There was a lot of talks. Yeah. That kind of stuff. There was a lot of talks. Yeah. But what did come out of it was a guy we hadn't been working with that much, Van Toffler, who this guy, Van Toffler, he was one of the higher ups at Viacom.

Mm-hmm. At that time and since then, he's put his job on the line like three or four times for us. Oh, wow. Yeah. And we just love to give him hell. I mean,. Yeah. And we just love to give him hell. I mean, we love Van, but we love to give him hell. Yeah, yeah. Van Toffler's sex shop was in the beginning of Jackass Forever.

We blew that up in one. Yeah, yeah. But we became close to Van then, and we decided to do the movies. Yeah. We can't have the show, but we did the movies, and we decided to do the movies. Yeah. We can't have the show, but we did the movies, and it worked out for everyone. Oh, by the way, there's something that says, something about you guys doing stunts on SNL on a weekly basis?

Oh, when I, right before. I've never heard that. Right before we find the deal for Jackass took forever, like a year and a half, two years. I don't know. For the show? For the TV show. Oh my God.

It was brutal. But in that meantime, I had the one show that I was trying to, the one I talked about with Jeff. Yeah. And they weren't respecting him. So I'm like, well, fuck you. This isn't going to work.

Yeah, this is not going to work. And then that time, the tape for Jackass had gotten around. We made this 10 to 12 minute tape, which everyone had. And I met Lorne Michaels at the Beverly Hills Hotel. And he said, we'll offer you five minutes on the show each week to do what you do. You know, a little video right of something and i was extremely flattered obviously but at that point jackass was about to go yeah and it could have been a terrible

decision you know i was like i'd rather i'm going into a situation where i have no control, but over here it's me and my friends and we have all the control. Yeah. But, you know, that's an established show. We're nothing. Yeah. I just,

we just bet on ourselves. Yeah. And so, you know, I just said no. I think you made the right choice, you know? Yeah.

You'll still be doing bits. It worked out okay. On SNL. Yeah. Yeah. And it might not have worked, you know? Yeah. Yeah. still be doing. It worked out. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And it might not have worked, you know? Yeah.

Yeah. It's like, it's like, cause our stuff is kind of jarring sometime to be doing skits and then go to like someone getting knocked out, run over. Right. Or tased in the nuts. Oh,

there goes the, it's out, jackass out of context is not great. No. Just like people like, oh, come on our show and do something like jackass. Yeah. And it doesn't work. It doesn't work.

It has to be all of us together with our people. Out of context, it's just. And also, too, I imagine editing is so much your friend thank you we need editing because what we've done we did we were going to do something on a george lopez show and we ended up doing his talk show yeah yeah and we ended up doing some stunt on there. But it was really, honestly, I felt weird about it even before because Sibo had just gotten sober not too long before. No, it had been a couple of years. But, you know, backstage, people were drinking. And I felt really uncomfortable about that.

And then we go out on stage. And I forgot what the prank we did, but you can see, like, three or four of our cast members get upset, like their feelings hurt over something, and then they kind of shut down. And I'm like, this is why we don't do jackass, except for – because we need editing. I need editing. We need the guys to stop pouting and then come back and do it again.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. editing i need editing we needed the guys to stop pouting and then come back and do it again yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah it's uh i can imagine that yeah just doing it live and also too doing it live i think when you when you're watching the jackass clips in the jackass format, you have a remove, you know, like a distance as a viewer that you can kind of enjoy these people getting hurt. Whereas like, if you're getting hurt on the George Lopez set, you don't have that remove. You're aware that like, oh my God, those guys are right there. I don't think you want that much reality. Yeah, yeah. Like, someone gets knocked out. Yeah. Do you really want to see how long they're asleep for?

It's not funny. It's not funny. We need editing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not funny. I mean, you ended up getting to act, you know, I mean, you did, you went through this kind of circuitous route of doing stunts and now, you know, and then you, you know, you got an acting career. And it was that always kind of part of your plan or was that just like a happy coincidence alongside of all the Jackass stuff? side of all the the jackass stuff i wanted that i i felt like jackass would be my intro and then hopefully i can start doing you know films after that yeah yeah so luckily that's how it happened

yeah so you know do you do enough acting for your own you know do you want to do more do you you know do is there ever a part of you that wishes like that your acting career took off so much that you don't have to get on a bull again or what you know well i can't i mean i'm after my last intentional yeah no but i've had too many concussions and like the last one i had a lot of problems for up to a year afterwards oh boy yeah i had to go on antidepressants, and it was just really bad. Wow. My mind was playing tricks on me, you know, like intrusive thoughts. Wow.

And just over-focusing on shit. Which one was this? Jackass Forever. But which bit? When the bull hits me. Flippy? Flippy. Because usually in a bull ring, where we usually go, there's so much, there's dirt everywhere.

Oh, yeah. It's soft. Soft dirt everywhere. Yeah, yeah. This, it was, it was cold December, December 20th, I remember. Wow. Cold day. And there was no, there was, it was no dirt.

Yeah. There was no dirt in the, and I mentioned something. And so some of the guys were like trying to scoop some dirt together and they put a little pile here and a little pile there. But like three foot piles. Yeah, tell the bull, like, please throw him there. Yeah. Mr. Pecker Wrecker, can you hit me in this general area? And it just, it destroyed me because I flipped twice in the back of my head on the cold hard ground boy yeah yeah scrambled me for yeah at least a year now do you worry about like

later and do you think you know dementia hitting you later in life i mean well i mean i mean i like to ask the fun questions well as as willie nelson said there's nothing i can do about it now yeah i try to you know yeah read as much and do a little keep my brain active crosswords yeah that's what they say crosswords staves off the dementia so um who knows yeah you know i can't i would lie i'd be lying if i said i never thought about it but i try not to think about it because So who knows? Yeah. You know, I can't, I would lie. I'd be lying if I said I never thought about it, but I try not to think about it because I just know that moving forward, I can't have any more concussions. Right, right. I think, I think that's a good rule of thumb for most people.

You know, I don't think. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just going to stick to three a year. That's all. I'm not not gonna be a pig about it just three a year it's a orgy of concussions well could you hit me within the head with this log you can hit me just neck down yeah yeah well thanks so much for coming in you know thank you for having me what do you what do you got having me. What do you got going ahead?

I mean, you got the prank panel. Yes. Was that your idea, that show? No, Kimmel called me and came to me with that. Oh, nice. Yeah, Dave Jesser and Matt Silverstein, that was their idea, and they got Kimmel on board. I know those guys. Yeah.

Those guys wrote on a show I was on. Yeah. Which one? I want to say it was Andy Richter Controls the Universe. Ah, okay. I think they were great. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Oh, that's great. But I mean, is there something else? Like, what are you going to do with the rest of your life now that you can't get concussions? My goodness. I'm just, you know, I got, well, no one's working right now. Yeah. You know, so a couple of films that are on hold. Yeah.

And, you know, some documentaries I want to make. And, you know, but every Saturday night on the Outlaw Country channel, me and my cousin Roger Allen Wade, the big-ass happy man of Jubilee. I love that show. Oh, well, thank you. I love that show. Because, you know, I like country music. I like real country music. Yeah.

Fucking shitty, whatever they play. The new pop stuff is terrible. Oh, it's so fucking awful. Everything's about riding my truck and honoring my granddad. It's the same hollow guitar riffs. Yeah. And I always say it's like Bon Jovi with an accent. Like if you had him sing without the accent, it would just be Bon Jovi.

So it's just, you know, it's terrible. But anyway, yeah, so that, you know, the show on SiriusXM, which is really good listening. Oh, thank you. And your cousin is a riot, too. Yeah. He's a very funny guy. He's really funny. He's so smart and so funny.

Well, what do you think the point of it all is? Like, is there something you've learned? Is there something, you know, throughout this, you know, that your travels through this life, you know, that you can share with people? Like, people say, like, what's your advice? Or, like, what's your philosophy? Or, you know. say like, what's your advice or like, what's your philosophy or, you know? Well, my, my, my friend Poodie Locke, he's passed now, but he always said, it's okay to step on your dick.

Just don't stand on it. So. That's pretty good. Yeah. That's pretty good. All right. Well, Johnny, thank you so much. Uh, again, that's prank panel.

Check it out. And, uh, I'll be back next week with more three questions bye woohoo the three questions with Andy Richter is a Team Coco production

it is produced by Sean Dougherty and engineered by Rich Garcia additional engineering support by Eduardo Perez and Joanna Samuel executive produced by

Nick Liao Adam Sachs and Jeff Ross talent booking by Paula Davis Gina Batista with assistance from Maddie Ogden Thank you. like to ask people, let us know in the review section. Can't you tell my loves are growing? Can't you feel it ain't showing? Oh, you must be knowing. I've got a big, big love. This has been a Team Coco production.