Johnny Knoxville wears Shirt and Pants Versace. Sunglasses Ray-Ban. Watch Omega. Shoes Johnny’s Own.
Twenty-six years ago, Johnny Knoxville and a group of fearless degenerates pointed a camera at themselves and changed comedy forever. What started as a self-defense equipment test for a skateboarding magazine became the anarchic MTV franchise Jackass. Five movies and countless broken bones later, Knoxville and his crew are finally calling it quits with Jackass: Best and Last, a swan song if the swan gets shot out of a cannon. But before he puts it to bed for good, Knoxville sat down with his friend Nick Kroll for an exit interview about what it meant, what it cost, and why he still can’t quite let go.
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THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 9AM, 2026, LA
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JOHNNY KNOXVILLE: Hello, Luis.
NICK KROLL: Hi, Marvin. How you doing?
KNOXVILLE: I’m right as rain.
KROLL: I’m late because I was dropping the kid off at school. He wants me to walk in with him.
KNOXVILLE: How old is he?
KROLL: He’s five.
KNOXVILLE: Oh, that’s so fun. It’s the best age.
KROLL: How old are your kids?
KNOXVILLE: Arlo is 14, Rocko is 16, and Madison is 30.
KROLL: I guess it’s been a while since anyone was five.
KNOXVILLE: Been a while, but they’re always my babies!
KROLL: It’s a real sweet time. Most of my friends and family had kids much earlier than I did.
KNOXVILLE: I used to be the young dad. Now I’m the old dad, Nick.
KROLL: I don’t see you as old just because you have gray hair and you’re wearing a red cardigan.
KNOXVILLE: Just because I look like Jamie Lee Curtis’s stunt double.
KROLL: [Laughs] You guys should go make that movie. Jamie Lee and you as her stuntman.
KNOXVILLE: I’m on board.
KROLL: What year did Jackass come out?
KNOXVILLE: The show was 2000 and the first movie was 2002.
KROLL: So here we are, 26 years and five movies later.
KNOXVILLE: Six if you count [Jack-ass Presents:] Bad Grandpa.
KROLL: I fucking count the shit out of Bad Grandpa. You’ve spent a crazy amount of time doing this. How does it feel?
KNOXVILLE: I’ve been really emotional lately. Trigger warning that I will probably cry during this interview.
KROLL: I’d love that.
KNOXVILLE: We’ve been together 26 years and are barely in show business outside of that.
KROLL: It’s a very tight-knit community.
KNOXVILLE: Oh, we’re a lit community too.
KROLL: Sometimes a little tight, sometimes a little lit. I’m thinking about the time you played Rasputin in History of the World: Part II, which was the parody the whole world was clamoring for.
KNOXVILLE: Well, you know how much Mel Brooks and History of the World: Part I mean to me. That Mel Brooks even knows my name means everything to me.
Jacket and T-shirt Johnny’s Own. Boxers Phipps. Sunglasses Ray-Ban.
KROLL: Were his movies important to you?
KNOXVILLE: My biggest comedic influences are my father, Mel Brooks, Buster Keaton, and Tom and Jerry. That’s my Mount Rushmore right there.
KROLL: I feel like your stuff is fun and dangerous and sharp in the way Buster Keaton’s stuff is.
KNOXVILLE: He’s such a physical comedian, but he was also so incredibly creative. I’m genuinely uncoordinated, but that has only helped me. I’m also hypermobile, so when I do fall on my neck, I accordion, kind of like Buster Keaton.
KROLL: Has your Jackass leadership style changed since you started?
KNOXVILLE: When it started, we were trying to figure out how to play our instruments. I was different on the show and the first movie because everything happened so quickly.
KROLL: Yeah.
KNOXVILLE: After Jackass Number Two, I was the first one on set, first one in the office, last one to leave. They had to have an intervention to make me stop shooting, because I really didn’t want to. I had a cameraman with me on the weekend, and I was literally running into stop signs because I couldn’t stop.
KROLL: What do you think was driving you?
KNOXVILLE: I switched from pain pills to Adderall.
KROLL: [Laughs] That was the big shift.
KNOXVILLE: I didn’t want to stop for anything. I think that second movie—when everyone was on their absolute worst behavior—is our best film.
KROLL: That’s your favorite of the bunch?
KNOXVILLE: They’re all special, but everyone points to that one as our best. The ideas didn’t come to me as freely on the TV show, but now I can’t turn them off. Our unshot idea list is at least 500 strong.
KROLL: That’s crazy.
KNOXVILLE: I was talking with Spike [Jonze] and Jeff [Tremaine] about that yesterday. I teared up when I said I don’t know what to do with all my ideas.
KROLL: What did you all decide?
KNOXVILLE: Spike pointed out that we don’t have to make Jackass, but we can do other things together.
KROLL: It’s so crazy that Spike is such an integral part of this whole thing.
KNOXVILLE: You could say Jackass started when the TV show started, that it started when I did the self-defense equipment article for Jeff in Big Brother magazine, or that it started when Spike and Jeff met each other back in Maryland, when Spike was 14 and working at a BMX bike shop Jeff went into. Tremaine was the local BMX legend.
KROLL: And when did you and Tremaine come together exactly?
KNOXVILLE: I met Jeff because he was in a video Spike and Jake Fogelnest codirected. I was also supposed to be in it, but I had to go to wait tables at Chin Chin. At the time, that really mattered to me, but then Jeff said, “Hey, I’m the editor of a magazine,” and I said, “I’d love to do something for you.” The problem was that Big Brother was a skateboarding magazine; it wasn’t until two or three years went by that I got the idea for the self-defense test article.
KROLL: Yeah.
KNOXVILLE: Yesterday I asked Spike, “Why do you still work with us?” He’s got a career. He has an Academy Award. Jeff and I are pains in the ass.
KROLL: But you guys are such fun partners.
KNOXVILLE: It’s a kind of family. I’m the mom, Jeff ’s the dad, and Spike’s our angel.
KROLL: Spike is kind of a creative angel.
KNOXVILLE: Well, we can all be a problem.
KROLL: Tell me how each of you guys can be a problem.
Jacket, Pants, and Shoes Burberry. Glasses Ray-Ban.
KNOXVILLE: I have an extremely strong will and I get locked into ideas, so it might take me a second to go, “Okay, you’ve got to loosen up a little.”
KROLL: Are you obsessive in other parts of your life or just creatively?
KNOXVILLE: Mainly creatively.
KROLL: Some people who obsessively make things also obsess about everything else in their life. I try to leave it on the field.
KNOXVILLE: I create a funny chaos at work while we’re shooting, but if you replicate that in your personal life, there will be consequences.
KROLL: I want to hear more about Jeff and Spike. How do each of you fit into the family?
KNOXVILLE: Jeff has a very strong personality. He and I butt heads like brothers, which is fine, but sometimes we have to step back and go, “What are we doing?”
KROLL: And Spike?
KNOXVILLE: Spike’s an intellectual. But he’ll also do shit like jump out of a moving cab.
KROLL: He’s a rascal.
KNOXVILLE: People will be standing at the top of the stairs and Spike will take off running and tackle them down 20 steps. You can’t go at Spike. If you do something to him, he’s going to get you back 20 times worse.
KROLL: What’s it like performing with him in the films? Is the dynamic the same, or does it change?
KNOXVILLE: He’s really my mentor. When we started out, Jeff and I didn’t know shit. We just knew Spike, quite honestly.
KROLL: What more do you need to know than fucking Spike?
KNOXVILLE: I know. We got his agent and his attorney. We got made.
KROLL: What stunt or bit have you wanted to do since the jump, but have not done?
KNOXVILLE: A white whale?
KROLL: Yeah.
KNOXVILLE: Well, Dave England lost a nut snowboarding or something, so we were spitballing ideas around the time of Jackass 3D that we should get him some kind of funny replacement nut. We had a few different ideas, but we landed on a nut that lights up. For 15 years we’ve been pursuing this light-up nut, but every time we get to the finish line, the lawyers kill it.
KROLL: The lawyers won’t let you?
KNOXVILLE: No, but something was brought up yesterday that made it all possible again.
KROLL: It’s not over yet! Is it fun to keep making stuff with everyone for all these years?
KNOXVILLE: We wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t fun. We know what we have is special, and you never have to pull anyone aside and go, “Guys, we kind of need to step up.” It naturally gets worse. It naturally devolves.
KROLL: When everything popped off, were you able to appreciate what was happening?
KNOXVILLE: I always appreciated what was happening because I get the joke; with my limited education, what would I be doing if it wasn’t for show business? Now, did I always handle the situations correctly? Was I always thinking deeply about everything? Absolutely not.
KROLL: You have to go on instinct.
KNOXVILLE: I got into therapy in 2006, and my therapist said something that’s embarrassing now but was mind-blowing then. He said, “There’s thought before action.” And I was like, “Wait a second! That is fucking brilliant! Thought before action!” I wasn’t even joking.
KROLL: It makes sense because your whole identity is built around fucking going for it.
KNOXVILLE: Fear is a good thing, but for me, it was a hindrance. I put it high up on the shelf in a room I don’t go into that much.
Jacket and Shirt Balenciaga. T-shirt and Pants Johnny’s Own. Sunglasses Ray-Ban. Watch Omega.
KROLL: What was it like when you got into that room?
KNOXVILLE: I’m still trying to gain entry. In Jackass Forever I had a really gnarly set of injuries, and I’m reconciling that I can’t do that anymore. The biggest part of me is like, “I don’t have anything else to prove,” but the side of me that did those things still longs for it, and I’m trying not to.
KROLL: What is it you long for?
KNOXVILLE: It’s tough. I loved it.
KROLL: Did you love the anticipation? The act itself? The pain?
KNOXVILLE: All of it. The anticipation, the moment, the survival, the euphoria, the footage. It’s like the producer in me always overrode the performer.
KROLL: Part of what made you such an incredible ringleader was that your attitude was always, “I’ll do the craziest shit. I won’t ask you to do anything as crazy as what I’m willing to do myself.”
KNOXVILLE: That was a big part of it. I laid it on the line and it gave me a lot of credibility. Now I know I can’t get another concussion. I’ve had 16 and my doctor’s like, “You’re done.” I talked to my family and said, “I’m not going to do anything where I can get another concussion,” but it was really hard to ask people to do stuff I can’t do anymore. That was difficult for me, and I think it was hard for the cast to reconcile too.
KROLL: Part of the joy is the negotiation—the back and forth of it.
KNOXVILLE: Oh, that’s where Tremaine comes in. If someone doesn’t want to do something, he’s got about five ways he’s going to come at you, so I can walk away and guarantee Jeff ’s going to get them to do it.
KROLL: Yeah.
KNOXVILLE: He might buddy-buddy you, he might be stern with you, he might hold something over your head. A couple of nights before [Chris] Pontius drank the horse semen in Argentina, he’d gotten really drunk and didn’t show up for work the day we were supposed to shoot. That’s a big taboo for Tremaine.
KROLL: Yeah.
KNOXVILLE: You can go out and party as hard as you want, but you’ve got to show up for work the next day, no matter what. And Pontius didn’t. So they had a whole back and forth before he drank the semen, and Pontius was like, “Okay, if I do this, am I going to get out of trouble for something I may do in the future?” And Jeff ’s like, “No.” They were really arguing for a long time. Finally, I was like, “Jeff, he’s about to drink horse semen.” I was like, “Pontius, yes. You’re good. Okay? We’re good. We’re good?”
KROLL: We’re good.
KNOXVILLE: During Jackass Number Two, Jeff caught me and Spike pranking people when the camera wasn’t even around. Jeff was like, “You guys shoot a fucking movie like a pickup basketball game.”
KROLL: What comes through so deeply is the joy of it. You’re dudes who want to play basketball, but your form of basketball is getting into extensive prosthetics and talking to random people on the street.
KNOXVILLE: You’d think we’d be better at it, though. You’d think we’d be like, “Oh, well, let’s wait for the cameramen,” but no, we can’t even do that.
KROLL: Sure, but you’re warming up. You’re getting into character. You’re figuring out the geography.
KNOXVILLE: Well, thank you for making me feel better.
KROLL: Is there anyone you got to participate in all those Jackass movies that still delights you?
KNOXVILLE: Brad Pitt shot with us for the TV show. He was supposed to do this bit where we put him in a gorilla suit and nobody knew who he was, but then Jeff said, “Why don’t we put him in front of a restaurant and kidnap him?”
KROLL: What?
KNOXVILLE: It was on TV once and then it was never shown again, but we put it in the new movie, Jackass: Best and Last. It’s a mix of new bits and best-of bits.
KROLL: An all-star fucking home run derby. Jackass came out during my junior year of college. I was doing comedy and getting into improv and sketch, and you guys completely blew my mind.
KNOXVILLE: Aw, thank you.
KROLL: I grew up listening to the Jerky Boys on cassette tapes, but you guys realized that kind of comedy on a level completely beyond anything anyone had seen before. Nothing makes me laugh like the Jackass movies.
Shirt and T-Shirt Johnny’s Own. Pants Vans. Sunglasses Ray-Ban. Watch Omega.
KNOXVILLE: You ever heard of John Bean, aka Leroy Mercer?
KROLL: No.
KNOXVILLE: He did prank calls in the early ’80s. He was from my hometown of Knoxville, and he was over-radiated during treatment for Hodgkin’s disease. He was sick, but he would prank call some of the toughest, meanest people in Knoxville and get them so angry. He’d calm them down, then he’d get them angry again, calm them down, wind them up. He had such an impact on me.
KROLL: Sure.
KNOXVILLE: Only three of his prank phone calls made it out because he would fill up a whole cassette and then record over it.
KROLL: I probably met you 12 or 15 years ago, something like that. I couldn’t believe I was meeting you, and now I know how kind and generous you are with the people you meet. It’s cool, man. You’re a legend.
KNOXVILLE: That means a lot coming from you. I remember meeting you at the Children’s Mercy Hospital charity event in Kansas City. You were about to break, and I would always try to low-key sit around you because you were so fucking funny. I didn’t have to say three words because you were on.
KROLL: Thanks, man.
KNOXVILLE: But on in a fun way. There are certain comedians you can’t have conversations with.
KROLL: Incredibly funny people aren’t always interpersonally gifted. The older I get, the more amazing it is to find those people you can have that conversation with forever.
KNOXVILLE: Yeah. I really like talking to you.
KROLL: Me too, man. You know who seems like a genius? Sour Shoes from Howard Stern.
KNOXVILLE: He’s unbelievable. He’s touched.
KROLL: He’s really touched with something, isn’t he?
KNOXVILLE: Yeah, he’s wickedly funny. Maybe a better word than touched is gifted.
KROLL: Truly gifted, but also touched by the heavens. Do you remember the first time you met Howard?
KNOXVILLE: Before I made the “Self Defense” tape, I was just going to write an article. Tremaine said, “You should film it,” and I was like, “Okay, we’ll film it.” When I got the tape back, we put it in a skateboard video, and suddenly I had this three-minute resume. I sent it to everybody because at that point I’d just had a baby and we were barely scratching by. I was like, “I’ve got to do something with this.” I sent the tape to Howard, and he later said, “I threw it aside because I thought you were some nut.” He was like, “I could have—”
KROLL: Could have owned you.
KNOXVILLE: He’s been wonderful to us.
KROLL: Howard thought you were a nut, but not the right kind of nut to be in the Wack Pack.
KNOXVILLE: He might’ve felt I was dangerous, but you know me. I’m a big teddy bear, Nick.
KROLL: You are a teddy bear, but you are a dangerous man. Make no mistake.
KNOXVILLE: I’m a fairly dangerous man.
KROLL: That’s one of the beauties of your charm.
KNOXVILLE: Oh, geez. Nick, thank you, buddy. Hey kid, you got anything you want to plug?
KROLL: I’ve got a recurring role on Mating Season, a new animated show coming out on Netflix. It’s about animals dating and fucking and falling in love in the woods.
KNOXVILLE: I love it.
KROLL: I love you. I’m so happy to chat with you.
KNOXVILLE: Thank you, Nick. Love you, buddy.
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Grooming: Sydney Sollod using Living Proof at The Wall Group.
Set Design: Cody Rogers at Born Artists.
Photography Assistant: William Koning.
Fashion Assistant: Garrett Blatt.
Set Design Assistant: John Armstrong.
Production Direction: Alexandra Weiss.
Photography Production: Georgia Ford.
On-set Production: Connor Moon and Blayke Kogan at North Six.
Post-production: INK.
Social Media Assistant: Lauren Schiller.
Special Thanks: Andy Singh.
