Jeff Tremaine says Johnny Knoxville pitched him a wildly dangerous idea in 1997—pepper spray, stun gun, taser darts, and a bulletproof vest—during their ‘Big Brother’ days. Tremaine later used that buried footage and an origin-story warning in “Jackass: Best a
When Jeff Tremaine watched the camera come back from the first truly chaotic test—Johnny Knoxville firing a gun in the middle of nowhere—he says he realized he had something bigger than a skateboarding magazine. The moment wasn’t glamorous. It was unsettling, funny, and close to catastrophic all at once.
Tremaine first met Knoxville in 1995 on the set of Spike Jonze’s music video “California” for the band Wax. At the time, Tremaine worked as the editor for the skateboarding magazine “Big Brother.” Two years later, in 1997, Knoxville pitched him an article idea for the magazine.
Tremaine describes Knoxville’s pitch as a push toward journalism mixed with extreme danger—something “Hunter S. Thompson style.” Tremaine said Knoxville’s first idea included getting himself pepper-sprayed in the eyes. hit with a stun gun. having taser darts shot into him and being electrocuted. then buying a bulletproof vest and shooting himself in the chest.
“Big Brother,” Tremaine explained on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast, wasn’t strictly limited to skateboarding. While it was a skateboarding magazine, he called it “a humor magazine disguised as a skateboard magazine,” aimed at finding big personalities and doing things with them.
Tremaine loved the direction and said “yes.” Since “Big Brother” had just started shooting videos, he sent their cameraman, Dimitry Elyashkevich—who would later become a “Jackass” producer and cinematographer—to film Knoxville testing the equipment on himself.
But Tremaine admitted he got cold feet about the gun plan the night before. He told Elyashkevich: “You can’t go shoot that,” and instructed him to give Knoxville the video camera instead, so he could come back with footage.
That footage becomes central in the new film “Jackass: Best and Last,” which dips into the 30-year “Jackass” archive. The movie shows Elyashkevich teaching Knoxville and his friends how to use the camera. while Knoxville expresses surprise that the cameraman didn’t accompany them for what Tremaine describes as the most dramatic of the stunts.
There was also the vest—supplied because of the person behind the publication. At the time. Larry Flynt. the legendary pornographic magazine publisher. owned “Big Brother.” Tremaine gave Knoxville a stack of porn magazines to shove in the vest as an extra layer of protection. Tremaine says it was “more as a funny bit for the camera. ” but it turned funnier—and scarier—when the magazines fell out.
“It was not the most expensive bulletproof vest on the market. but it was the only one he could afford at the time. ” Tremaine recalled. He described the slapstick turning dangerous: the reckless idea that the porn mags fall out from under the vest while Knoxville has the gun and is pointing it at the camera—then distractedly picking the magazines up.
Tremaine said it’s exactly that combination—recklessness paired with “homemadeness”—that stuck with him.
The footage. he adds. is far more terrifying than anything that ever appeared in “Jackass.” Beyond the porno mag slapstick. Knoxville and his friend holding the camera are audibly and visibly nervous. Tremaine says there’s a feeling they don’t really know if the stunt will work. and that at times it even resembles the start of a found-footage snuff film.
When Knoxville finally returned the camera, Tremaine’s reaction was immediate and decisive. He had no intention of becoming a TV executive. executive producer. or director. telling the podcast: “I was just happy making a skateboard magazine and videos.” But once he began editing. he realized. “Oh. there’s something bigger here.”.
He didn’t know where to put it next. so he called Spike Jonze. an old friend who had revolutionized skateboard video culture and become one of the most successful music video and commercial directors ever. Tremaine said Jonze already had a massive influence on culture by expanding skateboarding culture—something “Jackass” was “100-percent born out of.”.
Tremaine told the podcast he called Spike and said: “Hey. I think we can make a TV show.” He said he already had Chris Pontius. Steve-O. Wee Man. and Bam Margera. “to a degree” through “Big Brother. ” but Knoxville was different—how compelling the footage was. “especially the gunshot. ” made it feel bigger than what they were doing.
Tremaine, Jonze, and Knoxville pitched “Jackass” to MTV as an eight-episode season, and the show became “the rest is history.”
Yet the original Knoxville footage—specifically Knoxville shooting himself on air—never made it onto television. Tremaine felt including it in the last film, “Jackass: Best and Last,” made sense because it’s part of the origin story and the archive they were drawing from.
The scene, Tremaine says, includes an extra layer of on-screen text and a warning that goes far beyond what “Jackass” has required in the past. The message is blunt in practice: Tremaine says no one should ever try this at home.
To hear Tremaine’s full interview, he directs listeners to subscribe to the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast on Apple, Spotify, or whichever platform they prefer.
Jeff Tremaine Johnny Knoxville Jackass: Best and Last Jackass archive Spike Jonze MTV Big Brother Dimitry Elyashkevich Larry Flynt Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast