When people talk about the Jackass franchise, there tends to be a lot of passion directed at it. After all, there are loads of people who find the franchise absolutely hilarious which is why they can’t wait to learn what to expect from the upcoming fourth Jackass film. On the other hand, there are just as many people who are all too happy to express how disgusted they are by everything that has anything to do with Jackass.
Whether a person is a fan or detractor, they are bound to associate Jackass with its most expensive and dangerous stunts. On the other hand, virtually nobody thinks of sketch comedy first when the members of the Jackass crew are brought up. Despite that, one of the people who starred in Jackass once was invited to join Saturday Night Live’s cast and they rejected that offer for reasons that fans can understand.
Are Jackass And Saturday Night Live All That Different?
Throughout Saturday Night Live’s decades-long history, the show has almost always been taken seriously, even as some people constantly argue that the show has gone downhill. Of course, there are many reasons for that including the celebrity guest hosts and the fact that so many SNL cast members have gone on to superstardom. On the other hand, the press has often viewed the Jackass franchise as something akin to a freakshow of sorts.
Even though Saturday Night Live and Jackass obviously are perceived very differently, the two shows actually have quite a bit in common if you really think about it. For example, SNL and Jackass both focus on a series of standalone segments that are unrelated to everything that comes before and after them. On top of that, even though Jackass gets criticized a lot more, SNL certainly is no stranger to controversy. In fact, SNL has a long history of being extremely edgy at times. With all of that in mind, it makes a lot more sense that a Jackass star was offered the chance to star in SNL than most people may have thought at first.
Johnny Gets The Chance Of A Lifetime
At this point in Johnny Knoxville’s life and career, he can rest assured that he is rich, famous, and he has millions of devoted fans. However, before Jackass debuted on MTV in the year 2000, Knoxville was an aspiring actor who had yet to find a breakout role. As a result, Knoxville agreed to be filmed testing several different kinds of self-defense equipment on himself. The thing that Knoxville never could have known is that all of the pain he went through while being pepper-sprayed, tased, and stunned would result in an unexpected opportunity.
In 2006, Jackass co-creators Johnny Knoxville and Jeff Tremaine talked The A.V. Club about the highly successful franchise. As Tremaine explained partway through that interview, the video of Knoxville testing self-defense equipment on himself made it to Lorne Michaels. “The ball was rolling on Jackass, but it was going slow. We made a little tape basically showing what Jackass was. It was going around, and it was really popular. SNL got a hold of it. They made an offer, and it almost killed the deal because it was a sure thing for him.”
Considering that starring in Saturday Night Live has launched so many careers over the years, it makes a lot of sense that very few people have turned down an offer to star in the show. On top of that, the only thing that Knoxville had going for him when he was offered SNL was Jackass, a show that likely was going to fail since nothing like it had succeeded on TV before. Despite all of that, Knoxville obviously decided to bet on Jackass.
During an appearance on The Howard Stern Show, Johnny Knoxville explained that Lorne Michaels wanted him to be a part of Saturday Night Live so bad that they had a meeting at the Beverly Hills Hotel. However, Knoxville’s problem was that if he joined SNL, that would leave everyone else who starred in Jackass out in the dark since Michaels only wanted him. On top of that, Knoxville would have lost a lot of control if he worked for SNL.
During another interview with the Washington Times, Johnny Knoxville explained how those factors played into his decision to reject Lorne Michaels and Saturday Night Live. “It was at the point where I either say yes to my friends, where we had all the control, or yes to ‘Saturday Night Live,’ where none of my friends were really going to be there and I had no control. I just thought I made the right decision.”