Known for its jaw-clenchingly painful stunts, sordid humour, and grotesque lack of self-preservation, the wildly popular franchise Jackass has stunned audiences for years, thanks in large part to its fearless cast: Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Chris Pontius, Dave England, Steve-O, Ryan Dunn, Ehren ‘Danger Ehren’ McGhehey, Preston Lacy and Jason ‘Wee Man’ Acuna. These are all men who, over the years, would prefer to create “the world’s highest belly flop ever performed into pure piss,” than settle into a mediocre middle-age.

As the newest iteration of the Jackass crew gears up for round four with 2022’s Jackass Forever, the legacy-related question of ‘favorite stunts’ comes into play - whether it’s supergluing Bam Margera’s hands to the hairy chests of Preston Lacy and Phil Margera, Ryan Dunn stuffing a toy car up his butt, or Steve-O stapling his scrotum to his thigh, there’s always enough (and often too much) Jackass to go around. Ahead of the film’s February release, here is a list of the five funniest stunts ever performed throughout the franchise's ridiculous history.\

Warning: The stunts in this article were performed by professionals; do not attempt any of the stunts you are about to read.

5 The Goldfish (Jackass, Season 1 - Episode 2)

Have you ever wanted to see a man swallow a live goldfish, forcefully shove his fingers down his throat to regurgitate aforementioned goldfish, and then call the goldfish his “buddy” as it swims around its vomit-infested fishbowl? No? If you have, feast your eyes upon one of Steve-O's most infamous stunts, where he spends two minutes alternating between chugging pints of water and violently retching as the much beloved fish travels down his esophagus, in the newest adaption of what could also be named, Schrodinger’s Goldfish.

There is a brief wave of doubt that Steve-O will manage to successfully expel the animal, and the thought that his obituary might read “Choked by Fish'' seems darkly astute - though, there’s every chance that this would constitute a mercy killing for the man who frequently launches dog poo directly into his ear canal. Despite his digestive tract’s best intentions, the goldfish reemerges from the back of Steve-O’s throat in a godlike feat, happily swimming around the bowl of stringy stomach acid and saliva. Steve-O shouts, grins, and turns to the camera as he utters the dreaded words, “I’ve never done that before… That was the first time I even tried it.”

4 Treadmill Sh*t Show (Jackass 3.5)

Following the turn of the new year, it’s no surprise that many people make the resolution to try and drop the junk food in favour of the treadmill; however, when the session involves high-speed skateboarding and a brief adventure into the recesses of Wee-Man’s anus, the goal seems slightly less achievable. Starring Knoxville, Dunn, Margera, Wee-Man, Pontius, Steve-O, England, Ehren and Fall, the stunt makes use of eight consecutive treadmills to allow the men to more efficiently catapult themselves into one another.

“Dave got kicked right in the [...] face,” said Bam Margera in an after-the-fact interview, superimposed over footage of Dave England’s bleeding nose. In the next portion of the stunt, treadmills are stacked on top of one another for a high-speed joyride, resulting in the exceptionally sophisticated shot of Ryan Dunn’s face plowing into Wee-Man’s behind - an act that was, surprisingly, not the worst thing that happened to Dunn throughout the franchise (as the aptly-named ‘Poo Dive’ stunt offers evidence to the contrary).

3 Toro Totter (Jackass Number Two)

Take a moment to think of one of the worst animals to be trapped with in a small, confined pit. If you didn’t think ‘bull,’ this stunt might change your mind. Armed with no protective gear and stuck on a four-way see-saw with a raging bull running below, Knoxville, Pontius, Dunn and Margera are forced to leap up and down to avoid a gruesome mauling. They style it out for a few moments, still managing to hang onto their lollipops and propellor beanies, but the bull has one intention as soon as Dunn is launched from his seat: kill.

With Margera and Dunn being the first to run (or get hurled into the wall), Knoxville is predictably the only man left standing after a few moments, and rather than pack it in for the day, he chooses to further the preschool comparisons by screaming, “I’m not out yet!” as the charging bull launches him towards the center of the seesaw, effectively destroying the contraption. Thankfully, the matadors rush in to distract the bull and save Knoxville from an untimely death, but this is one of the few stunts where even Steve-O watches on in horror.

2 Butt Chug (Jackass Number Two)

In the years following Steve-O’s brief foray into goldfish swallowing, it was only reasonable that an entirely new method of inserting things where they shouldn’t be inserted emerged: spdecifically, 'butt chugging.’ To set the scene, Steve-O lies around in a Hawaiian shirt and floppy sun hat, funnel shoved indelicately up his rectal orifice, while the band of brothers stand around screaming “Chug!” as the tube of beer slowly disappears inside Steve-O’s body.

Equipped with only a plunger and his wits, Bam Margera goes to work removing the final dregs of Steve-O’s bottom beer, to the sound of Johnny Knoxville screaming, “He’s peeing like a girl!” With one final plunge, an outpouring of beer escapes Steve-O’s body as the men spring to avoid getting drenched. When Steve-O states to the camera and says, “I’m sorry Dad, but no-one’s going to miss this for the world,” he’s not wrong.

1 Poo Cocktail Supreme (Jackass 3D)

If Steve-O’s bum beer wasn’t bad enough, try getting launched fifty odd feet into the air in a fecal-filled Port-A-Potty. As the toilet regurgitates its contents all over Steve-O and the campgrounds, you can see Margera vomit, Steve-O vomit, and the rest of the cast seriously consider vomiting, in one of the greatest and grossest stunts ever completed across the Jackass franchise.

In a subsequent interview with the Los Angeles Times, Steve-O stated: “I have this crazy little dog. I walk him every day. Every time my dog poos, I pick it up with the little doggy bag. And honestly, for the rest of my life, every time I pick up my dog’s poo, I’m going to look at it and hold it in my hand and think: ‘Dude, I am gnarly!" There are very few bodily fluids that haven’t been exploited for a (literal) gag by the cast of Jackass, but this one really takes the cake. Gnarly, in every sense of the word, indeed.