JACKASS: THE SOUNDTRACK

With only one week left until the release of Jackass: Best & Last, we’ve been looking back over 26 years of Jackass and celebrating the camaraderie, friendship and fearlessness of some of our favourite TV personalities of the last quarter century.

In the early 2000s Jackass was born out of a combined effort from Skateboarding publication Big Brother magazine and Bam Margera’s Philadelphia based skate/comedy troupe CKY, and together they took over MTV, and changed a generation forever. With their final movie imminently being released, we’ve looked back to the very beginning to celebrate some of the music that accompanied the chaos, which in its own right, was immortalised and made iconic just by association. Just like every great skate video, the music is just as important as the imagery and Jackass always succeeded with this same formula, and here's some of our favourite examples...

CKY - 96 Quite Bitter Beings

Jackass series 1 - Shopping carts

Two staples of the whole Jackass genre are riding shopping trolleys into things at high speed and the music of CKY. With drummer Jess being Bam Margera’s brother, it was an easy route in to showcase their music and they feature heavily throughout but never in more iconic fashion than here.

Greenskeepers - Lotion

Jackass Forvever - Silence of the lambs

One of the stand out segments from Jackass Forever was Silence of the lambs where various teams of two were trapped in a dark room, with nothing but pure torture going on around them. Greenskeepers track ‘Lotion’ was the perfect accompaniment but on first viewing it’s just background noise. When you actually listen to the track and it’s creepy lyrics, you realise how much it was made for this scene… especially considering Pontius’ weird naked dancing.

Twisted sister - The Kids are back

Jackass 3D - Intro

All of the movies have an elaborate introduction, but this one with Twisted Sister accompanying, showcases everything you need to know about Jackass. A high energy start with the whole cast involved. Brilliant.

The Misfits - Hybrid moments

Jackass series 2 - American Werewolf

It’s literally just Chris Pontius with a Werewolf mask on, running around scaring British people in London. Be that as it may, this is the best Misfits track of all time and to hear it used in the early 2000s on MTV is just a massive nostalgia trip

The Ramones - California Sun

Jackass The Movie - Tropical pole vaulting

Steve-O in full athletic gear, running around with a pole vault and diving off bridges and into sewage works. It’s got to be The Ramones right? They do crop up a few times throughout the 26 year Jackass saga, but this is the best example.

The Datsuns - MF from Hell

Jackass 2 - Fire hose rodeo

Dave England’s been involved in some of the best segments ever, and also some of the worst and most unwatchable. But watching a man flail around on a high pressure fire hose while clinging on for dear life was one of the highlights of this 2006 release.

Turbonegro - All my friends are dead

Jackass 2 - The Gauntlet

Some of the more elaborate skits are great but a bunch of guys at a skatepark trying to hurt each other and not get hurt is exactly what this is all about, and when Turbonegros ‘All my friends are dead’ was used for this, it resulted in one of the most exciting scenes in the second Jackass movie.

Eddy Grant - Electric Avenue

Jackass 3D - Electric Avenue

Speaking of elaborate skits. How about a corridor filled with obstacles, cattle prods, tasers and more awful and gnarly equipment designed to hurt and destroy a human being. I don’t know if the song informed the name of the scene or the other way around but it’s beautiful.

The Go Gos - Vacation

Jackass 4.5 - Hot shit water skiing

The .5 specials are as much fun as the movies and this one scene in particular, personally embodies this whole thing. Friends, on a beach, messing around with jet skis. It heavily showcased the newer talent to the franchise as well, with Poopies, Zach and Jasper featuring prominently.

The Vapor’s - Turning Japanese

Jackass The Movie - Night Pandas

Much like the previous entry, not the most dangerous skit of all time but when the first movie dropped, Night Pandas was again, just harmless fun and camaraderie as the crew ran around Tokyo in panda outfits. I’ve still never seen anything as cute as Wee man dressed as a baby Panda.

Finally, an honourable mention for…..

Minute men - Corona

Theme tune

The theme tune that became synonymous with Jackass. Whether on the MTV series at the beginning and end of each show, teased in each movie even just with that opening riff or perhaps as Johnny Knoxville's Wrestlemania 38 entrance music, its iconic, legendary and will always be connected to Jackass.

Jackass: Best & Last is released in the UK on June 26th and is the final instalment of the Jackass franchise. I’ve got my tickets.. which means I’m going to be an absolute nightmare all week….

Article by Stuart Green