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By Devin Gordon
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For some people, there is nothing funnier in this world than the sight of a man getting hoofed in the privates. Among such people--and no matter how sophisticated you may be, you are probably, secretly, one of them--Johnny Knoxville is your new king. The road to the throne began in 1996 when Knoxville, while being videotaped by a friend, had another pal shoot him in the eyes with pepper spray, then once in the chest with a 120,000-volt stun gun, then repeatedly with a 50,000-volt Taser. (The pepper spray was by far the worst, says Knoxville: "You physically cannot open your eyes. It took me 15 minutes to recover.") When Knoxville showed the tape to his parents, his mother cried. You will too. It's that funny.
The exercise was originally intended as research for an article on self-defense equipment for skateboarding magazine Big Brother, but after Knoxville's editor saw the footage, he included it in a compilation of similarly idiotic stunts. Now, cult following in tow, Knoxville has taken his peculiar talents to MTV. "Jackass," a new, completely and utterly insane half-hour show starring Knoxville and his band of merry pranksters, debuts this Sunday at 9 p.m., EDT. Comparisons to Tom Green are inevitable, but Green is merely silly. Knoxville is crazy. The self-defense-equipment demo is the crown jewel of the first episode, and there are other golden moments, including a bit where Knoxville puts on an orange jumpsuit with L.A. county jail stenciled on the back, handcuffs his hands and feet, then goes to a hardware store and tries to buy a hacksaw. He's coy, though, about the contents of later episodes. "I'll tell you this: I get the crap beaten out of me--while on crutches--by a professional boxer." How'd you wind up on crutches? "Oh, just a stupid stunt at the L.A. River. You'll see." "I know a lot of really crazy people," says coproducer and former Big Brother editor Jeff Tremaine. "But Johnny takes it to a whole new level."
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In person, Knoxville, 29, cuts a different figure than you'd expect from a man who once put on a Kevlar vest and shot himself in the stomach with a .38-caliber pistol (it was for the self-defense video; Knoxville and MTV agreed that it shouldn't be aired). A born and bred Southern boy--his real name is P. J. Clapp; Knoxville, Tenn., is his hometown--he is warm and unfailingly polite, calling every woman "ma'am" and smiling near constantly. On location in Miami, where he's costarring in "Big Trouble," a new Barry Sonnenfeld movie, his trailer rocks with sounds of Ella Fitzgerald and he passes the long waits by reading--swear to God--Emile Zola. "I guess if I thought about the things I do too much I'd probably stop altogether," says Knoxville, who has a wife, a 4 1/2-year-old daughter and terrific insurance. "Some people collect state thimbles. I like this type of humor. And to be involved in it is... I don't know if 'rewarding' is the right word. But it is fun."
It's also a Clapp family tradition. His father, Phil, now semiretired, still delights in crank-calling people. He's 64. Mr. Clapp began preparing his son for his career destiny early, training him, at the age of 4, to pop his father's buddies in the groin when they stopped by the house. "He was just tall enough to get a real good shot in," says the elder Jackass. "Boy, after that my friends were on guard as soon as they walked in the door." The son's clear affection for his dad, meanwhile, warms up the room. "He's good," Knoxville says with a giant smile. "He's real good. And he's been doing it for years."
Neither parent, however, has seen all of the "Jackass" premiere, and Knoxville is a little worried about how his mother will take one particular stunt involving a portable toilet. (We'd explain more, but Johnny wants his mother to see it for the first time Sunday with all her friends from church.) "For another week I will be her son," he jokes. Fear not, Mrs. Clapp, the doctors say your son will be just fine.
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