Johnny Knoxville's Net Worth is Worth A Lot of Injuries
Johnny Knoxville is a jackass, a wealthy jackass. And he would think that my saying that is a compliment. Johnny Knoxville's net worth is estimated to be around $50 million.
Knoxville was the highest-paid performer of the MTV hit reality television show called Jackass. It was all about crazy stunts that almost guaranteed the performers would get hurt. The show ran for three seasons, from 2000 to 2003.
After the television show came the Jackass film franchise, with multiple films and Jackass Presents films such as Bad Grandpa, my favorite. There is a Jackass videogame and tons of merchandise. Anyone who wants to be a jackass can proudly be one. Just please do not try any of the stunts at home.
It’s Great to Still Be Alive
Knoxville is entering his fifties now and is lucky to be alive. Many of the stunts he performed for the Jackass shows and movies could have killed him. That was the point of the franchise. The performers would put themselves in harm’s way and do things where they got hurt. They did this on purpose. They made a game out of daring the other performers to be a bigger jackass.
Johnny Knoxville's Net Worth From Jackass Stunts
In 2008, Knoxville did a video interview with Vanity Fair where he described in ten minutes all of the serious injuries he experienced doing the Jackass stunts.
Some of the most dangerous moments include:
Play Balls Snake
Knoxville thought it was a fun idea to get in a bin of play balls, like the kind found at fast-food restaurants for kids to play in. The added playmate in the play balls with Knoxville was a massive anaconda snake. Knoxville tried to wrestle the snake. Nobody told the snake that it was not supposed to try to choke Knoxville to death.
Toro Totter
Knoxville and other cast members got on a four-person teeter-totter in the center of a bull ring. The up and down of the teeter-totter continued as they tried to avoid being stuck in the ass by the bull’s horns. They rode the teeter-totter down to get the bull to charge and were lifted in time to keep from being gored to death. Their lives were in the hands of the other guy sitting across from them on the teeter-totter.
Riot Control
Knoxville allowed the crew to shoot him in the back with rubber bullets. Rubber bullets are not supposed to be deadly, but getting hit by them really hurts. It is very painful and leaves behind a massive bruise from the blunt force trauma.
You’re Nuts
Knoxville tests out the strength of a jockstrap and cup by a tap from a suspended sledgehammer. Even though painful, Knoxville could still father three children with two separate wives after this stunt.
Broken Manhood
Knoxville, on a dare, tried to do a backward flip on a motorcycle, even though he did not know how to ride one. Before the stunt, he laughed it off and said, “What is the worst thing that could happen? I’m not gonna break my dick.”
When his penis got damaged in the stunt, he had to self-catheter twice a day for three and one-half years for the internal healing to take place without scarring.
He affectionately calls this stunt gone wrong “The Time Johnny Knoxville Broke His Penis.” What do you expect from a guy who calls his production company Dickhouse Films?
Big Red Rocket
Knoxville sat on the back of what looked like a gigantic firecracker and tried to ride the red rocket. It blew up instead of taking flight, sending shrapnel everywhere. Some of the jagged metal pieces barely missed him. That would have killed him.
Not one to give up easily, he tried it a second time, and it worked. He flies a hundred feet in the air to land in a lake.
Still a Jackass
In 2000, Knoxville starred in the Jackass television shows when he was 29. In 2021 he was in his last Jackass film starring him. GQ calls this Johnny Knoxville’s Last Rodeo.
Jackass 4
Knoxville broke plenty of bones and suffered four concussions, so making a fourth Jackass film was not really something he should have done. Yet, after the release of Jackass 3D in 2010, he spent the last decades collecting ideas for crazier stunts. He could not stop himself from imagining some wild, dangerous thing that would make the audience laugh.
One thing that Knoxville did better than some of the other Jackass performers was to expand his acting career to other films and become a producer/director. This method helped him both get more of other people’s money (OPM) to pay for his stunt ideas and make more money for himself.
Can you imagine the pitch to get the OPM for this insanity? It goes something like this, you see, dear investor, we plan to stick firecrackers between our butt cheeks and light them.
Jackass Box Office
The firecracker in the bum was actually a stunt used in the first feature film called Jackass: The Movie. Knoxville was the film’s star, along with an ensemble cast that included Steve-O and Chris Pontius. Knoxville was also the film’s writer and producer.
If you invested in this Jackass franchise, you would be laughing your ass off all the way to the bank. The films are simply shot, and the stuntmen are the actors.
2002 Jackass: The Movie Worldwide Box Office $79 Million
2006 Jackass: Number Two Worldwide Box Office $85 Million
2010 Jackass 3D Worldwide Box Office $171 Million
2013 Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa Worldwide Box Office $161 Million
2022 Jackass 4 Box Office $80.5 million
Nobody Wanted Clapp
Image source: Pinterest
Johnny Knoxville's net worth was nothing in the early days. His legal given name was P. J. Clapp. He came to Los Angeles from Tennessee in 1989 after he graduated from high school. He was in a crowded field of wannabee actors, and nobody wanted him.
His name, Phillip John Clapp, sounded too much like a venereal disease. So, he changed it to Johnny Knoxville as his stage name. He took the first name from his favorite country singing star, Johnny Cash, and the city's name in Tennessee, where he was born. Even with the name change, it took a while for his big break, like ten years.
Knoxville was doing bit parts here and there and a few television commercials. He also started his writing career by creating articles for Jeff Tremaine’s skateboarding magazine, Big Brother. This led to filming a video of testing self-defense gear, which was the seed kernel for what would later develop into Jackass.
SNL And MTV Fight Over Jackass
It was Tremaine’s friend Spike Jonze who pitched the idea for the show to MTV. That is how Jackass was born. Before Jackass aired, Saturday Night Live tried to hire the Jackass crew to perform their stunts weekly on the Saturday Night Live show.
The jackasses, as they like to call themselves, turned down the SNL offer, instead preferring to continue with the plans for their own show on MTV. Years later, Knoxville would host Saturday Night Live after Jackass was a national sensation.
The Jackass show only ran for three seasons, and then it was canceled. This happened not due to lack of popularity but due to the increased liability risk for MTV. The show had a strong disclaimer insisting that the viewers not try any of the stunts at home. The disclaimer did not stop millions of real-life jackasses from trying to copy what they saw on the show. This copy-cat trend resulted in too many lawsuits.
After the MTV show, Paramount film studios made the Jackass films with Knoxville and crew. Paramount had plenty of lawyers to deal with these copy-cat problems. The Jackass franchise’s success made enough money to pay for them.
Johnny Knoxville's Net Worth From Acting
Knoxville made plenty of money from the Jackass franchise and the spin-off Bad Grandpa, where he played the lead character. For those who would dismiss the Jackass franchise as tasteless, adolescent “boys gone bad” fantasy, there is an actor of some repute in Knoxville. He starred in some popular feature films, gave good lead performances, and played a supporting actor in dozens of other films.
Most notably are his performances in the Lords of Dogtown, a classic skateboarders’ film, The Dukes of Hazzard, Men in Black II, and The Ringer. He was the voice of Leonardo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
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Conclusion
If you think Knoxville would ride off quietly into the sunset, you still don’t get the man. As part of the Jackass 4 movie filming, Knoxville came up with the idea of performing a magic trick for a bull that would naturally run at him and send him flying.
The rest of the movie was already complete. There was not an essential need for this stunt. Nevertheless, Knoxville insisted on doing it. Right on cue, the bull hit Knoxville and threw him into the air. Knoxville did one and one-half rotations in the air and landed on his head, knocking himself unconscious.
You have to ask yourself, is Johnny Knoxville’s net worth enough compensation for the pain and suffering? Knoxville suffered a broken rib, a broken wrist, a concussion, and a brain hemorrhage. He is lucky he did not break his neck and end up paralyzed.
When he finally came to, he asked the crew what happened, and they explained it to him. Knoxville said, “I guess the bull just doesn’t like magic.”
It is not just for the money that Knoxville does these crazy things. Knoxville thought that being knocked unconscious and nearly killed by a bull was hilarious, as long as the crew got it on film.