With Jackass: Best and Last on the 2026 movie schedule, the franchise is taking its final bow with a mix of new footage, greatest-hits chaos and, per reviews, there’s a surprisingly poignant sense of closure. That final-chapter setup also means the cast — which includes Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O and co. — is looking back at some of the franchise’s most infamous moments, Now, Steve-O is sharing the story behind one of his iconic stunts, which apparently followed a “day of doing cocaine.”
Of course, looking back at classic Jackass bits also means revisiting how some of those stunts came together, and Steve-O’s story about one of his best stunts, “Tropical Pole Vaulting,” is about as wild as you would expect. While talking about the final movie, the longtime MTV star opened up about the messy backstory behind the stunt, and his explanation makes the whole thing sound even more reckless than it already looked. He explained to Entertainment Weekly:
I spent a day doing cocaine, and then I spent the next day still awake pole vaulting all over the place, making terrible decisions. I just thought, ‘Man, wouldn’t it be great if I took a pole vault to the beach and the bushes and a gross river and just launched myself into all kinds of stuff?’
That is maybe the most early-Jackass origin story imaginable. It has bad judgment, physical danger, a strangely specific athletic component and a body of water no reasonable person would willingly enter. Somehow, it also has a recognizable creative process buried inside the madness.
For anyone who needs the refresher, “Tropical Pole Vaulting” appears in Jackass: The Movie, which you can revisit with a Paramount+ subscription. The bit is pretty much what the title promises: the former professionally trained clown uses a pole vault at various outdoor locations and hurls himself into places where human bodies are not especially welcome. It is not one of the franchise’s most elaborate stunts, but it has the grimy, slapdash energy that defined those early years.
The wild part is that, according to Steve-O, there was actually training involved. He said franchise director Jeff Tremaine helped set him up with the pole vaulting team at UCLA so he could practice before shooting the bit.
He set it up for me to train with the pole vaulting team at UCLA. And I really diligently trained. I worked as hard as I could, and I never got any good pole vaulting. I can’t even believe tropical pole vaulting made the movie, it was so half-assed and weak, and I was just on drugs, too. Hadn’t slept in days.
With all this said, Johnny Knoxville recently emphasized that the cast was sober while performing stunts. Steve-O’s story frames the drug use as happening the day before, though he also makes clear he was still awake and in bad shape when the stunt was happening. Either way, it paints a pretty bleak picture of where he was personally during that era.
Steve-O has been open for years about his sobriety and how his approach to stunts changed after getting clean. The Jackass franchise has always sold itself on bodies hitting the ground, but the Wildboyz veteran reflections often add another layer: the difference between performing fearlessly and performing while completely wrecked.
“Tropical Pole Vaulting” may have made the movie, but Steve-O does not sound especially proud of how he got there. If anything, his version makes the stunt feel like a snapshot of a much messier time in his and the series’ life. I, for one, am happy to see him and the whole cast in a much better place, and pulling off some of the best stunts of their careers, even this many years later.
Jackass: Best and Last is now playing in theaters, so be sure to check your local listings for showtimes.
