Steve-O Admits the Early Days of Jackass Were a “Bad Influence”

Hindsight is 20/20, even for a guy who used to make his living as human shark bait. 

Steve-O, who was one of the original cast members on Jackass when it premiered in 2000 on MTV, reflected back on the wild early days of the show with a bit of a different take than he had back then.

“We were genuinely worth vilifying because back then they didn’t have YouTube or video on the Internet and we were legitimately a bad influence,” he said on the Hotboxin with Mike Tyson podcast. “When Jackass came out, little kids were showing up in hospitals all over the country and maybe the world because they saw us doing this crazy s–t and they wanted to do it themselves.”

Jackass, which ran for three seasons from 2000 to 2001 before spawning an entire cinematic universe, featured Steve-O and his band of misfit friends performing outrageous stunts. The show—which also starred Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera and Chris Pontius—was groundbreaking in its eccentric stupidity, though Steve-O now argues there’s more than enough blame to go around.

“At that time, you could really point to us as being a bad influence,” he said. “But I think over the years, because now that there’s so much YouTube, [MTV’s], so much, it’s not our f–king fault anymore.”