jackass not on dvd – the poo poo platter

Posted by sean cliver Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 2:25 pm

warning
These webclips feature stunts performed either by professionals or under the supervision of professionals. MTV and the producers must insist that no one attempt any activity performed on the site.

If you thought there was panic in the streets of London when they burned down the disco and hung the bloody DJ, well then you should have seen the MTV shuffle when it came to releasing the old jackass show on DVD. I mean, did you ever wonder why there were “volumes” instead of “seasons” for the old television stuff? (Although what probably came as more of a wonder was that volumes two and three came out long before the mysteriously missing volume one, which didn’t finally hit the streets until a couple years later.) Sillily enough, and as silly a made-up word as that is, the playful word “poo” had much ado about everything regarding the fate of certain segments.

The original “Poo Poo Platter” prank by Johnny Knoxville was featured in boob, the third Big Brother video, released in 1999 (the unofficial springboard from which jackass would haphazardly spring). Filmed under the radar in the manner of most any skateboard video back then, this footage was wholly unusable for the jackass pilot in early 2000. So grabbing a fistful of poo and putting it on ice, we hit the streets early one morning in search of restaurants and locations that were conducive to filming on the sly—hidden camera, if you must. Somewhat green to the world of high-tech spy cameras and shit, buffoonery abounded and the footage was hit-and-miss from spot to spot, meaning no audio or no picture (as witnessed in the second part of this video, where Rick Kosick and Johnny Knoxville are shown exclusively from an exterior angle without an interior view to speak of).

hidden spike

In all, I think we tried this prank at like seven or eight restaurants over the course of a couple days until we finally hit upon a certain highly rated yet dimly lit Thai restaurant. The footage quality was marginal and snuff-caliber at best (and even that might be putting it politely), but the reactions carried it over the finish line and into a future episode on the first season of jackass. That’s a pretty big bean!

(Spike Jonze gearing up hidden camera-style for a “Poo Poo Platter” run. Photo by Sean Cliver; Los Angeles, CA; 2000)

Category: jackass, johnny knoxville