Painfully funny

Whoever said “no pain, no gain” probably didn’t expect a bunch of jackasses to take it to heart.

Johnny Knoxville and his faithful crew step their pain-inflicting, awe-inspiring shenanigans up a notch with Jackass Number Two. Forget between-the-toe paper cuts—let’s put a leech on Steve-O’s eyeball and turn Chris Pontius’ penis into snake bait.

They wouldn’t, you say. Oh, yes, they would.

No stunt is too outrageous for these guys. Actually, that’s not entirely true. While Knoxville is up for anything and everything—he’s a madman, I tell you—his buddies aren’t always rip-raring to go. “Fuck that!” they yell while fleeing the scene. And how can you blame them for not wanting to be, say, pelted with hundreds of rubber bullets? (After securing a cup and a face mask—safety first—they turn around and do the stunt anyway.)

The members of this fraternity of sorts—it’s all guys, all the time (except for the rare cameo and, of course, Bam Margera’s mom)—have so much fun grossing people out, playing tricks on each other and generally being reckless and ridiculous that even the vomit-inducing scenes are hilarious. However, there are a few that are so foul you might have to put down your popcorn. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

There’s quite a bit of male nudity and more than a few fart jokes in Number Two. But, I must say, I was expecting the sequel to be far more disgusting than it is. Consider me pleasantly surprised. I can’t remember the last time I laughed—and yelled—so much in a movie theater. And I certainly wasn’t alone.

By far, the best parts of this movie are the pranks, though some of the planned stunts—like seesawing in a bull ring—are a riot. Watching people’s reactions to practical jokes and seeing the guys busting up while their evil plans play out is priceless.

Picture Jason Acuña (that’s Wee Man to you and me) sitting bare-assed on a stool, expecting merely to have playing cards whipped at him, only to have his buddies rig a nice electrical shock to the chair. Or imagine April Margera, waking up to realize she’s lying in bed not next to her husband, but a tighty-whitey-clad Preston Lacey (a very convincing double, I might add).

For me to relate more scenes wouldn’t do the movie justice. It’s way funnier to see it in person. As long as the sight of Wee Man’s wee man or a fishhook through the cheek won’t make you queasy.