He's a Jackass genius

The tag line on the poster for Jackass: The Movie says it all: "Bring a bucket". This is without question the grossest film you will ever see.

There's no narrative, just shaky footage of painful stunts performed by a group of inept lunatics whose raison d'etre is to put themselves in harm's way in new, imaginative fashions.

Highlights include the cast attempting to tight-rope over a pool of alligators - and falling in; stuffing swimming trunks with prawns before swimming with 30ft whale sharks; and having a tattoo done while being driven at high speed on bumpy terrain. It makes Trigger Happy TV look like Songs of Praise - which is why it has become a must-see cult programme on late-night British television.

"We had a promo screening of the movie," says Johnny Knoxville, ringleader of this ragged collective of "stuntmen". "We put cameras on the audience and a couple of people did lose their lunch."

Knoxville - real name Phillip John, though everyone calls him PJ - is like the bad kid at school who never got caught. Indeed, it's his laconic sang-froid in the face of danger that has made him a messianic figure to adolescents around the globe.

Fans of Jackass - including celebrity devotees like George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino - sent the movie to number one at the US box office in its opening-weekend, taking an impressive $22.8 million. Having negotiated a percentage deal on the film's profits, Knoxville and his cohorts stand to make some decent cash. Not bad for a former out-of-work actor who claims to have no talent apart from the willingness to endure considerable amounts of pain.

"It's not that I enjoy the pain," explains the used-car salesman's son from (you guessed it) Knoxville, Tennessee. "I suppose I'm a little indifferent to it. It all kicked off when I was asked to write an article on testing self-defence equipment for an underground magazine, and the art editor Jeff Tremaine [now Jackass director] said, 'Why don't you film it, too?'"

Now 31, Knoxville moved to LA in 1989 to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Art, but dropped out to "get acquainted with the city ... for six years. I studied a little, drank a lot, wrote for magazines. I basically did nothing."

His only pre-Jackass movie credit of any note is "college guy" in Coyote Ugly. Fortunately, his talents led our hero down a different path. Jackass TV, the precursor to the movie, raised its ugly head in 2000 after a meeting of deranged minds from East and West Coast America.

Pro-skateboarder and Jackass lieutenant Bam Margera was busy making extreme videos in Pennsylvania, while Knoxville and Tremaine were doing their own demented thing in LA. MTV brought the two sides together and Jackass TV was spawned. Although the team disbanded after 24 episodes, it became MTV's highest-rated show ever.