Johnny Knoxville may be making a “Jackass” of himself again. The star of Hulu’s “Reboot” is reportedly filming a new prank-based project in Long Beach, according to an unlikely source — a lawsuit against the actor from a TaskRabbit handyman.
As reported by Variety, a handyman named Khalil Khan filed a suit against Knoxville in the Long Beach Superior Court for emotional distress after an alleged on-camera prank.
According to the lawsuit, Khan went to a home after signing up for a repair job on TaskRabbit in October, where the homeowner asked him to fix a dimmer switch and threatened to beat him up if he didn’t properly repair it, saying, “I know jiu-jitsu.” After the threat, Khan experienced a variety of bizarre occurrences: a lamp went out, and a girl showed up claiming Khan killed her pony and led him to a room where a horse was being put on life support, his car suddenly got towed, and he was told that if he called the police, he would be arrested for possession of cocaine inside the house.
“At this point, Plaintiff was in a panic,” the lawsuit states, per Variety. “In the span of just minutes, he had been threatened with being beaten up, told he botched the repair job, accused of murdering a pony, had his car taken without his permission, and was now being told that he would be arrested for possession of illicit narcotics.”
Eventually, Knoxville came onto the scene and revealed the people in the house were actors and the whole scenario was an elaborate prank. Khan alleges he was offered a few hundred dollars for his unwitting participation in the bit.
According to the suit, Khan suffered from lack of sleep, anxiety, and emotional distress after the incident, and fears that he will experience “embarrassment and ridicule” if the prank is released for public viewing.
Reps for Knoxville did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Although the suit doesn’t explicitly say the project is for “Jackass,” the description sounds similar to many pranks and stunts featured in the long-running franchise, which began with a 2000 MTV series that Knoxville created with Jeff Tremaine and Spike Jonze. The series, which is hosted by Knoxville, sees a cast of stunt performers playing a variety of complicated pranks on each other or embarking on dangerous stunts. The series spawned several spinoffs and four feature films, the latest of which, “Jackass Forever,” released in theaters this past February by Paramount Pictures.
“Forever,” which reunited Knoxville with the majority of the original cast minus the late Ryan Dunn, to whom the film is dedicated, was a financial success. The installment grossed over $80 million at the global box office on a $10 million budget.
Although some speculated that “Forever” may be the last “Jackass” film — the movie arrived 12 years after “Jackass 3D” in 2010 — during the press tour, Knoxville maintained their was potential for a future installment in the franchise. In a February interview with IndieWire, he said, “We could make another one, or we could not.”
As reported by Variety, a handyman named Khalil Khan filed a suit against Knoxville in the Long Beach Superior Court for emotional distress after an alleged on-camera prank.
According to the lawsuit, Khan went to a home after signing up for a repair job on TaskRabbit in October, where the homeowner asked him to fix a dimmer switch and threatened to beat him up if he didn’t properly repair it, saying, “I know jiu-jitsu.” After the threat, Khan experienced a variety of bizarre occurrences: a lamp went out, and a girl showed up claiming Khan killed her pony and led him to a room where a horse was being put on life support, his car suddenly got towed, and he was told that if he called the police, he would be arrested for possession of cocaine inside the house.
“At this point, Plaintiff was in a panic,” the lawsuit states, per Variety. “In the span of just minutes, he had been threatened with being beaten up, told he botched the repair job, accused of murdering a pony, had his car taken without his permission, and was now being told that he would be arrested for possession of illicit narcotics.”
Eventually, Knoxville came onto the scene and revealed the people in the house were actors and the whole scenario was an elaborate prank. Khan alleges he was offered a few hundred dollars for his unwitting participation in the bit.
According to the suit, Khan suffered from lack of sleep, anxiety, and emotional distress after the incident, and fears that he will experience “embarrassment and ridicule” if the prank is released for public viewing.
Reps for Knoxville did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Although the suit doesn’t explicitly say the project is for “Jackass,” the description sounds similar to many pranks and stunts featured in the long-running franchise, which began with a 2000 MTV series that Knoxville created with Jeff Tremaine and Spike Jonze. The series, which is hosted by Knoxville, sees a cast of stunt performers playing a variety of complicated pranks on each other or embarking on dangerous stunts. The series spawned several spinoffs and four feature films, the latest of which, “Jackass Forever,” released in theaters this past February by Paramount Pictures.
“Forever,” which reunited Knoxville with the majority of the original cast minus the late Ryan Dunn, to whom the film is dedicated, was a financial success. The installment grossed over $80 million at the global box office on a $10 million budget.
Although some speculated that “Forever” may be the last “Jackass” film — the movie arrived 12 years after “Jackass 3D” in 2010 — during the press tour, Knoxville maintained their was potential for a future installment in the franchise. In a February interview with IndieWire, he said, “We could make another one, or we could not.”