One of the most talked-about stunts from Jackass Forever is the “cup test,” in which “Danger” Ehren McGhehey is put through the wringer while testing the fortitude of a sports cup. In the final test, his old friend and castmate Dave England jumps on the cup with a pogo stick, and the result is brutal. This is even after being punched by heavyweight boxer Francis Ngannou and having softballs thrown at him by world-class pitcher Danielle O’Toole.
Recently, McGhehey and England sat down for an exclusive virtual interview with PopCulture.com, to promote the upcoming release of Jackass Forever on Blu-ray and DVD. During the conversation, they revealed how their friendship held up in the wake of the hilarious-yet-physically-traumatic stunt. “Oh, we’re tight. We’re tighter now more than ever,” McGhehey said. England then went on to explain, “He asked me to do that and I said, ‘That’s the worst idea ever, all my weight will be on that little peg. All of it. Concentrated. It’s going to be worse than all the other ones, lets not do this.’”
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England continued, “He just kept insisting and insisting. I’m like, ‘Well let me get someone else to do it,’ and then he started pumping me up. ‘You’re the best pogo sticker around.’” McGhehey added, “I trusted Dave more than anyone else on the pogo stick.” England replied, “I’m pretty good a pogo-sticking… I pogo stuck that s—.”
Interestingly, McGhehey revealed that the pogo portion of the stunt came right after one of the others, with essentially no break time. “The funny part about that is that I just filmed the softball cup test,” he said. Reacting, England said, “I was surprised you wanted to do it and it was a cold day too where you didn’t want to get hurt.”
McGhehey went on to explain the logic behind his thinking, which was much more practical rather than just him being a glutton for punishment. “I didn’t want to have to wait. I didn’t want to try and sleep and then know that I was going to do the pogo stick the next day. So I told everyone ‘let’s do it right now.’” Then, like some tragic scene from a medieval torture dungeon, McGhehey himself had to pick the instrument by which he’d be pogoed on. “They had two pogo sticks to choose from and so here I am choosing which one I think [is] going to do the least amount of damage and I chose the one Dave used.”
What isn’t shown in the film, however, is that the first time they tried the stunt England missed and landed on McGhehey’s abdomen. “I got him in the lower stomach the first time,” England said. McGhehey added, “It almost went through my body. It felt like it was going to go through my body. Like literally. Then the next one he nailed me right on the nut and it pinched my nut between the ground and the pogo thing.”
Finally, bringing it all full circle, McGhehey noted that the very first thing he ever did for Jackass was a series of pogo stunts on the TV series. “That was the first thing I ever filmed 22 years ago. Dave had a pogo stick… I just took over because I started jumping over 20-foot gaps and shit and broke my finger. Day one of filming Jackass was the first thing I ever filmed.” Jackass Forever is now available to own on digital and will be released on DVD and Blu-ray with exclusive extra bonus content on April 19.
