How Jackass all started...
In 1996, Johnny Knoxville (who was a prankster as a child and wanted to pursue an acting career) had the idea of shooting himself with pepper spray, a taser, a stun gun, and a .38 for a Self Defence article in Big Brother Mag. He pitched the idea to a couple of magazines and was turned down until meeting with Jeff Tremaine of Big Brother Magazine. Jeff hired him as journalist (with others like Chris Pontius and Dave England) and convinced Johnny to videotape this idea and other stunts for stories. Eventually these became part of the Big Brother video trilogy: Boob, & Number Two. Johnny quickly became a hit. Big Brother would go on road trips which is believed where Johnny met Bam and they became good friends.
Bam and his friends made the video cKy and became big hits. Their video was a top seller and they later followed with cKy2k. Soon, there was a bidding war (war at which the two companies bid for the show) to land him a TV show. MTV did something smart for a change and jumped at this unique idea.
Johnny then remembered about Bam and called him up to be on the show. Bam would only agree if Brandon and Ryan were on the show too. Of course, Johnny agreed and the show was on its way. The show featured Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Chris Pontius, Ryan Dunn, Brandon DiCamillo, Dave England, Ehren McGhegan, Steve-O, Jason 'Wee Man' Acuna, Raab Himself, and many guests and friends. Jackass became a hit and was one of MTV's highest rated shows for 3 seasons. Now, the Jackass crew may not be doing any more shows on MTV because of MTV's restrictions etc. etc. and because of the problem MTV faced with the a Boston family (where the kid saw a skit and then lit his feet on fire etc.)