‘Jackass 3D’ review: The only harm is to your IQ

“Jackass 3D,” a touching saga about a group of middle-aged pranksters trying to recapture their distant youth, mentions in its end credits that “some” of the stunts were monitored by the American Humane Assn. The bit where the pig eats the apple out of a dark place in the guy’s anatomy was monitored, for example. Others were not.

Americanhumane.org also notes that in the tetherball-with-a-beehive sequence, most of the bees were computer-generated and that “the actors pretended to be stung — the bees and humans did not interact.” The snake-pit routine? Also hoked-up. And for the record, in the epilogue gag, “a woodpecker pecks at a wood cast around a man’s penis. A well-rehearsed actor allowed the bird to be perched in his hands while the bird pecked at the wooden cast, which had been lined with treats. The bird’s leg was attached to a monofilament line held by an off-screen trainer.”

Why do I find this information so much more fun than the sequel itself? Certain routines in “Jackass 3D,” which follows the low-budget, high-profit success of the TV show, “Jackass: the Movie” (2002) and “Jackass Number Two” (2006), really are funny in their humiliating, wince-y way. I enjoyed it when Ryan Dunn sits in a chair not far behind a jet engine, or tries to. Later, various people dodge flying objects tossed by Johnny Knoxville up into the exhaust stream, zwoooomp. It’s reductive, insanely violent slapstick, but that’s the phenomenon in a nutshell.

I was less keen on the vomit, the large-man sweat “cocktail” drinking games, the excrement, the Taser gags, and Knoxville’s grating smugness behind those ever-present Ray-Bans. Die-hard fans of the original series, which had the good fortune to sprout before YouTube, may feel as if they’re getting their money’s worth here, though the 3-D component is awfully stingy, and tends to be genital- or anal-based. No proctologists monitored any of that action. At least none was credited.

mjphillips@tribune.com