Jackass' Steve-O canceled breast implants surgery after talk with trans cashier: 'A sign from the universe'

Steve-O was ready to get breast implants as a bit — until fate intervened.

The Jackass star recently revealed why he decided to cancel the procedure, which he teased about having on a podcast in July.

"On the day the scheduled surgery was supposed to happen, I was checking out at the supermarket, and the person ringing up my groceries was evidently transgender, and it struck me as a sign from the universe," Steve-O said in a new interview with Consequence of Sound. "So I asked the transgender person if I could run something by them, and I had a conversation with this person that had a profound impact on me."

Before this chance encounter, Steve-O hadn't planned on consulting with any transgender advisors regarding the procedure. "I didn't really have any dedicated meetings or conversations with trans people because I didn't really feel that I had to," he said.

The comedian thought his good intentions were enough to justify the procedure. "I knew what my motivation was, I knew what my intention was, and it wasn't to be hurtful to anybody. I was just trying to get laughs," he said. "I had done a bunch of workshop shows to test out material, and I had a number of trans people come to me after the shows to voice support for [the stunt]. And I think some people would've been okay with it, and some people wouldn't have. It would've been a mixed bag.”

However, Steve-O felt lucky that he had the opportunity to speak with the cashier. "I just feel like the universe put this encounter before me, and ultimately I decided that the universe had intervened."

Steve-O's big-breasted bit would have been characteristically provocative. "I would ride a pink Vespa around at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally completely in disguise, where nobody could tell who I was," he said, noting that he would be "hairless, tattoo-less, with a pink bikini top and Daisy Duke shorts, and a motorcycle helmet covering my entire face and head" so his identity was completely obscured. "And the plan I had was to film with hidden cameras as I rode up to big gangs of motorcycle riders, who would presumably be checking me out. And I would walk up to pull off my helmet and say, 'Yeah, dude,' and get this crazy reaction, which, predictably, would be contentious."

He changed his mind after hearing the cashier's point of view. "[They] described how they weren't allowed to use the bathroom at their place of work, that there were like maybe 28 states in the country that would arrest them for having an ID that said female on it," he recalled. "That there were politicians making concerted efforts to lock them up in internment camps. It was really pretty heartbreaking, the level of oppression that was described."

That new perspective was enough for Steve-O to nix his plans. "Framed like that, I thought about it in a way that I hadn't before, where you know, wow, maybe it's not all fun and games," he said. "Especially the pranks. Like, I would've considered it to be better footage if I was to be beaten up at the motorcycle rally. And just having that mentality was very flawed, because ultimately it would be an exercise in celebrating violence against trans people. At least, it would be interpreted that way by some, and when it was put to me that way, I thought, 'Wow, maybe I missed the mark on that one.'"

Steve-O added that he regrets the cancellation — not because he thinks he should have gone through with the stunt, but because he wishes he'd never publicized his plans in the first place. "It was difficult for me," he said. "Looking back on it, I'm extremely grateful that it didn't happen. I'm really glad that I didn't go through with it. But that didn't make it any easier, because I was so vocal about my plans to do that, and I've never been the kind of artist to say I was going to do something and then not do it. That was what I had trouble with, was not honoring my word."

However, Steve-O won't pretend he never dreamed of getting implants. Instead, he'll address the entire saga in his upcoming Super Dummy Tour. "I don't really avoid the topic — I explain that I felt the universe intervened on my behalf," he said. His shows will also include footage from his pole-dancing training that would have helped with a different titillating stunt. "I took my pole-dancing training like remarkably seriously," he said. "I was doing some seriously inverted pole-dancing acrobatics.”

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Overall, Steve-O feels positive about the entire endeavor. "The show still has a bunch of really good comedy from that whole episode. And the extent to which I was prepared to go through with that is hilarious in its own right," he said. "I think it's a very valuable trait to be able to admit when you've got things wrong."