Viva La Bam's Most Dangerous Stunts Ranked

The early 2000s was an interesting time for MTV. The network was transitioning from the '90s to the new millennium, and music videos began to take a backseat to reality TV shows. One of the earliest reality shows MTV aired was the famous "Jackass" series. "Jackass" starred a then virtually unknown cast of characters, who delighted in inflicting as much pain as possible on themselves and their friends. 

In 2003, MTV greenlit a spin-off of the "Jackass" series called "Viva La Bam." "Viva la Bam" was named after professional skateboarder Bam Margera, one of the stars of "Jackass," and featured several other members of the "Jackass" group. Some of the cast — like Margera, Brandon DiCamillo, and Ryan Dunn — had been friends for years before either show had started, when they made stunt and prank videos under the banner of the "CKY" video series, which became the inspiration for "Jackass" (per The New York Times). One of the biggest contributors to "Viva la Bam" was longtime CKY member Ryan Dunn, who tragically passed away in 2011 (per CNN).

"Viva La Bam" spanned five seasons from 2003-2006 and featured much of the same material as "CKY" and "Jackass" did, and some of the stunts were even wilder. So, these are the most dangerous stunts on "Viva La Bam" ranked.

The first episode of "Viva La Bam" starts off with quite the bang. "Phil's Hell Day/Bam's Skatepark" features Bam and the CKY crew doing whatever they can to make Bam's father Phil have the worst day possible. 

While most of these pranks are pretty mild, it is his last attempt to anger his father that may have gone over the line. Bam convinces his parents to leave town for a few days, and in their absence, he has an entire skatepark built throughout his house — which they all live in together — and he throws a massive party. When his parents arrive home after the weekend away, they get quite the surprise.

Normally, a professional skateboarder at a skatepark wouldn't be considered overly dangerous, but this case is a little different. There is a huge downpour during the party, which makes many of the ramps and jumps extremely wet. There is also footage of water leaking onto surge protectors and power cables, almost causing electrical issues and fires. Luckily, no one is shown getting too hurt — other than Bam falling a few times — but things could have quickly turned ugly.

The third episode of Season 4 — "State of Bam" — was one of the most epic episodes of the entire series. It starts with the crew searching for an isolated piece of land, where they can do whatever they want and be out of the way of any neighbors. They finally find one, and promptly declare it the new State of Bam, devoid of any rules or laws.

While the crew has a great time during their time in the State of Bam, there are some less than savory aspects of this place. One of the most disgusting — and in hindsight, dangerous — stunts they pull is creating Raab Himself's infamous "moonshine." Raab concocts the foul mixture in an outdoor bathtub that has walls caked with grime and dirt. The main alcohol basis is cognac, but that is heavily outweighed by dirt and the bodily fluids from several of the crew, and the mixture turns a muddy brown color by the day's end.

Raab however, does not seem overly phased by the questionable mixture, and happily drinks some down, but he likely got incredibly sick afterwards. Not only is he drinking dirt, mud, and various insects, but the crew's extra additions don't make it any more sanitary. He could easily have gotten sick from food poisoning or bacteria, and even Bam tells him he is "out of his mind" for sipping down the questionable blend. 

In "Mall of Bam" — Episode 7 of Season 3 — the "Viva La Bam" crew travel to the Mall of America in Minnesota because Bam and his Element skate team are participating in a skateboard demo at the mall that week.

Bam arranges for them all to stay an entire 24 hours inside the mall, much to the surprise — and displeasure — of his family and crew. They spend most of their time pranking each other and getting into mischief around the mall, but when it turns to the skate demo, things started to get a little dicey.

Halfway through the demo, Bam gets on top of a massive TV screen and tries to jump from the monitor to the half-pipe on his skateboard. The TV monitor is at least 10-15 feet above the ramp, and even worse, it is at a completely perpendicular angle. Bam jumps off the monitor and falls into the half-pipe, nearly hitting his head and back. 

Luckily, he rolls through the fall and is fine, but the Mall of America staff is less than thrilled. They demand that he not try to get onto the monitor again, and the entire demo is almost canceled. However, Bam complies and the demo continues on, with no one else getting hurt.

Normally, Christmas is a time of happiness and joy, when friends and family come together to celebrate their love and care for each other. That is, unless you lived in the "Viva La Bam" house during filming. During "Very Merry Margera Christmas" (Season 1 Episode 6), crew member Brandon DiCamillo breaks the number one rule in Bam's house: Never be the first one to fall asleep. 

Bam and Ryan Dunn discover DiCamillo's infraction, and immediately set to work punishing him. Their solution is to fill both of his shoes with thumbtacks before waking him up by forcing a vacuum cleaner over his face.

The prank goes well, but DiCamillo's reaction shows that he is in some serious pain and agony. After barely stumbling out of bed, he tries to put on his shoes and stand up, only to fall back immediately after dozens of tacks cut into the undersides of his feet. He is okay in the end and thankfully doesn't fall over and hit his head or break any bones, but it likely took him at least a few days before he could walk without some discomfort or pain.

In "Mutiny on the Bam" (Season 5, Episode 3), after thoroughly upsetting his mother April with his outlandish antics in their house, Bam tries to make it up to her by booking a cruise for them to take together as a family.

Unfortunately for April, the cruise ship turns out to be a pirate ship, and halfway through, Bam and his crew decide to mutiny and take refuge on a nearby island. They construct a makeshift Tiki Bar and drink there until returning to the ship. However, once they get back on the boat, things take a decidedly dangerous turn.

The pirate ship has cannons on deck, which Ryan Dunn starts to fire at the island. One of the cannonballs hits and explodes the Tiki Bar. The uncontrolled firing of the cannonballs is so dangerous that it draws the attention of the U.S. Coast Guard, who fly a Black Hawk helicopter over to see what the commotion is. While it's a funny stunt, so many things could have gone wrong. The vintage cannons could have misfired or hit someone or something, and the Coast Guard also could have fired at them in the confusion.

In the premiere of Season 4 – "Viva la Europe, Pt. 1" – Bam decides to surprise his parents on their wedding anniversary trip to Europe by showing up with his entire crew. After meeting in France, they go to Bavaria, Germany to partake in the Oktoberfest celebrations. However, during the celebrations, Bam and Ryan Dunn get the idea to take an impromptu trip to Castle Dracula in Transylvania, Romania, to get his mother some special vampire wine.

What seems like a fairly straightforward, fun, and exciting adventure quickly turns dangerous. They take Bam's brand new Ferrari Spider 360 for the trip and quickly get lost in the Swiss Alps after making a wrong turn. Once it starts to snow heavily, the rear wheel drive Ferrari struggles to find any traction, and they nearly slide off the side of the winding mountain road multiple times. At one point, they have to drive so slowly that they cover barely 10 miles in two hours. Eventually, they make it out of the Alps and into Romania, but it's a very precarious journey that could have ended much worse.

During "Uncivil War" (Season 3, Episode 2), the guys are messing around on Bam's massive property in West Chester, Pennsylvania when they come across what appears to be an old cannonball stuck in the mud. They discover that it is actually an authentic Civil War relic and that Bam's house turns out to be very close to the historic Brandywine Battlefield, which is where they suspect it came from.

Wanting to embrace the history surrounding his house, Bam decides to cut all the electricity on the property, so they can "live like it's 1865" and pretend they are in Civil War times. The crew then stages a massive reenactment of the war, complete with hundreds of real Civil War authenticators and actors.

However, during the official battle reenactment, Bam makes a very ill-advised choice. He puts the cannonball into a live cannon and fires it in the midst of the battle. The stunt is problematic and dangerous for many reasons, chief among them the complete unpredictability of the cannon. It ends up destroying the treehouse casino they had built in Season 2, and it comes dangerously close to the re-enactors. It could have easily misfired or the ball could have come out and veered left, where it would have smacked right into the re-enactors on the battlefield.

One can imagine that it must have been absolutely nerve-wracking to live in the "Viva La Bam" house during filming. While some of their pranks and stunts were pretty mild and at times, even harmless, some of them were incredibly risky and questionable. Case in point: the indoor baseball stunt from Season 2 Episode 6, "Community Disservice." The episode begins with a baseball crashing out of Castle Bam's front window, and things don't get much better from there.

The guys play a full-fledged baseball game inside the house, complete with bats, gloves, and real baseballs. But instead of a baseball diamond, they run around the square staircase in the living room, and instead of bases, they run into each other. Their version of the game also means throwing the baseballs as hard as they can directly at each other to make an out.

The game appears fun, and even Bam's dad Phil joins in, but it has the potential for some serious consequences. The baseballs come very close to hitting the guys heads multiple times, which could have caused severe cranial or facial injuries. They also sprint up and down multiple staircases while trying to dodge the baseballs, and they could easily have slipped and broken multiple bones. Luckily, everyone comes out okay, but this was definitely one of the show's more dangerous stunts.

One of the most memorable parts of Season 2 of "Viva La Bam" is the crew's cross country road trip from Pennsylvania to Louisiana to attend the 2004 Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans. The show's regular cast is joined by several of Bam's skateboarder friends, and they take a pair of buses for the 1,000+ mile journey in the second episode of the season, "Mardi Gras: Part 1."

However, Ryan Dunn wakes up to discover that he has overslept and everyone has already left. His only option is to take a tiny mini bike across the country to get there. The bike maxes out at 38 mph, but Dunn drives it the entire way and even reaches Mardi Gras before Bam and the rest of the crew does.

While it definitely is a funny stunt, it was still very dangerous. Dunn takes the motorcycle across several highways and interstates, and he is completely unable to keep pace with traffic without getting constantly passed. In addition, his only safety gear is a woefully undersized helmet, leaving him basically no protection in the event of a crash. He is able to arrive safely, but it could have turned very badly if he had run into an impaired or distracted driver on the road.

In "April's Revenge" (Season 1, Episode 7), the "Viva La Bam" the guys plan to take Bam's parents and uncle on a boat to a nearby island to have a picnic with the dubious intention of stranding them there overnight. To make matters more interesting, the island they are visiting is just a stone's throw away from the infamous Three Mile Island, which was the site of a former nuclear power plant that suffered a massive meltdown in 1979 (via U.S. NRC).

During the picnic, Bam's parents decide to turn the tables and instead trap the guys on the island for the night. While staying overnight, Ryan Dunn and Raab Himself end up getting into a small argument, which Dunn tries to win by spraying Raab with a fire extinguisher. The prank seems funny at first, but the next morning Raab reveals that his eyes are still in serious pain.

Raab's eyes are completely sunken in and burning with discomfort, and Raab worries that he is going to lose his eyesight or even his eyes. Thankfully, the pain goes away and his eyes are ultimately fine, but it is definitely a tense few moments when he reveals the damage to a shocked and remorseful Dunn.

Season 1 of "Viva La Bam" is beloved by fans because it has some of the series' best pranks and stunts. One of the funniest and most dangerous stunts takes place during Episode 3, "Family Reunion." Bam and Raab Himself convince Rake Yohn to meet up with them for a bit involving a piñata. They blindfold him and hand him a baseball bat, so that he hits what he thinks is a piñata but is actually a beehive full of 200 live bees. Not surprisingly, he gets mercilessly stung.

To make the prank worse, the guys convince Yohn to take off his shirt, which leads to him sustaining several stings on his chest and back. In addition, his long and curly hair traps multiple bees in it, and he gets repeatedly stung on his head and neck.

The prank is pretty funny and Yohn walks away without serious injury, but the stunt is dangerous for a number of reasons. Yohn immediately starts to hyperventilate and enters into an extreme state of distress, as the bees quickly overwhelm him and send him running. In addition, the confused Yohn runs around blindfolded, as he tries to avoid the swarm of bees, and he nearly runs into a tree, which could have led to a bad injury.

In Episode 8 of Season 2 — "Demo Derby" – the crew destroys Don Vito's car (again) and have to buy him a new one. Yet, once they arrive at the dealership, Bam spies a ton of cheap cars for sale and decides to purchase all of them. His grand idea is to throw a massive demolition derby in his backyard using the old cars.

The crew tries to at least introduce a modicum of safety by removing all of the glass from the vehicles to stop them from shattering during the race, and they add some minor safety reinforcements to the car bodies and engines. The derby goes on without a hitch and no one gets seriously hurt, but the stunt had the potential to be incredibly dangerous. 

None of the cars appear to be properly reinforced with actual roll cages or legitimate safety equipment, and none of the crew members are professional drivers. In addition, several of the cars have non-functioning airbags when they get hit. The engines, oil lines, and fuel lines are also potential hazards, as they could have been punctured and caused explosions and fires. 

When Bam and his crew create their own territory in "State of Bam" (Season 4, Episode 4), they go to some pretty extreme lengths to "ratify" it on their last night. They start by creating a massive monument in the middle of their camp, which consists of 10-15 crushed cars all stacked on top of each other. On top of the cars is a giant flammable heartagram logo.

As soon as it gets dark, the guys light the heartagram monument on fire to inaugurate the state. However, then two members from the Bloodhound Gang show up and the real stunt begins. Unbeknownst to everyone — except the Bloodhound Gang and Ryan Dunn — the cars are all rigged with explosives, which detonate a huge fireball when Dunn ignites it with a mini bike.

The stunt is pretty wild and is definitely one of the most dangerous things they did on the show. There does not appear to be any contingent of firefighters at the scene, and the blaze easily looks like it could have gotten out of control. The monument is surrounded by trees, dry kindling, and dead leaves. In addition, doing the stunt in the pitch black night means that any corralling of an unanticipated spread of the fire would have been much harder.

By far the most dangerous stunt on "Viva La Bam" occurs during the chaotic fourth episode of Season 4, "State of Bam." During the episode, Raab Himself becomes heavily intoxicated from drinking the questionable "moonshine" mix he creates, and he soon finds himself asleep on the couch of his trailer.

Realizing that he is passed out, the guys devise a prank: They decide to suspend his trailer 15 feet in the air above a shallow pool, so when Raab walks out, he will fall down into a disgusting mixture of water, alcohol, horse feed, and chili beans. The prank works perfectly, and Raab unknowingly plummets out of his trailer into a kiddie pool. But the repercussions could have been really bad.

Raab easily might have fallen face first and landed on his head, seriously injuring his neck, skull, or back. Even landing on his feet was dangerous, as from that height, he could have easily broken or sprained an ankle from the abrupt and unforgiving landing. Luckily, Raab walks away from the stunt without issue, but it was definitely a huge risk for him to take.