NUTS AND DOLTS

I admit at the outset that I have managed, without much effort, to avoid the frat-comedy, torture porn reality show “Jackass” in its every incarnation. Although I know that its star and executive producer Johnny Knoxville holds a cherished place atop the pantheon of reality-TV pioneers. And if you’re looking for proof as to his longevity, not to mention superhuman durability, he now sports the silver locks of a man who’s earned his senior status.

“Jackass Forever” has all the earmarks of a final chapter in the long-running series and maybe not a moment too soon. For the guys who were game for anything in their 20s now appear to be slightly cautious and a little bit too old for hijinks that can seriously harm bodies past their prime.

In one setup, Knoxville fills a top hat with pig semen in the hopes he can survive an encounter with a charging bull and not spill a drop. Instead, the bull gets the better of him, with Knoxville flipping in a somersault that would earn top marks from Olympics judges and landing in a lump on the hard ground.

He lies there motionless and the editing makes it appear that he might have been seriously injured. But next we cut to Knoxville being wheeled out of a hospital while he tosses off a list of what ails him: a broken wrist, a broken rib and a concussion, not to mention a bruised ego. And while not a lot of blood was spilled, a lot of pig semen was. But, thankfully, no “take two.”

Honestly, there’s a lot of stuff in this pastiche of a movie that made me cringe: a Knoxville crony being hit repeatedly in the crotch in an escalating exercise of pain management, if not shameless bravado. First, he gets pummeled by a bruiser of a boxer with what’s billed as a knockout punch for the ages, then by a woman softball pitcher with a rocket launcher for an arm and, finally, by a professional hockey player who can place a puck with frightening precision.

And later the same guy is strapped to a modified electric chair, his head covered in honey and his crotch in raw salmon. So, what fate awaits him? A hungry bear, of course. The bear lumbers in and devours the salmon but then takes curiosity a bit too far for the handler. Exit the bear.

For fans of Knoxville’s celebrated antics, this is familiar ground and I suppose nothing he and his crew attempt on screen is ever too extreme. But “Jackass Forever” is rated R for many good reasons and the bulk of them involve penises. Including a framing device that opens and closes the movie, a spoof of a monster ravaging a city that, on closer inspection, isn’t in the same league as Godzilla. Think Fruit of the Loom.