Steve-O Reveals Why He Decided Not To Get A ‘Boob Job’ The Day Of His Surgery

Steve-O calls it “a sign from the universe,” but it could also be viewed as willful ignorance.

Last week, the “Jackass” star revealed during an interview with the New York-based news website Consequence that he had planned to get breast augmentation as a joke but decided the day of his surgery not to go through with it after speaking with someone who is transgender.

“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 told the news outlet. “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.”

In July, the comedian told the “X5 Podcast” that he had plans to undergo breast augmentation surgery as a joke.

“I came up with the idea a few years ago to get a boob job and just film a bunch of legitimately funny hidden camera pranks with me in disguise,” he explained at the time. “And then revealing who I actually am.”

Steve-O described to Consequence one of the pranks he had planned. It included him removing all his body hair, “airbrushing” off his tattoos and losing “literally 20 pounds to get really slender and petite.” He also said he planned to wear a “pink bikini top and Daisy Duke shorts and a motorcycle helmet” so that his face would be hidden. He also planned to ride around in a pink Vespa.

“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 told the outlet.

Steve-O told Consequence that when he shared this idea with the trans cashier, they had a few notes.

Steve-O said that the cashier thought “my feeling that it was the ultimate statement of body autonomy, me saying my body, my choice. … That part was okay,” Steve-O recalled. “But the part where I deliberately went out to trick people into thinking that I was a woman and then fooling them, and then kind of celebrating the idea of hate towards [trans people] — that was a thing.”

It also seems that the cashier also felt the need to educate Steve-O on how their reality was very different from his.

Steve-O noted that the cashier “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. 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.”

The “Wildboyz” alum said the conversation was a sobering reality check.

“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 told Consequence. “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 said that he’s long been vocal about doing this gag and even mentioned it during live shows in which a “number of trans people” came up to him afterward “to voice support.”

But he said he couldn’t help but ask that cashier on the day of his surgery.

“I just feel like the universe put this encounter before me, and ultimately, I decided that the universe had intervened,” he said.

Although it seems like the cashier gave Steve-O some sage advice, it should also be noted that asking someone who belongs to a marginalized group to “educate” you about their plight isn’t the best move, either.

“This work takes a lot of energy. It’s exhausting and it takes a toll on your body, mentally and physically,” Ashley McGirt, a Black licensed mental health therapist, told HuffPost in 2020 when asked how it feels when a person outside of your community asks you to educate them.

“I feel like too often in the workplace, individuals feel like they have to take that on,” McGirt said. “We feel like, well, it’s my duty to show up in that space. But honestly, your duty is to show up and do your job and be productive in that space.”

McGirt added: “YouTube is free. ... If we could teach ourselves our own history, you can take a little bit of time to do the work.”

It’s unclear if Steve-O has done any additional research on why his idea was so offensive, but he at least appeared to be willing to take some accountability for being ignorant.

“I think it’s a very valuable trait to be able to admit when you’ve got things wrong,” he told Consequence.