Steve-O decided not to go through with his plan to get breast implants as a joke after all.
“On the day of my scheduled surgery, I was going to the supermarket and the person who was calling me while shopping was apparently transgender and it felt like a sign from the universe,” Steve-O said. “So I asked the transgender person if I could manage something with them, and I had a conversation with that person that had a profound effect on me.”
In July, Steve-O shared with X5 Podcast that she had plans to undergo breast augmentation surgery as a joke. “I came up with the idea a few years ago to get a breast job and just film a bunch of funny hidden camera pranks with me,” she explained, “and then reveal who I really am.”
Now, Steve-O has revealed that while he spent a lot of time publicizing his intention for the stunt, he didn’t consider every possible angle. “I didn’t really have any dedicated meetings or conversations with trans people because I didn’t feel like I had to,” she explained to Consequence of Sound.
“I knew what my motivation was, I knew what my intention was, and it wasn’t to hurt anyone. I was just trying to laugh. I had done a bunch of seminars to try out material, and I had a lot of trans people come up to me after shows to express their support them [the stunt]. And I think some people would be okay with that, and some people wouldn’t be. It would be a mixed bag.”
After speaking with the treasurer, Steve-O said, “I just feel like the universe put this meeting in front of me, and finally, I decided the universe had intervened.”
“[They] described how they weren’t allowed to use the restroom at their workplace, that there were, for example, 28 states in the country that would arrest them for having an ID that said female. That there were politicians making concerted efforts to lock them up in internment camps. It was really quite heartbreaking, the level of oppression that was described.”
“Framed like that, I thought about it in a way I hadn’t before, where you know, wow, maybe it’s not all fun and games. Especially pranks,” he said. “Well, I’d consider it a better video if I got beat up in the motorcycle rally. Just having that mindset was deeply 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.”
Steve-O regretted over-publicizing the planned stunt, which is now not happening. “It was hard for me. Looking back on it, I’m extremely grateful that it didn’t happen. I’m really glad 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 it and I was never the artist that I would say I was going to do something and then I didn’t do what I had a problem with, I wasn’t keeping my word.”
In the end, The Wildboyz The alum explained that all was not lost and that he would address the entire ordeal during his “Super Dummy Tour,” a multimedia comedy show.
