Torture-happy host Johnny Knoxville, who has become semifamous for such stunts as sticking himself in an overturned Porta Potti and fastening steaks to his body and jumping on a giant grill, is pulling a David Caruso.

Knoxville has announced he's leaving MTV's controversial show after one season to pursue a movie career.

His exit means that Jackass, loved by teen boys and loathed by family-valuing politicos, will cease production. The last of the 24 episodes aired in the show's regularly scheduled 10 p.m. time slot on Sunday.

Knoxville, whose real name is P.J. Clapp, derives his stage name from his native Knoxville, Tennessee. He confirmed his departure Friday in an interview with his hometown newspaper.

"We told [MTV] we would do specials down the road, but this is enough. We have done enough," Knoxville tells the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

The 30-year-old masochistic mastermind already has two feature flicks under his belt--a costarring gig with Tim Allen in the comedy Big Trouble (it opens next month) and a role in Men in Black 2 (due out next summer). He's also has a project in development that would pair him with rapper-thespian Ice Cube.

TV network executives have also reportedly been courting Knoxville and Jackass cocreators Spike Jonze and Jeff Tremaine to develop a reality-based show for the tube.

While Knoxville hasn't ruled out a return to television, he says he would forgo the pranks that made him famous.

"It wouldn't be like Jackass," Knoxville tells the News-Sentinel. "It has been done. All we wanted to do was be as cool as [the song] 'White Man in Hammersmith Palais' by the Clash. We nearly got there."

Jackass' stunts were seen by nearly 20 million fans (of course, you couldn't avoid the show--MTV ran each episode 10 times a week).

The show got some seriously bad PR, however, when several impressionable viewers got injured aping the dangerous stunts performed by Knoxville and his crew.

Failing to heed the MTV disclaimer warning viewers not to try Jackass' stunts at home, a 13-year-old Connecticut boy was hospitalized in January in critical condition after suffering severe burns while duplicating Knoxville's human BBQ stunt (the boy forgot the flame-retardent suit). In April, two Kentucky teens were hurt when they tried to imitate a Jackass bit that involved outrunning a moving car. Even one of Knoxville's own pranksters, 21-year-old model Stephanie Hodges (one of the vomiters in that eggnog-drinking contest), broke her back and fractured her pelvis in a stunt-gone-awry.

The first copycat incident brought out the morality police, as former vice presidential contender and Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman bashed Jackass for its wanton violence and called on MTV to either cancel, tone down or reschedule it to prevent kids from watching.

Knoxville says he and his crew were irked by the controversy surrounding Jackass, especially since it forced MTV to move the show to a later time slot and scale back the number of airings to only once a week. The music cable channel also refused to go ahead with a proposed Jackass book and soundtrack.

"It was frustrating for us on one hand," Knoxville tells the paper. "But, in MTV's defense, it was an extraordinary case of events, and no one really knew what the right move was. I'm sure they would have liked to have done things differently...with this kind of comedy, people become inured to the shock value."

For its part, MTV refused to comment on Knoxville's apparent departure. A network spokeswoman would only say MTV is trying to get Knoxville to commit to 22 new episodes of the series, but could not comment on Knoxville's announcement that he was leaving the show.

"We're in ongoing discussions about new episodes," says MTV's Jeannie Kedas.

Meanwhile, Knoxville says MTV will continue to rerun all 24 episodes, but the network will edit out "the most objectionable" content to ward off any copycats and, hopefully, controversy.