Today, America is bracing itself for Jackass: Number Two, the sequel to 2002's Jackass: The Movie. Most people know the history of the groin-pulling grossfest: Jackass was a show on MTV in which an assortment of pro skateboarders, little people, daredevils, and simpletons undertook to perform various degradations to their bodies and dignity. And to the bodies and dignity of their poor parents, who obviously didn't do as good a job raising them as they might.

But what few people realize is that MTV's series was based on earlier material -- specifically, on a pre-WWII film. Dunderhead (1937) followed a group of caddish ne'er-do-wells as they capered through various stunts and chicaneries that were outrageous according to the standards of the day. But even under the notorious Hays Code, the playboys of Dunderhead got up to some shocking activities that would redden even the most hard-bitten fishwife. Take a look at some of the segments included in Dunderhead, and prepare to clutch your pearls!

Flagpole sitting

Strolling in the thoroughfare -- hatless

Trying to join a Georgia country club (featuring special guest star Jesse Owens)

Catching a finger in one's trouser zipper

Circulating Communist literature

Failing to offer one's seat to a lady on the streetcar

Trimming moustache into asymmetry

Getting a shoe shine, and then running away without paying

Writing fallacious grant applications to the WPA

Disrupting soup kitchen by eating directly from pot or tureen

Passing counterfeit stamps to a collector

Engaging a prostitute and, when she excuses herself to the restroom, robbing her

Hiding in bushes and striking passersby with a yo-yo

Causing a scene at an automobile dealership by demanding to buy a Model T in a colour other than black

Walking up and down Broadway ringing bell while wearing a sandwich board that reads, "I Am A Dunderhead"

Hanging a raw chicken from the back of one's suspenders and racing through a pen full of ravenous goats

Breaking a trade union

Disrupting the polio wing at a hospital by lying in a false iron lung and drumming unceasingly against its sides

Entering a tavern unescorted (featuring special guest star Judy Garland, dressed as a boy)

Disrupting game of Monopoly by stealing from the bank

Deceiving a destitute sharecropper with an artificial oil patch on his land

Sending a dwarf onto the subway to pull the seams of ladies' stockings into disarray

Cheering for Harvard from the Yale stands

Sneaking in back of an automat to prepare unpalatable dishes

Buying stock on margin