Impractical Jokers

                Impractical Jokers is a show that premiered on TruTV in 2011. It is a hidden camera, practical joke reality series that is directed by Peter Fowkes. The stars of Impractical Jokers are the four members of the comedy troupe named The Tenderloins. Their names are: Brian Quinn, James Murray, Joseph Gatto, and Sal Vulcano.

                Impractical Jokers consists of the four members telling each other to do public pranks while being filmed by hidden cameras. The group sometimes has challenges they have to do. For example, sometimes they have to get someone to repeat a made-up word or get someone to admit that they know them. However while trying to do these challenges the joker has to listen to the other three and do what they say. If they don’t complete the challenge or they refuse to do something the other guys tell them to do, they lose. They do around 3-4 challenges each episode and whoever has the most losses at the end of the episode is the big loser for the whole show. This person then has to do something very embarrassing or something that they would never want to do. This is chosen by the other three guys and one of the rules of the show is that they can’t say no. They have to do what the other guys chose. This can range anywhere from being forced to sing at the beginning of a minor league baseball to taking a lie detector test in front of an entire school.

                This show is very funny but sometimes it seems like they take things a bit too far. Especially on the final challenge for the loser. Sometimes they would take the fears of the person who lost and use that against them. They sent someone who hates getting scared through a haunted corn maze. They forced the person who is scared of skydiving to go skydiving. Sometimes the thing they force the other person to do is just gross instead of embarrassing. They once hid someone’s keys in a big pile of elephant poop and forced them to search for them. Another time they told someone that they put their phone somewhere in a large pile of trash on a barge. The barge then started floating away while the other three guys reveal that they had the guy’s phone the whole time.

                This show’s authenticity, like many other shows on TruTV, is doubted by many people. Many people believe that the show is scripted and the people that they prank are actors. However the actors have said themselves that it real and the reactions are completely genuine. Also you can tell that it’s real because some people have their faces blurred out. They are blurred out because they didn’t sign the waiver that lets the show put their faces on TV. If the show was scripted it wouldn’t be near as funny and I would probably not watch it.

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