RTV Blog

A Social Experiment: 

Impractical Jokers

Impractical Jokers is a show that lives upon the term second-hand embarrassment.  It is a hidden camera practical joke series that airs on TruTV.  The show features four comedians that are lifelong friends, Sal, Joe, Q, and Murr, who travel around the country and try to embarrass each other with outrageous dares.  One of the Jokers goes in public with an earpiece as the rest of the guys flood their ear with challenges.  If they fail to complete the dare, they lose.  At the end of the episode, the one with the most losses has to do a ridiculously embarrassing punishment.  In one of the episodes that I recently watched, one of the Jokers had to help a cow through labor.  Other examples include piercings and tattoos in all the wrong places.  Every episode begins with the same message to the viewers, "The following program contains scenes of graphic stupidity among four lifelong friends who compete to embarrass each other...."  They seem to try and prepare you for the awkward social experiment that you're about to experience as these grown men try and prank each other in public, like they're still in high school.

One of the main reasons why this reality show can have a positive impact on society is that it reminds people of the friendships they had in their youth.  The way these men interact with each other and joke around with each other is totally genuine, and it can bring a wave of nostalgia over the viewer that can bring them back to the good ole days.  In an interview with Complex Magazine, James Murray, one of the Jokers, explains this further, "...we remind people of friends they have or had growing up, and we remind them of the stuff they used to do when they were young." (La Puma 1)  Even if you've never watched the show before and you put it on for five minutes, the relationship that these four guys have brings you back to a time when you were doing the same type of stuff to innocent bystanders who were inevitably going to end up on the butt end of a stupid joke that somebody dared you to do.  The point is that it makes you feel good and can bring you back to that point in time.  This concept is explained by June Deery in her work regarding reality TV, "...viewers react emotionally because real people are expressing real emotions and it is the emotion that creates a sense of authenticity..." (Deery 83)

Four lifelong friends

The most obvious reason to watch this show is the entertainment that it provides.  Every single person enjoys watching something embarrassing happen to another person.  Is it bad to feel this way?  Maybe to someone that has an easily upset conscience, but it is a known fact that everybody loves to watch something happen to another person that you have nightmares about happening to you.  Sometimes, if the stars align, this event that you watch unfold in front of you can even make you feel embarrassed, just for witnessing this happen to another person.  This feeling is described as second-hand embarrassment and it happens in every episode of Impractical Jokers.  These brave souls push the limits of social acceptance and do some of the most embarrassing things one can think of, and it makes for some of the most entertaining television on the market.  An article called Beyond the Cringe describes the awkwardness and embarrassment that you can watch on the show, "The humour is rooted not in extreme stunts but in the exploitation of the limits of everyday awkwardness...how much embarrassment can you withstand? How willing are you utterly to flout social conventions?" (Fisher 55-56)  The questions that this article brings up are constantly answered during the episode.  These guys withstand ridiculous amounts of embarrassment and completely disregard social conventions.

Another reason why this show can be a benefit is that it can brighten up a person's day in a matter of seconds.  I challenge anyone to try and watch this show without laughing out loud at least once.  It literally can bring you out of the worst of moods with a multitude of methods.  Of course, the dares are comedy gold every time, but even the way the Jokers interact with each other can be contagious and can get rid of the darkest of moods.  One of the best episodes that is guaranteed to bring anyone's mood up is when three of the Jokers were the designated losers of the show's challenges and they had to get tattoos.  This was the first permanent punishment on the show and it is a golden moment in reality television.  To make matters worse, these poor gentlemen have no idea what is being tattooed into their body, as the authority to choose the tattoo was given to the only winner of the challenge.  The tattoos included a life biography of a loser, a ferret skydiving, and Jaden Smith's face.  They do not mess around with the punishment section of this show.

Genuine people

Another reason is that the Jokers are genuine people.  They don't have fake TV personas that they pull out of their bag of tricks and use just for the sake of getting more ratings.  How they act around each other and complete strangers on the show is exactly how they are in their lives outside of the show.  One article from Complex Magazine describes the group's camaraderie perfectly, "And if you were ever skeptical of just how authentic the comedy is, spend any time talking with them in person, and it quickly becomes clear that they make themselves laugh harder than their viewers are." (La Puma 1)  It goes to show that they aren't acting or doing anything out of their everyday character
when they are messing around with each other on the show, everything is completely genuine.  The Jokers also resonate with people because of how normal they really are, "There's no A-list celebrity talent, no good-looking reality TV stars flush with scandals.  These four guys, in their dad jeans and nondescript button-ups, definitely aren't looking to go viral, but their appeal is undeniable." (La Puma 1)  They are just four regular guys who want to make people laugh, without all of the other things that make reality TV shows appealing.  The normalcy and the fact that they really are just four friends acting like idiots makes the whole concept work perfectly and is all the more reason to tune in.

The reality television show, Impractical Jokers, really is like a social experiment for a couple different reasons.  The first being the obvious, when the Jokers are in the middle of doing their challenges and dares on the public, and you get to find out how that person is going to react.  "...the series frequently works like an extended experiment in social psychology.  It isn't only the four Jokers who are being tested;" (Fisher 56)  For example, when Joe stared at people while they worked out in a public gym, he received a multitude of puzzled looks and almost ended up getting in a fight with a man who clearly wasn't in the mood for the Jokers' shenanigans.  The other way that the show is a social experiment is when it brings people back to a simpler time in life, when all they had to worry about was homework or getting home before mom started to worry about where they were.  The Jokers have that nostalgic affect on people and it is part of their appeal.  The way that they interact with each other brings viewers back to that time when they acted the same way with their friends. The pure comedic entertainment, the genuine nature, the nostalgia, and way it can brighten up your day are all excellent reasons why Impractical Jokers should be on your list of favorite shows to watch.

Works Cited

Fisher, Mark. "Beyond the Cringe." New Humanist, Summer 2016, pp. 54-56

Joe La Puma. "In the Post-Prank Show Era, the Impractical Jokers are having the Last Laugh." Complex Magazine, 02 Nov 2016.