Impractical Jokers
Our Review
Four lifelong friends from Staten Island dare each other to do increasingly humiliating things in public, and the show that came out of it is the most reliable laugh machine on television. Joe, Q, Sal, and Murr have real chemistry because the friendship is real: they have known each other since high school, and every punishment lands because the other three are genuinely delighted to watch one of their own suffer.
The format is bulletproof. Hidden camera challenges, strangers who have no idea what is happening, and a punishment at the end that the loser cannot refuse. Some seasons are funnier than others and the cast changes took adjustment, but the hit rate across nearly 300 episodes is remarkable. Turn on any episode and you are laughing within a minute.
