An Argument for The Impractical Jokers

I wish I was a poet and could say this in eleven words, but I can't. I'm just going to make my first post about why the Impractical Jokers are so funny, and funnier than any other show of this type. First of all, there is something different about them than plain old Candid Camera (which was also great but not AS great). These guys are people you end up connecting with, because it's always the same guys over and over. You start recognizing them and feel like you start getting to know them and how they feel doing their challenge. So ultimately it's almost like watching your own lame friends embarrass themselves in public.

Another point is the camera placement and how they constantly use the camera to "look" at their friends and us watching them. This brings a whole new element to it which is very unlike other candid camera-like shows. It brings you right into their secret scheme, and they use it well! Although they are "all alone" in a public place, we feel like we are a fly on the wall when they look at the camera as if they really aren't alone, even though they really are! They are also good enough actors that the strangers in their challenges are really convinced that this person is really just stupid or weird. I love that! It is really hard to imagine why ANYONE would do some of the things they're doing, even if they were dared to! Even if it was for a show... still, why would anyone do some of those things? So the public is pretty much at a loss as to the hopelessness of these "jokers".

I would like to argue that they are WAY more entertaining than "Jackass" because the "Jackass" guys do a lot of things that will just get them hurt or seem dirty. The Impractical Jokers do some dirty things, but most of it involves actual creativity and intelligence! The fact that language is used most of the time is something that appeals to me. It is actually WHAT they are saying and/or reading most of the time that gets the humor across! It's not just slapstick humor, in other words. And when it is slapstick humor, they do it in such a quirky way that still involves them having to convince someone with words to make it funny. For example, once they had to get someone to sample their suntan lotion and put as much of the bottle on them as they could. (LOL - can't think about these things without laughing every time. So get ready for lots of LOL's.)

They have to be creative when something is left up to them to make up, like the slideshows, and what to talk about while interviewing a new roommate. There are definite times when they have to do something where they can't possibly get the public's permission and let them all know they've been in a tv show, like the song at the baseball game in front of a crowd, or the cheer they did in front of thousands of people. They couldn't have even known who all saw or heard it!

There is another aspect to it that makes it so great -- the fact that some of the things they are dared to do are just too embarrassing for them to do for whatever reason, even if it doesn't seem half as bad as some of the things they've already done. It shows that sometimes they really do take it too far, while other times they have a guard go up and it is just too much for them to have to do and they refuse. Part of the fun is wondering if they really are going to say what was just told to them now! The other guys just make it go to the point that it HAS to stop, or it just really SHOULD. And the one doing the challenge KNOWS it should stop, and then it's a matter of their fear level, whether they can overcome it and let it happen anyways even if they know it shouldn't happen. LOL Finally, one of the aspects that make these guys so much funnier than being "Punk'd" or whatever, is how they are just completely embarrassing themselves for someone else's benefit. There is just something different about standing there with a megaphone and letting someone ELSE speak into it as if it's you, than saying what you are told to say into it. Even if what comes out can sound offensive to some people, the Joker is the one that looks like the idiot, not the public they are talking to. It is different than an actor saying crazy things into a megaphone just to get a reaction from the public about those things. Someone ELSE doing it for him just to embarrass HIM is genius!