“Warning: the following movie* contains scenes of graphic stupidity among four life-long friends who compete to embarrass each other.”
Impractical Jokers: The Movie, starring Sal Vulcano, Brian “Q” Quinn, James “Murr” Murray, and Joe Gatto with special appearances by Paula Abdul, hosted its premiere on February 18 at AMC Lincoln Square in New York City. The Impractical Jokers finally granted every fan’s dream, 2 hours of non-stop laughter with bigger and better challenges and punishments than ever. What could be better than seeing Sal’s fear and embarrassment up-close on a 90-foot screen? Nothing. Literally nothing.
In fact, this film is a pretty big deal. “I think we’re the first-ever live-action TV show that’s been made into a movie while it’s still on TV,” says Murr. “There have been animated shows made into movies while they’re still on TV, but I think this is the first-ever live-action show so it’s unbelievable. Hopefully, the movie doesn’t suck.” Luckily, I’m here to tell you that it definitely does not.
The punishments featured in the film are the cast’s “dream pranks” that had been turned down for the TV series. “We had more time and more money to make bigger things happen, so that was a big thing for us,” says Joe Gatto. “In the TV show, we only have a half-hour, got to tell your jokes fast. Also, small screen doesn’t lend for some of these big-time things we wanted to do.”
With the recent release of the 200th episode of Impractical Jokers and a new movie, the jokers have had to endure some pretty traumatic experiences over the years. But what has been the worst of the worst? “Universal Studios,” said Q with a slight bit of PTSD. “They have a tram car ride and I had to pull the brake on it, on TV it’s cut down to four minutes, it was an hour of my life. Everyone hating my guts, verbally abusing me, screaming at me. One guy said he was going to ‘find me and kick my ass when he was off of the ride,’ in front of his children. I’m not used to being the focus of that much anger and hate.”
Brian “Q” Quinn, cast, and Brooke Shields at the Impractical Jokers: The Movie premiere
Murr is still trying to get over the emotional damage of his latest punishment. “You’re going to see it in the movie, I swear to God. Up until the movie, the punishment where I had to, like, strip in front of Danica McKellar, who plays Winnie Cooper in The Wonder Years, was my most embarrassing moment,” says Murr. “But in the movie, about halfway through, they do something to me. It was my birthday while filming the movie and they took me out for the night after filming and I didn’t realize that my birthday celebration was part of the movie and they enlisted my entire family to prank me in some horribly embarrassing way. It’s the most embarrassing moment of my life.” Let me just tell you now, Murr isn’t kidding when he says that this prank is bad, it is bad. Get ready to severely cringe for five minutes. Actually, scratch that. You’ll be cringing for much more than five minutes during the movie.
With two television shows, including Impractical Jokers and The Misery Index, a new movie, and even a cruise, the four guys have done it all. What could possibly be next for the Jokers? Q and Murr weighed in on what future projects they would be interested in. “I’d like to write comic books. Isn’t that weird?” laughed Q. “I’d love to do that” Murr, on the other hand, would like to stick to movies. “I would love to do many more movies if this one is a success, and I think one day I would love to do a scripted sitcom with the guys,” said Murr. “You know I think I would love Steve Carrell to be in it. We’ve heard that him and his family are fans of the TV show and I think that would be wild” The Jokers and Steve Carrell? Sign us up!
Impractical Jokers: The Movie is now playing in select theaters nationwide.
