Impractical Jokers

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About

Impractical Jokers is a reality television prank show in which four lifelong friends from Staten Island, New York--Joseph "Joe" Gatto, James "Murr" Murray, Brian "Q" Quinn, and Salvatore "Sal" Vulcano-- challenge each other to perform dares with strangers in front of hidden cameras. If they fail the dare, they go on a loser board. At the end of the episode, the joker(s) with the most failures goes through a punishment, which are created by the winning joker(s).

History

The four friends began performing as an improv troupe called The Tenderloins in 1999. After a successful run, they turned to television. TruTV announced Impractical Jokers in 2011, and the first episode aired December 15th of that year.^[1] The show has run five seasons, and TruTV announced it was renewed for a sixth on July 22nd, 2016.

Reception

The show has been well received amongst critics. The New York Post praised it, and The New York Times praised how unlike similar prank shows like Jackass and Candid Camera, in Impractical Jokers, "the gag pays off twice: once in the reaction of the unsuspecting passer-by, once in the discomfort of the fellow doing the asking."

Fandom

Impractical Jokers is very popular online. They have nearly 3 million Facebook likes,^[2] over 617,000 Twitter followers,^[3] and nearly 4,300 followers on the Impractical Jokers subreddit^[4] as of November 14th, 2016.

Sal Vulcano

In November 2016, photoshops of an old picture of Sal Vulcano when he was heavier than he currently is began growing popular on Instagram. The trend started when @daddyfanclub_^[6] posted a photo of Sal superimposed on the United States on November 13th, following the 2016 United States Presidential Election. As of November 14th, there are over 30,000 posts under the #SalVulcano tag.^[5]