Hidden-camera shows can be funny, inspiring, weird, horrifying and potentially litigious, depending on the subject matter.
“Impractical Jokers,” a hidden-camera prank show that debuted its fourth season on TruTV in January, is arguably all of them.
“The difference with our show is that we make each other do it,” said Joe Gatto, one-fourth of improv team that created and stars in “Impractical Jokers.” “We’re not out there messing with people for its own sake, they’re just the collateral embarrassment of our shenanigans.”
The approach, which finds the quartet of Staten Island, N.Y., buddies relaying ridiculous commands to an unlucky member through a hidden earpiece, has endeared the show to a cult audience that follows the team to theaters around the country.
Despite having just played Colorado Springs last October, the quartet’s current 20-city tour will return with a March 7 show as part of its “Where’s Larry?” tour.
“It’s named after a recurring bit on the show where I call for a guy named Larry in strange, inappropriate places,” said Gatto, 38, who was trained in the teachings of famed improv coach Del Close. “Larry was actually a guy on our crew when we made up the bit one time in a shoe store.”
That bit had Gatto working as a shoe salesman with off-guard customers, who were rattled by his random, lengthy, high-volume calls for said crew member.
It’s among dozens of scenarios on “Impractical Jokers” that paint the guys as fun-loving jokesters more than masochistic hipsters or postmodern artists, as on programs like “Jackass” or “The Eric Andre Show.” The format, which spans all manner of unsuspecting public and retail spaces, is clever in its simplicity: Set up one of the Tenderloins — a group that includes Gatto, Brian Quinn, James Murray and Sal Vulcano — and feed them lines, directions and other ridiculous instructions meant to produce the funniest, most awkward results possible.
Getting embarrassing tattoos, sight-unseen, or spraying whipped cream on a shopping cart handle as the driver walks away for a moment aren’t exactly things that scream “Emmy-winning television.” But the concept has proven so durable that it’s spawned international versions (“Foute Vrienden” in Belgium, “Les Jokers” in Canada) and become one its parents network’s most popular and recognizable shows (the Jan. 29 Season 4 debut drew more than 2 million viewers).
But even these guys have limits.
“Unfortunately it does happen where some people just aren’t willing to be on TV,” Gatto said when asked about the drawbacks of getting people to sign release forms for the show.
“I was playing an Ikea employee one time and a guy asked me about an armoire, so I ran through the store and he and his lady started running after me, and we end up inside an armoire — literally. It was a lot of fun, but in the end the guy says, ‘I can’t be on your show. I’m married, and this isn’t my wife.’
“Who goes shopping with their mistress? You can’t ever see that coming. In this case, the joke was completely on us.”
John Wenzel: 303-954-1642, jwenzel@denverpost.com or twitter.com/johnwenzel
IMPRACTICAL JOKERS’ “WHERE’S LARRY?” TOUR
Starring the Tenderloins improv troupe from TruTV. 8 p.m. March 7 at the Paramount Theatre, 1621 Glenarm Place. $49.50; $125 VIP meet-and-greet. 18 and up. 866-461-6556 or altitudetickets.com.
