The hit reality comedy series Impractical Jokers follows the humorous escapades of trio Brian Quinn, James Murray, and Sal Vulcano as they take on insane challenges in public spaces.
Of course, with such an absurd show premise, it’s not a shocker that sometimes the group can takes things a little too far, like the time Murray suffered second degree burns from being locked in a popsicle cart for too long.
However, problems along the way have never been able to stop the three from performing, but it’s certainly drawn a lot of negative attention towards the show. Here are the trio’s top seven most controversial moments.
#7: When Sal criticized a children’s talent show way too strictly
It was a pretty hard-to-watch clip on the show when it aired back in 2015.
One of the common things that happens during the show is known as “punishments;” a kind of penalty the members receive for failing to go through with something.
Well, for this clip Sal had to harshly criticize a children’s talent show while acting with generally rude towards the contestants. Thankfully however, the kids were in on the whole thing, just not the parents.
I mean come on, they can’t be that cruel, can they?
#6: When Q was forced to deface children’s artwork
Man, what is with these guys and destroying kids’ dreams?
In this punishment, Quinn, known by his nickname ‘Q’ on the show, had to pose as an art teacher and quite literally ruin his students’ art pieces with big red X’s. Now that’s just cruel.
In fact, one of the kids didn’t want to give their art for him to deface, making the clip a little too insensitive for some.
#5: When Q ruined a cake competition
Welp, we’re back to Q again.
In this clip Q needs to deface a cake competition by ruining the contestants’ elaborate cakes, by posing as a fake judge. However it gets worse, when the contestants learn that Q wasn’t even a judge to begin with.
He was just another contestant. Yikes.
What makes this punishment especially hard to watch are the contestants’ reactions to seeing him eat from and ruin their cakes before the competition’s even started.
#4: When Q ruined Yankees autographs
Q keeps getting the brunt end of the stick I guess.
In this punishment Q was told to act like an employee at an arena where New York Yankees star Tino Martinez was giving his fans autographs.
However, Q would ask to see the fans’ autographs, only to then damage them. It gets worse when you realize that many people had personal items and property signed.
The prank originally caused quite a stir before it was revealed that Martinez was actually in on the prank the whole time and helped compensate the irate fans.
#3: When Murr needed hospitalization after he got dry-ice burns
Getting hurt on the job isn’t a rarity for the jokers, however sometimes it does go a little too far.
Following a stunt on the show in which Murray, known as ‘Murr,’ was locked in a popsicle stand he suffered severe second-degree burns and required hospitalization afterwards.
Turns out the cart wasn’t actually fille d with ice like a traditional freezer, but rather dry ice, which can cause burns if one gets into contact with it for too long.
#2: When Q kept disrupting a Universal tour and got kicked off
When you run a public prank show you’re definitely bound to anger a lot of people, even if indirectly. Well, this was one of those moments.
In one 2019 episode Q was forced to continuously pull the emergency brakes on a Universal Studios Tour boat, stopping it multiple times for no reason.
By the end of it, the other passengers had grown increasingly irritated, and rightfully so. Security had to come and physically remove Q off the ride, which the other ride-goers of course cheered on.
#1: When Murr straight up stole signed baseballs from children
One common thing that happens throughout the show is pulling pranks on New York sports fans, as we saw earlier with the Yankees prank. This clip saw Murr stealing signed baseballs from kids’ hands.
What do these guys have against kids?
He played the role of an irate superfan for this punishment. At first, the jokers made Murr go offer to get a signed ball for a mother and her child, before he used the child to get a ball thrown his way and then ran off.
Of course, the mother chased after him, yelling at him. She was one of the rare victims that refused to let her face be in the show.
I guess she didn’t find it funny.
