Small Screen to Big Screen: Impractical Jokers The Movie Scores a Thumbs Up

Four lifelong friends who compete to embarass each other; Q, Sal, Murr, and Joe pulled off one of the great television Cinderella stories when they turned the pranks and games they’ve played on each other for years into the surprise TruTV hit Impractical Jokers. The hidden camera prank series that tweaked the genre from laughing at the mark to laughing at the joker has run 8 seasons and led to spinoff series, live comedy tours, and even an Impractical Jokers cruise. The real appeal of the show has become the genuine likeability of the 4 Jokers (bolstered heavily by their ability to say no to a challenge and risk punishment than push too heavily with the out of the loop target, a humility not seen much in hidden camera prank shows where the actors push until a breaking point is hit) and the Jokers rode of the wave of likeability all the way to one of the most passionate fan bases in all of television and now they are looking that wave to the big screen.

Impractical Jokers: The Movie is a blend of scripted plot mixed with the hidden camera challenges similar to the style of Borat and Jackass’s Bad Grandpa. The story starts off in the mid-90’s as the Q, Sal, Murr, and Joe play younger versions of themselves sneaking into a Paula Adbul concert. Excitement gets the best of them, especially Joe, and the night falls into chaos. Years later the quartet are now TV’s the Impractical Jokers and Abdul (unaware of the run-in with the young jokers that ruined her concert years earlier) is a huge fan and invites them to Miami for a concert and VIP party. Adbul only leaves for VIP passes for the guys leaving an odd man out, the guys decide to pick the odd man out in typical Impractical Jokers fashion; on their road trip down to Miami they compete in hidden camera challenges with the loser being the odd man out.

If you are an Impractical Jokers fan there isn’t much here you’re going to dislike. It has a couple of the classic Impractical Jokers challenges and there is enough of the show’s structure that nothing feels too out of place. The film also passes an important test that not all small screen to big screen projects do, that test being, just because you can doesn’t mean you always should. There are plenty of popular TV shows that could make the jump to a feature film but there are really only two reasons to do so A) As a finale or one off reunion or B) To do things that you can’t do one TV. This is no reunion for the Jokers, who are airing season 8 right now as the film releases, but they do take advantage of not being on TV. Hearing the typically tight wound Sal drop and unedited (scripted) F Bomb at a an unsuspecting nearby family is worth the price of admission but in the challenges feel bigger as well a visit to the Atlanta Hawks facility, a live tiger, and a punishment for Q that the jokers admit they have been trying to do for years. Just for good measure a bare bottom is thrown in as well. The jokers also made a smart decision, realizing the punishments are a huge part of the show (and getting larger as more and more of the TV runtime is dedicated to them) and they throw in some pretty much just to please the fans, the aforementioned Q punishment, Sal facing one of his biggest fears, and a birthday surprise for Murr are among some of the punishments that serve less to do with the challenge of gaining a ticket to party Paula Abdul in more to flesh out the road trip hijinks.

We always knew the challenges would work, Impractical Jokers is a popular show and they went out there and did their show. Where the risk lived was in the scripted plot happening alongside the supersized episode of Impractical Jokers. The Jokers aren’t actors and for any long time fan of the show they might remember the stilted acting of the “walk along” bumpers that used to separate challenges on the show. The movie had to find a way to not overexpose the limitations of it’s leading men who start with the scripted plot right out of the gate. Surprisingly, things start of pretty strong with the 90’s flashback which has the jokers, well into their 40’s playing high school versions of themselves but it totally works in a ridiculous way. The dialog is short and quippy and things are moving as we can easily see the story arc of the movie growing. Then, it stops. The writing goes a little too far to not expose the jokers acting. The rest of the scripted scenes until the climax pretty much play out like the “walk along” bumpers from early seasons, the guys were simply told to be themselves and banter. The movie is hindered because there really is no second act story arc, there’s no character development, there’s really no conflict. Any good road trip movie would include a third act conflict where the once great friends decide to break up only to come back together in end but the jokers instead parody this movie cliche in a scene where they decide to go home but then are back on their mission in what feels like 45 seconds. There’s also a side story of Murr conducting elaborate activities in his hotel rooms that never really pays off (maybe the sequel?). Now, I know what you’re asking, why would they lean too heavily on the scripted stuff, the formula for what works already? That’s where if there is an issue with the film, it shows itself. They don’t want to do too much on the scripted storyline arc but there’s a lot of scripted scenes for that too be the case. The film takes a safe route by splitting the difference, not leaning too heavy of the hidden camera challenges or the scripted movie and each side loses a little something because of that.

Ultimately, this movie did what it set out to do. If you’re an Impractical Jokers fan you are going to love it. If you haven’t seen the show there’s a chance it pulls you into the jokers fanbase. It is going to do really good numbers for a limited release movie because it does good by it’s hardcore fans and they’re gonna do good by it. All in all it reinforces the the most important thing about Impractical Jokers, these are four lifelong friends who are super likeable, funny, and worth spending a couple hours with.

*Spoilers Below*

What Works:

Q’s Acting: Brian “Q” Quinn was the best actor of the bunch which could be one of the reason’s he was used as the narrator of the film

The Atlanta Hawks: The jokers visited the Atlanta Hawks offices for a challenge where they are being interviewed for a job and must do what the other guys tell them to do. There are a lot of good challenges in the movie but this one shines above the rest. Capped off with a hilarious moment when Joe asks to go to the bathroom before sneaking off to play basketball on the Hawk’s practice court in full view of the interviewer. This is when the movie dropped all movie-ness (new phrase by me there, movie-ness) and just feels like a really good episode of Impractical Jokers and that’s exactly what the movie needs at times.

The Run-time: At 93 minutes the movie runs just long enough to not feel like just an extra long episode without overstaying its welcome. There must have been some temptation to hit the 2 hour mark considering that is about 4 episodes worth of action and TruTv regularly plays 8 episode blocks without hitting fatigue but they resisted and are better off for it.

What Doesn’t Work:

Murr’s Acting: Murr just overacts, plain and simple. It’s pretty prevalent in the show as well when he has a tendency to ham it up and it’s no different here.

The Scope: Early on there was a reference to the “Larry!” quote that has become a staple of the show, and I got excited. The show has so many characters, quotes, and moments they could fill the whole movie and although too many could weigh things down I was excited to see some of these references come to life but aside from a few moments here and there, a lot of the references in the scripted segments stop all together. Same goes for cameos and characters, there’s a lot of celebrity friends, family, and crew that have become a part of the Joker’s world over the years but we really only see Sal’s dad, Casey Jost, and Joey Fatone. This is again where I would have liked to see a cavalcade of old friends (and some enemies) appear.