Impractical Jokers: The Movie

Impractical Jokers: The Movie is a movie based on the hit truTV show that was released on February 21, 2020 in select theatres then officially opened up the next week since it drew in big crowds. It is directed by Chris Henchy and stars Joe, Q, Sal and Murr.

Plot

In 1994, a group of four teenage friends, Joe, Sal, Murr, and Q, sneak into a Paula Abdul concert by feining their way past security personnel disguised as even higher-level security personnel. However, after they sneak through the doors and have taken the arena, they accidentally ruin the concert after Joe jumps out on stage and poorly acts as a hype man. The outcome embarrasses them and angers Abdul, who delivers a clothesline blow to Sal and vows to get her revenge on the Jokers. However, the incident inspires them to do practical joke challenges as a comedy gimmick.

Twenty-five years later, the four have become famous celebrities as a result of their TV show, Impractical Jokers, but are surprised to see Abdul at a Red Lobster. Abdul approaches but admits that she is a huge fan of the show, and invites them to a party in Miami. However, shortly after Paula leaves, the group realizes she gave them only three tickets instead of four, meaning that one person will not be able to go. In order to decide who will be left out, they decide to road trip to Miami using Q's Crown Vic while competing with each other in hidden-camera challenges; the one who loses will not get the ticket. Little scripted bits and individual challenges and pranks also arise..

Challenges

Bad Eulogy

Goal: Get someone to approve the eulogy.

Loser: Murr and Q.

Cave Man

Challenge For: Joe

Joe is dressed as a cave man and has to act like he has been there for thirty years to passengers on a tour.

Get Off My Boat

Goal: Get a unanimous vote to not let the stranded passenger on the boat.

Loser: Q lost because the others let a stranded U.S. veteran on the boat. Murr was Joe's stranded passenger, he lost because Joe pushed him back on the lifeboat he was on.

Pets Allowed

Challenge For: Sal.

Sal is trapped in a hotel room without a door and is trapped with a tiger.

Horse Power

Challenge For: Q

The guys take Q's car and leave him with a horse and a Jouster outfit, meaning he has to wear it and ride on the horse to get to the guys.

Do I Get The Job?

Goal: Do and say what you're told.

Loser: Murr couldn't say Aunt Flo was in town, Q couldn't ask if he had to pee in a cup, Sal couldn't ask if there were one or two t's in pretty.

Birthday Boy

Challenge For: Murr

For Murr's birthday, the guys take him to a club with scantily-clad women only to be surprised with his family from the other room wishing him happy birthday.

Anti-Social Network

Challenge For: Q

Q presents a slideshow about being a social influencer and talks about how he interviewed Franz Goldberg. Every time the interview clips are shown, it cuts to his parents acting out led-in scenes of softcore porn.

Jaden's #1 Fan

Challenge For: Sal

Sal attends a fan party featuring Jaden Smith, acting like Jaden's number one fan. He shows off his tattoo of Smith from a previous season to him, but Smith has Sal get an updated one on his other thigh.

Roadside Assistance

Goal: Get someone to help you on the side of the road.

Loser: Murr lost because he refused to say something the other guys told him to.

Punishment

Loser: Murr

When they arrive in Miami, Murr ends up being the loser, so he has to stay behind at the hotel room while the others go to the party. Moments later, Murr sneaks into the party using the same security disguise from 1994. This results in Abdul recognizing them from when they crashed her concert 25 years ago. Sal gets tasered but Joe acts as a hype man and sways the crowd to cheer for them. The next day, with Joey Fatone in the background at Miami Beach, Joe tells the Jokers that he received an offer to go on tour with Abdul as a hype man, but turned it down. Since Murr sneaked into the party, the others decide to subject him to one last punishment. Joe, Q, and Sal fly back to Staten Island on a private jet, while Murr rides harnessed to the top wing of a stunt plane.

Cast of characters

Joe Gatto as himself

James Murray as himself

Brian Quinn as himself

Sal Vulcano as himself

Paula Abdul as herself

Jaden Smith as himself

Joey Fatone as himself

Kane Hodder as Paula Abdul’s bodyguard

Will Ferrell as Miami restaurant guy

Casey Jost as Sam

Trivia

• The television show is an unscripted series, where the Impractical Jokers dare each other to undertake hidden-camera challenges designed to make both themselves and innocent passersby as uncomfortable as possible, since the guest stars of very real and genuine people are inadvertently a part of the semi-professional goofball shenanigans. One by one, each member of the cast is put into a fairly mundane situation, the Joker in the hot seat is wearing an earpiece and must do whatever the other three tell him, and if a Joker refuses to follow directions or can't accomplish his goal, he gets a thumbs down. Whoever has the most thumbs-downs at the end of a regular challenge loses, and he is forced to undergo a real punishment of a more extreme task that is psychological, much more embarrassing, and humiliating as a consequence for failure.
• The movie takes place in a fictional alternate reality, where the Jokers play semi-fictionalized versions of themselves. It combines an actual pre-scripted entirely fictional backstory involving a Paula Abdul concert that the Jokers experienced in their later teens, improvised scenes, and real-life footage of jokes and hidden camera challenges. The Jokers decide it's better to lose a challenge than put unsuspecting civilians in awkward situations, but the consequences aren't real, so the punishments are random asides that pop up as the Jokers travel across the country.
• In the opening scene, the real-life middle-aged adults are done up in 1990s styles in order to play the teenage versions of themselves, so they could be historically accurate with their looks.
• The filming of the movie was done about 2 years before the movie was released in theatres, since they filmed the movie between the month of May and June 2018.
• Due to a short release in theatres because of COVID-19, the movie was released on HBO Max April 1, 2020 along with VOD.