Punk'd

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Template:Infobox television Punk'd is an American hidden camera practical joke television series on MTV, produced and hosted by Ashton Kutcher, which first aired in 2003. It bears a strong resemblance to both the classic hidden camera show Candid Camera, and to TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes, which also featured pranks on celebrities. "Punk'd" refers to the act of having such a prank played on oneself, and the word also refers to the show's style of prank itself. New episodes of the show premiered on Sundays, which was changed to Mondays in the seventh season.

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Format

The show begins with a description by Kutcher of which celebrity will be punk'd, what the celebrity's claim to fame is, why he feels the celebrity deserves to be punk'd, and what the setting of the joke will be, including the accomplices and the premise. As the show is usually set in Los Angeles, the pranks often take place in common locations such as parking lots, restaurants, hotel rooms and residences, though Kutcher will sometimes engineer the prank at a celebrity event at which the target is a prominent guest, as when he pranked actress Halle Berry by convincing her that she could not enter the building at the premiere of her own film, Gothika. Kutcher will also sometimes use real-life current events as elements in his pranks, as when he pranked tennis player Andy Roddick, who was scheduled to appear on The Tonight Show, by convincing him that his automobile was trapped by the 2004-2005 Los Angeles mudslides. After the joke progresses to a point, usually with the celebrity having become angry or frustrated at the outrageousness of the situation, Kutcher or one of the actors will announce "You've just been punk'd!", and the rest of the crew will reveal themselves to the surprised victim. An episode will usually feature three separate pranks.

A frequent segment during the first season had the then fifteen-year-old Ryan Pinkston pretending to interview celebrities at red carpet events for a kids' show, only to mock them instead.

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Road Trips

In Season 3, Ashton Kutcher and his crew went to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC, at an event tied to the release of the film, The Prince and Me, and pranked actress Julia Stiles.

Another road trip took place at Carlsbad, California, Tony Hawk's hometown, where Hawk was pranked after his son, Riley, destroyed a restroom at a nearby park with an M-80, injuring one bystander (played by one of the show's actresses).

After football player Terrell Owens was suspended from the Philadelphia Eagles, Kutcher re-hired all the crew members from Season 5 for a prank on Owens, sending them to Moorestown, New Jersey, where Owens used to live. Owens was forced to save elderly people from a bus that had been turned over by an accident and hire an injury lawyer.

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Failed Punks

  • In December 2003, Kutcher attempted to "punk" WWE wrestler Bill Goldberg by having him think a truck had run over his prized motorcycle, when really it was a replica, but the stunt went wrong when the truck clearly missed the bike. Goldberg quickly realized what was going on, and asked "Who do I have to kill?". Kutcher then revealed himself, as the joke had failed.
  • In June 2005, Kutcher failed to punk self-proclaimed King of Crunk Lil Jon. He was boarding a plane headed for Las Vegas, but Kutcher had actors playing customs agents tell him that he was actually headed for Ecuador. Lil Jon quickly identified members of the "customs agents" from previous episodes of the program, and asked for Kutcher to reveal himself.
  • According to Kutcher himself, he failed to punk Neve Campbell twice until he finally succeeded on his third try in season 6.
  • According to Nick Cannon in the March 3, 2006 People magazine, Ashton grew frustrated because he failed to fool Cannon about 4 times, with last attempt involving a man pretending to be trapped in a gas station. Cannon saw through the joke because he noticed the cameras and was not convinced by the actor's performance.
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Controversies

In late 2003, it was announced by MTV that Kutcher had decided not to continue production on Punk'd. Some commentators speculated that the announcement was a ploy designed to lower the guard of increasingly wary celebrities in an attempt at another season of pranks. This proved to be true when the third season began airing on April 25 2004. The television audience itself had been "punk'd".

Some controversies arose in seasons 3 and 4, when New York Yankees' third-baseman Alex Rodriguez and Alias star Michael Vartan threatened to sue Kutcher if the pranks played on them were aired on MTV. According to the June 5, 2004 issue of Sports Illustrated and the June 7, 2004 People magazine, Rodriguez ordered Kutcher to destroy the tape of it, which it was, in order to avoid a court case. Vartan also threatened to sue Kutcher if the prank played on him, which involved a supposed emergency on the plane Vartan was on, was aired on MTV.

Australian musician Grazielle Oganna also threatened to sue Kutcher if her prank was aired, according to Edward Norton, who himself also denied Punk'd broadcasting rights.

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Influences

In addition to the obvious influences of Candid Camera and TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes, Method Man, Redman and Matt Besser of the Upright Citizens Brigade had a hidden camera celebrity prank show on MTV called Stung in 2002, a full year before the introduction of Punk'd. Whether this was a direct influence on Punk'd is unclear.

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Parodies and derivatives

  • Stephen Colbert parodied the show in his well-known segment on The Daily Show, This Week In God, introducing a new fake program called Baptiz'd.
  • In the television comedy Will and Grace, Jack McFarland, an executive of a gay television network, invents Pink'd, the gay equivalent of Punk'd. The first person to be "pink'd" is title character Will Truman.
  • In an episode of MADtv, Kenny Rogers (played by Will Sasso) did his own version of Punk'd. The jokes ended with someone getting kicked in the crotch.
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Celebrities who have been "punk'd"

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Celebrity Accomplices

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External links

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References

  1. Template:Note MTV Overdrive Some pranks failed to make it to standard version made it to Overdrive version (Amber Tamblyn, Adam Brody)es:Punk'd

gl:Punk'd sv:Punk'd

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