Saturday 9 April 2016

The Impractical Jokers: Live Punishment @ Wycombe UK

On Tuesday April 5th, the Impractical Jokers filmed a punishment at Wycombe Wanderers football ground. I was one of the thousands that made a trip up there after seeing their Tweet about the event. 

The event was a lot of fun with dedicated fans by the bucket load. I saw on Twitter that some fans were there at 9am when doors didn't open until 2! It was good to see such a wide range of ages attending which shows how far-reaching the show is- no big surprise really. 

People on the crew had the job of warming the crowd up. They said they wanted the episode to show an authentic British 'soccer' game experience- in other words unrelentless booing, jeering and chanting at the poor punished jokers (yes, there were two, but I won't say who!) What they didn't account for was the fact that us British folk come with a series of insulting football chants, whether we're a forty year- old yob on the lash or an eighty-year-old spinster with a knitting hobby; it's part of our programming. Therefore, 'He fell o-ver' and 'WHO ARE YA!' became mainstays of the filming. That and a never-ending Mexican wave while we were waiting for filming to commence. It felt good to be amongst fellow enthusiasts, kind of like being part of a club!
 The punishment didn't disappoint and I can't wait to see it air (July for the US apparently, but hopefully TruTV may put something out on Youtube for us UK viewers to access before we see it air here). We were seated right near the top (hence the poor photography), so it'll be good to see some close up action of the event and also to see the crowd from the Jokers' point of view.

The guys had to shoot off (*ba-dum-tshh*) and it was only eyebrowless Murr who stayed behind to meet fans, but he made up for the rest of the Jokers not being able to make it by taking selfies with everyone! We didn't get one, but his dedication was admirable and he seemed to lap up the attention!
As we left the stadium, the cars leaving were at a big standstill, so we stood by the back door with the other keenos who were trying to catch a glimpse of a Joker. After 5 minutes we saw this guy------------->

A weird thing about celebrity is that you could walk past any of these chaps in the street if they weren't on TV- they're so normal and down-to-earth in every sense which makes them such great candidates for being part of a prank show. But there's something a bit thrilling about being so near to these guys because they are heroes to many (I like to think almost like a modern-day Ghostbusters!) I'd love to have seen Joe and Sal, but understandably they all had planes to catch and couldn't afford to be stuck with fans for hours on end. Maybe one day our paths will cross!

To all the people who were there, I hope you had as fun a time as I did. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to Brian and Sal giving it a mention on WhatSayYou when they next get time do do an episode.

In the meantime, I'm going to get my camera, go out and find some people to photograph for my blog.

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