Impractical Jokers Talk Big Guest Stars and Brutal Punishments in Season 10 (2024)

The Impractical Jokers are special. Hidden camera prank shows were nothing new when they first hit the air, but they found a way of doing it that has kept them going for over a decade. Much like Penn & Teller (though, they have been in the game much longer), the Jokers have constantly provided a brand of entertainment that everyone is used to, while finding ways to always make it feel fresh and new.

After the departure of Joe Gatto, a laundry list of celebrity guests have come in to fill some gaps. Now as Sal Vulcano, Brian “Q” Quinn, and James “Murr” Murray told Den of Geek, the list for Impractical Jokers Season 10 is growing even larger. Post Malone, Anthony Davis, and Bruce Campbell are just a few of the killer names to join in this go around. But, there is one surprise celebrity that the guys are super psyched about and we were shocked to hear about.

Shortly before Impractical Jokers celebrated the declaration of Impractical Jokers Day on Staten Island, we caught up with Sal, Q, and Murr to discuss season 10 – almost exclusively in I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson quotes.

Den of Geek: Season 10 is finally here; but does it feel like 10 seasons for you? Or does it feel like it’s more somehow?

All: [Laughter]

Sal: It’s funny that you didn’t go the other way with that.

Q: Yeah.

Sal: It seems like 10, but feels like you guys are still rocking around 2 or 3.

Well, you know the 22-26 episode season of television almost feels like a relic when you think about it.

Q: Yeah.

With the long seasons and the breaks in between, I can see where it almost feels like you’re past season 10.

Sal: Yeah, normally we do 26 plus four or five specials. So, we clock in around 30-31 a year and it is the 10th year…so yeah, it does feel like the 100th year, really.

Q: I think the thing that makes it feel longer for me is, it’s the 10th season, but we’ve been making the show for 13 years…because of the pandemic and trying to shoot in there. But I don’t know, it feels like season 2 to me.

Murr: Still feels like day one for me. As high energy as before.

Time is passing in essence, but there is no…

Q: We’re all gonna die, yes. [Laughter] And it’s all going so fast, yes.

Sal: It is really cool that we’re having as much fun as we’ve always had, this far into the show.

Does the idea of having these special guests on as well add into creating that feeling?

Murr: Yeah, absolutely. It’s been a wild run. Season 10 is so fun because the celebrities we cherry picked; people we liked, people we wanted to work with, or have admired our entire lives…some of them were longshots. It took a lot of work to get Alf on the show and he’s in this season of the show. I mean, that just doesn’t happen.

Sal: Yeah! We were doing it like that; Alf! Cindy Crawford hasn’t answered yet, though. Maybe next season.

Well, you have these people come on– some you have connections to already and some not– and then with someone like Brooke Shields…even though you do have a connection to her, it is amazing to see how willing someone like her is to jump into it head first.

Q: She was amazing. She was so impressive to us. Because you don’t think of her as the go-to for comedy and then she just wiped the floor with it. I thought she killed it.

Are you interested more in getting those types of people? Those who are not as connected to comedy?

Sal: It’s really a hodgepodge, right? We’ve had everyone from Brooke to Anthony Davis who is a star in the NBA. We have people like Bruce Campbell coming on the show, which was Q’s dream. We punished Q with Bruce Campbell. And then like you said…we’ve got Post Malone in the new season. It’s just all over the place really. I love having comics on the show actually, too. Like Roy Wood, Bobby Moynihan, and Paul Scheer; people like that. Oh, and David Cross. They come in and they add! They just dig into it and literally add stuff to it, so that’s been fun as we’re very collaborative with them.

You know, every fan has something specific about each of you they love. For instance, I love what I call “Belligerent Murr.”

Q: Oh yeah, it’s my favorite.

Murr: “Belligerent Murr?”

That’s what I call it…

Q: “No, No!”

Exactly, “No, No!”

Sal: I’m sorry…it’s funny that you call it that. That takes its inspiration from…Murr.

Q: Yeah, we just call that…Murr.

Murr: My friends call it…Murr. But Murr used to be intolerant and ignorant…I used to be a piece of sh*t.

Q: You believe people can change, right?

Well that’s just it. Are there things about yourselves whether old or new that you realize haven’t popped up in the show yet that you notice and think; we need to get that in the show.

Sal: You mean from real life?

Yeah.

Sal: The show is a cosmic gumbo of things, you know what I mean? [Laughter at the preponderance of I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson references]. We pull from every which way. Something can come out of tonight that we put right in the show or something can click for me from when we were 16.

Q: We were sitting around on set the other day talking about how it’s a cosmic gumbo.

Murr: Well, just so you guys know, I might be buying a parcel of land. I’m just putting it out there that if I do, you might be able to craft a punishment around it. [Laughter]

That’s literally what I was about to get into next. You have so much from your past that has come up and been used against you in the show. But now, does it come to the point where one of you is like; “I went out to dinner last night, tried oxtail for the first time and absolutely hated it. Better not let the guys find out, or my next punishment is going to be force fed a dinner full of oxtail.”

Q: For sure.

Sal: In a way, the show has kept us…we’re not as close together as we should be after all this time because we keep so much from each other. Like you have a brother, right?

Q: I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Sal: I think he may have siblings. He won’t tell me.

Correct me if I’m wrong Murr, because there is so much to go back over I sometimes forget; is season 10 the first time we see your wife in the show?

Murr: She’s been on the show a few times…or actually, maybe I’m not ever sure. Oh wait, she has been on [Impractical Jokers: Dinner Party] but they actually used her against me in the catheter punishment.

Ah yes, that’s right.

Sal: This is his second wife.

Murr: Yeah, Sal’s sister.

Sal: He married my sister in season 2, so.

You’ve always had family members be a part of the show, but are there some members of your family that want to appear but haven’t or that you want to have on more?

Sal: Can I even say what I did to my mom this season?

Q: Go, tell it. If you’re willing to talk about that, please, go ahead [Laughter].

Sal: I was punished when Anthony Davis from the Lakers was on. At stake was a very expensive, rare pair of sneakers. I like sneakers more than the average person. I got to keep them if I went through a series of challenges and one of them was to pour an entire bottle of red wine over my mother’s head. Which I did.

Q: We didn’t think he was going to do it, by the way. We were shocked.

Sal: Those shoes are in my closet right now.

Much like your family, your crew is a big part of the show. As they have been put front and center more, I go back and watch old episodes and say, “Oh, there goes Dan Cast and Chá.”

Q: Oh yeah.

However, when Cole (Weber) pops up, he’s almost always going to be met with being called, “Bargain Basem*nt Matt Damon,” I’m a little shocked no one has deemed John Szeluga as “Sleepy Macaulay Culkin.”

Murr: Ohhhh!

Sal: He’s low-rent Emilio Estevez.

Q: Emilio Estevez bobble head [Laughter]. That’s what his thing is. When we pitched the series to Tru all those years ago, we said we wanted to include the crew on the show. Tru actually said no at first. They said let’s just establish the show and then you can start doing it. So, it was always part of the DNA…

Sal: Did they say that?

Q: They did, yeah. They were like, “establish the show…”

Murr: It’s because most of them have a criminal record.

Q: Sure, but that’s why we thought it’d be fun. I mean, they’re down to clown.

Murr: Several of them would get caught because of all those warrants.

Q: Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe, that was one of my favorite shows. He always had the crew on it. So, when we were building the show it was one of the things that we threw into the cosmic gumbo. And it worked out like we thought it would because. When we had Kim Fields on, who played Tutti on The Facts of Life; she saw Cole and she acted like she was seeing the real Matt Damon. She’s like, “Ohhhhhhhh, you’re Cole, you’re bargain basem*nt Matt Damon!” It was awesome. That makes us so happy.

Sal: On the new season, for the key art, where we are caricatures. A bunch of the crew are also illustrated in the crowd with us. Chá is on there, Dan Cast, Joe Imburgio, Casey Jost, James McCarthy. Anybody else, am I forgetting anybody?

Q: Yeah, I can’t remember.

Sal: A Handful of them.

And most of them have been around since the beginning.

Q: Sure. Years.

Does it get too comfortable sometimes? Are you looking to get some fresh faces in there, too?

Q: Well, we get that.

Murr: Yeah, that happens all the time; someone comes in and surprises us like Nick Bush.

Q: Nick Bush!

Sal: Haha, yeah. Nick Bush is coming at you in season 10.

Q: Yeah, Nick Bush is a superstar coming your way in season 10. New to the show, came in and killed it.

Sal: Alex did a bunch of stuff.

Murr: Even our security guard came in and killed it this season.

Q:Yeah, and he originally didn’t want to be on. We consider it their show too.

But as comfortable as it can be knowing they’re there, especially when you’re out on a challenge and they’re with you; is there a little part of it at any time that can feel distracting.

Q: Na.

Murr: [Laughing] No way.

Sal: If they weren’t there it would be distracting. They’ve been standing there with us for everything we’ve done for a decade, you know what I mean? We’re having a blast, but a lot of our fun is us connecting with them behind the cameras. Now you know it, we say it all the time and now you see it all the time, but we’re laughing with more than just us. You know what I mean? We’re laughing with them.

Now, I know there was a contest at one point to have a fan come and join you for a challenge.

Q: Yeah, that was old school. That was for an online thing.

But I watch some episodes, especially from last season where you had three people who were meant to play the SVP of your fake company at a moment’s notice who just killed it. They were jumping in almost as if they were a part of the show. Did you ever think about reaching out to certain people to have them back on for an episode, but be in on it this time?

Q: Alan.

Sal: We have wanted to do that a bunch, actually.

Q: We had Alan, the one on the taste testing.

Sal: Oh sure, but I thought you were also going to talk about the Olympian.

Q: Dave Jacobs. Yeah, we haven’t been able to get back in touch with him.

Sal: When we see a mark. We really want to make sure we get them to write all their information down if we want to get them back. I think that’s probably something we should do next season. If we get it, knock on wood.

I mean, I’m not just trying to say nice things, but the way things are going, how can there not be a next season?

Q: Well, ask the people who made the Batgirl movie I guess.

Very true.

Q: They can tell what can and cannot happen.

I’m not sure if I’ve asked you guys this before or not, but it always sits with me. What is tougher for you: Doing a challenge or a punishment where you know the possibility of physical pain or a physical confrontation is possible? For example, Murr, when you had to rip cigarettes out of people’s hands. Or the situation where, even though at the end of the day things are explained to participants, that you would be crushing their souls in the moment? Like Q, when you had to paint those red Xs on kids’ artwork.

Sal: Those are the same to me.

Murr: I don’t know…the children weren’t going to punch you in the face.

Q: This is true, but the mothers might have.

Murr: Yeah, they might have.

Q: I don’t know, there is just something about ruining a child’s painting.

Murr: Life is going to ruin whatever they try, anyway.

Q: Sure.

So, start ’em early?

Murr: [Laughter] Yeah, at the hands of Uncle Brian.

Q: I don’t know if I want to be the instrument of their disappointment. I don’t know if I’d like that.

Murr: That should be your dating profile.

Q: Instrument of disappointment?

There is always the chance of things going wrong on the show, but seeing what happens at the end of the second episode of the new season, that feels like a whole new level.

Q: Yeah, the cops.

I mean, once that button gets pressed. There is no going back, someone is coming to check up on things.

Q: Yeah, you’re talking about the one with me and Post Malone; the cops were called on me and Post. You know, we have such a good relationship with the cops that I never really worry that they’re going to come and bust us. We’ve had them come to set before and they’re like, “Oh, these guys? Get outta here, these guys are great.” But, the guy who called the cops actually, the second we explained it to him, he thought it was so funny. He got it. We try really hard…

Sal: Well, maybe not the exact second you explained it to him [Laughter]

Q: Yeah, he was French so he had to figure it all out. We try to never make people look stupid or feel stupid so there’s never that thing where they have to calm down from an insult. It is more like, “What is going on here?” He was pretty cool about it. Scary to me, though! I don’t want to get locked up in the clink.

Sal: None of us do. I’ve been watching Oz.

Q: Yeah, not looking for me and Post Malone in an Oz episode. If they’re going after someone, it’s gonna be me, not Post. Those face tattoos protect him.

Yeah, just stay close to him.

Sal: Yeah, but in prison you can have things forced upon you.

Q: Really?

Sal: Google it!

In the same breath, because there are people who in the moment might be angry– whether or not they understand in the end and calm down– has the show in any way actually kind of helped you understand the humanity of people? Just seeing how loving people can be or how responsive they are even if, in the moment, it is a little tense.

Murr: I think it’s taught us a lesson that people generally are good.

Q: Yeah, I think so.

Murr: It’s hard to push them so far that they snap or break. I’m amazed everyday with how much we get away with, and I think that’s a good thing. It shows that cooler heads prevail, usually, in life.

Q: Yeah, I agree. I think it’s been affirming. Unfortunately, the side effect is that in my own life, after years of doing it on television…there are no rules. If there’s a door, I’m walking through it. I’ll deal with the consequences later [Laughter].

Sal: That’s so funny. I find the opposite.

Q and Murr: Really!?

Sal: Yeah, so many times in my regular life I am hesitant, I think. And then someone else will tell me, “You would do this on the show in a heartbeat.” Yeah, but there is something about everyone not being there that it feels like I’m one of the marks now. You know, I’m not going to get in trouble for real, you know what I mean? There’s something in the recess of my brain, that I just know, if anything goes wrong, I can let them know I was kidding. But if the cameras aren’t there…but we do get to do that a lot, because people think the cameras are always there, even when they’re not.

Impractical Jokers airs new episodes Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on truTV and TBS.