What the Stars of Impractical Jokers Can Teach You About Teamwork and Risk
The indignities mount. First, Murr is told that he has to compete in a bodybuilding competition. And to be clear, Murr is nobody’s definition of fit. Stripped down to an American flag Speedo, he looks like a fillet of cod -- a soft, slender, floppy whiteness untouched by the sun. Next, his three best friends -- Joe, Sal and Q -- oil him up and spread on a nice layer of bronzer. Murr seems amused. He’s done worse with these guys: He’s faced off alone against a professional dodgeball team, he’s been stuffed inside a piñata and hung from a crane and he’s even had his nipple pierced. So twitching in front of guys who could bench-press him? Sure, why not.
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Murr is waiting with a bunch of meatheads when his name is called. He is led down a hallway and toward a door. As it opens, you can see him thinking through his next move. He’ll channel Schwarzenegger, make his buddies laugh and then --
Oh, God. There’s no bodybuilding competition in this room. There’s just a woman -- a very beautiful, very familiar woman -- sitting in a chair. Murr knows he’s being filmed, just like he knows his three best friends are watching his face drop; he can hear them through the earpiece he’s wearing, and they’re dying of laughter. What has he walked into?
This is how it goes on , the show in which four buddies compete to embarrass each other, or at least to endure their own humiliation. The show’s setup is simple: One guy goes out -- into a supermarket or a crowded art gallery or wherever -- wearing an earpiece, while his three buddies hang back, watching the action on a TV screen. The three feed instructions through a microphone, and the guy out in the field must do whatever they say. They’re all real friends, and they routinely weaponize their deep knowledge of each other -- , personal insecurities, past crushes and more. They know every time the other guy has not just a half-hour series of these guys punching each other in the face? It’s a miracle.
