The Tenderloins are the stars of TruTV's hit television series Impractical Jokers, which has been massively successful for over a decade. But before they became TV favorites, they were already fairly accomplished comedians in their own right, with a comedy style somewhat different from the show's cringe premise. TruTV tried to bring those type of jokes to their network, but the result was impractical in a totally different way.
The short-lived Jokers Wild featured the uncomfortable quartet -- Sal Vulcano, James "Murr" Murray, Brian "Q" Quinn and the now-departed Joe Gatto -- performing a series of comedy sketches that called back to their humor style before Impractical Jokers. Unfortunately, the show wasn't nearly as beloved as its predecessor, with the only hilarious thing being how quickly it was canned. Here's a look back at the Jokers' failed spinoff that couldn't quite get to the punchline.
What Was TruTV's Jokers Wild?
Jokers Wild was a "blink and you missed it" series that ran on TruTV from September to October of 2014, around the same time that Season 4 of Impractical Jokers was hitting the airwaves. The concept was that the Jokers would engage not in the cringe comedy of the main series, but instead in more scripted sketch-based comedy that they were known for beforehand. These sequences would be framed by the Jokers interacting with a live audience, similar to the Impractical Jokers: After Party post-show or any of their specials.
There wasn't anything concrete laid out for Jokers Wild to the general public, which made its ultimate failure somewhat easier to swallow. For instance, there were originally going to be at least six episodes of the spinoff produced, with more likely on the way if it became even half as much of a hit as the main show. However, this didn't come to pass, with only four of these planned episodes ever being filmed.
Why Did Jokers Wild Fail?
Jokers Wild was essentially the sort of behind-the-scenes footage seen in the After Party episodes, which are hosted by Joey Fatone, sometimes include other celebrity guests, and are directly tied to specific episodes of Impractical Jokers. Anyone who doesn't care about the details can still watch the Jokers episode, but they can also stick around for some interesting and funny behind-the-scenes analysis. This approach keeps After Party related to the real moneymaker, explaining why it's lasted way longer than Jokers Wild did.
On top of that, the skits within Jokers Wild largely weren't good. Despite the Tenderloins excelling at this type of humor in the past, the sketches seen on the show were rarely that funny, especially for fans more used to the humor of Impractical Jokers. Even when jokes did land, they were usually stretched out beyond their sell date, ironically making the whole affair more cringe than any Jokers challenge. It's fairly telling that while Impractical Jokers is available to stream on HBO Max, Jokers Wild is not.
While the Tenderloins are hilarious, their attempt to introduce fans to their original type of comedy didn't have enough connection to what made them famous -- and it just wasn't their best effort. If they want to try something different again, they'd be better off trying a full-on Michael Carbonaro crossover or bringing in an old friend to shake things up.