A little known fact to most of those visiting New York City, the Staten Island Ferry actually leads to Staten Island (it’s a real place where people live). In that mysterious land, four guys met in school and they’ve been pulling pranks on each other ever since. For the last nine years, it’s been televised for the world to see.
Impractical Jokers follows Joe, Murr, Sal, and Q as they make each other do often awkward tasks, leading to some hilarious situations. With the Impractical Jokers Box of Challenges Game, now you, too, can embarrass your friends and confuse bystanders.
The game is divided into three phases, similar to the show: Undercover Jokers, One Up Showdowns, and Punishments. The first phase is best played during a party, since you’re actually supposed to involve two to nine people and only let a few of them know that you’re playing a game. The rest of the “players” just think it’s a party. This makes it a great option for family get-togethers, when you’re already in one place and looking to get away from Aunt Karen’s constant questions about why you’re still single.
It’s also the phase that’s the most tricky in this dumpster fire of a year. Technically, we still shouldn’t be gathering in groups of 10 people in most areas but there is good news! Some of the challenges can easily be adapted to work over Zoom. The head player can send a picture of the four random challenges ahead of time. Who wouldn’t be suspicious of multiple people saying “between a rock and a hard palace” and “on cow nine”? The only downfall of a virtual prank-a-thon is that you won’t be able to use the included accessories, such as Turtle or Tortoise the Musical tickets and a brochure on flying baggage class.
The second phase is less anxiety-inducing than its predecessor and a complete restart on points, so anyone can join in and play. One player acts as a judge and puts out a scenario card. The other players choose one of the actions from their pile of cards to act out as their response and the judge picks the funniest one. Players keep going and switching judges each round until someone collects five scenario cards.
Most of the actions fit most of the scenarios — which is surprising because they jump from “Your niece asks what you’re getting her for Christmas” to “Someone asks why you’ve been taking so long in the bathroom.” The answer to both? Ask for their home address — or another one of the 200 actions possible.
Fans of the show should know what’s coming for the final round: the punishment. In Impractical Jokers, the loser of the show (often Sal) has to complete a task that they cannot back out of or they’re kicked off the series. For Murr, it’s generally something involving ferrets or shaving off all of his body hair. For the person with the fewest scenario cards, it could be anything from calling up a good friend to ask if it’s too late for you to join the Olympics, to admitting to a random phone contact that you glued your mailman to your mailbox and you’re not sure why he’s upset.
The Impractical Jokers game manages to fit everything funny about the show into one game night. It’s the take-home version we didn’t know we needed but now definitely have to play. Replaying the first phase may be limited to how many times you can get an unsuspecting group of people, but the rest of the game is there for you every time you want an awkward encounter and a laugh.
