Punk'd

Punk'd
Punk'd Opening (2003-2005)
Created by	Ashton Kutcher Jason Goldberg
Starring	Ashton Kutcher
Theme music composer	Elizabeth Miller Brian Friedman (Theme) Ricky Friedman (Theme)
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	8
No. of episodes	64 (approx. 8 episodes per season)
Production
Executive producers	Jason Goldberg Ashton Kutcher David R. Franzke Billy Rainey Lois Clark Curren Rod Aissa Selene hinojosa
Running time	30 minutes with comercials
Original release
Network	MTV (2003-2007) MTV2 (2006- ) Fox Reality Channel (2008- )
Release	April 15, 2003 – May 29, 2007

Punk'd was an American hidden camera practical joke television series on MTV, produced and hosted by Ashton Kutcher, which first aired in 2003. It bears a strong resemblance to both the classic hidden camera show Candid Camera, and to TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes, which also featured pranks on celebrities. Being "Punk'd" refers to having such a prank played on oneself, and to "punk someone" refers to making someone else the victim of the show's style of prank itself.

The series finale aired on MTV on May 29, 2007. The series culminated in early June with the Punk'd Awards.

Formats

Candid Camera format

The show begins with a description by Kutcher of which celebrity will be punk'd, why he feels the celebrity deserves to be punk'd, and what the setting of the joke will be, including the premise and the accomplices. As the show is usually set in Los Angeles, the pranks often take place in common locations such as parking lots, restaurants, hotel rooms, or residences. Occasionally, Kutcher will engineer the prank at a celebrity event at which the target is a prominent guest, as when he led actress Halle Berry to believe she had been barred entry to the premiere of her film, Gothika, because the number of the people in the theater exceeded the fire code, or when he pranked NBA star Allen Iverson into thinking he could not enter his own 30th birthday party because the former president's daughters and Secret Service men were inside. Kutcher will also sometimes use real-life current events as elements in his pranks, as when he pranked tennis player Andy Roddick, who was scheduled to appear on The Tonight Show, by convincing him that his automobile was trapped by the Los Angeles mudslides. Kutcher sometimes sets his pranks where his targets work, such as on the sets of movies, TV shows, and music videos. As one example, Kutcher pranked The Rock, who was filming Be Cool, by convincing him that his trailer was destroyed. As another example, Kutcher pranked Kanye West by convincing him that he could not shoot his music video for "Jesus Walks" on Sundays without a permit. Kutcher has also done holiday-themed pranks, as when he punked Beyoncé Knowles into thinking she knocked over a 50-foot (15 m) Christmas Tree, or when he pranked Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz into thinking he derailed a train at a Christmas festival. After the joke progresses to a point, usually with the celebrity having become angry or frustrated at the outrageousness of the situation, Kutcher or one of the actors will announce to the surprised victim that they just had a practical joke played on them, usually with the line, "You just got punk'd!", or by revealing a large sign or banner to that effect. Each half-hour episode usually features three pranks.

Road trips

In Season 3, Ashton Kutcher and his crew went to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C., at an event tied to the release of the film The Prince and Me, and pranked actress Julia Stiles.

In a season 5 road trip to Tony Hawk's hometown Carlsbad, California, Hawk was pranked by son Riley, who destroyed a park restroom with an M-80, supposedly injuring a bystander played by an actress.

In Season 6, Kutcher sent crew members to Moorestown, New Jersey, the town of residence of football player Terrell Owens, in order to prank him there. The crew staged an auto accident in which Owens, believing it to be real, attempted to assist elderly men from an overturned bus.

Red carpet format

A frequent segment during the first two seasons was a Punk'd cast member pretending to interview celebrities at red carpet events, only to mock them instead. This segment closely copies what originated on The Howard Stern Show in the 1980s, when Stern and his writers began sending interns (most notably Stuttering John Melendez) to ask celebrities embarrassing questions on the red carpet. During the first season the show had then fifteen-year-old Ryan Pinkston (though on the show they claim he was only eight) do the interviewing, where he would pretend to be a reporter from a kid's show who would then hurl insults at the celebrities. During Season 2, the producers then chose a foreign interviewer accompanied by her interpreter who would then ask insane questions to the guests.

The following is a list of stars interviewed on the red carpet in all 4 segments.

Ryan Pinkston- VH1 Big in 2002 Awards

• Kid Rock and Pamela Anderson
• Ray Liotta
• Christina Aguilera
• Denise Richards
• Tori Amos
• Christina Applegate
• Eddie Griffin
• Pierce Brosnan
• Johnathon Schaech
• Lifehouse

Ryan Pinkston- Diesel Party

• Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd
• Lacey Chabert
• Pauly Shore
• Wilmer Valderrama
• Brett Scallions
• Christina Della Rose
• Jon Abrahams
• Eric Balfour
• Danny Masterson and Wilmer Valderrama

Foreign Interviewer- Entertainment Weekly

• Alicia Silverstone
• Maria Menounos
• Nicole Richie
• Dulé Hill
• Rose McGowan
• Philip Bloch
• Taryn Manning
• Wilmer Valderrama

Foreign Interviewer- Gothika Premiere

• Penélope Cruz
• Robert Downey Jr.
• James Lesure
• Kathleen Mackey
• Halle Berry

Failed punks

• In December 2003, Kutcher attempted to "punk" then-WWE wrestler Bill Goldberg by having a truck run over an exact replica of his prized motorcycle, but the stunt went wrong when the truck clearly missed the bike. When the bike spontaneously exploded without any visible reason Goldberg realized what was going on, and asked, "Who do I get to kill first?" as Kutcher revealed himself, knowing the joke had failed. It aired on the Season 2 finale.
• In June 2005, Kutcher's unsuccessful attempt to prank musician Lil Jon resulted in the musician telling Kutcher, "You can't Punk the King of Crunkas his paul heyman pulled up in his truck to pick up Lil John and said,go go go."
• Kutcher has claimed that he himself is "unpunkable." In the first season, his crew attempted to punk him using Britney Spears, but Kutcher discovered the plot and convinced Spears to help him turn the tables on his own crew.

Controversy and conflict

• On The Late Show with David Letterman, Kutcher mentioned punking David Spade in one of the show's first episodes. However, Spade refused to sign the release papers. The same prank was then used on Seth Green for the same episode.
• Alias star Michael Vartan reportedly refused to sign the release after being pranked by Kutcher, preventing the prank from airing. However, Vartan denies ever being pranked, and claims that the story was completely false.
• American Pie star Shannon Elizabeth filed for divorce from her husband Joe Reitman, a year after her appearance on the show. She was reportedly furious over his involvement in the prank, which involved leading Elizabeth to believe that they had been filmed on a celebrity porn tape.
• Pamela Anderson also denies ever being fooled by the attempted prank on her, which involved convincing her that a porn movie was being shot in her back garden, explaining that she realized it was a prank when she confronted a nude model on the premises.
• During his interview of Kutcher for Interview, actor Brad Pitt advised Kutcher not to prank his Ocean's Eleven co-star George Clooney, a notorious expert prankster himself. Pitt told Kutcher, "Don't do it. Don't ever go near it. Clooney will kill you and everything you love. I know it's tempting, but don't do it."
• Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres has stated that she does not wish to be Punk'd, and is so paranoid that she often assumes she is being Punk'd whenever any suspicious or out of the ordinary mishap occurs, as when, for example, a valet gives her the wrong car when leaving a restaurant, which Kutcher's crew members did to Simon Cowell during the Season 5 Premiere.
• Scrubs star Zach Braff was involved in a prank with teenagers vandalizing his car, Braff was so furious that he proceeded to, in his own words, "almost beat up a five year old".

Pranks not aired

Name of Prankee	Intended Season:	Notes
Al Shearer	1	The prank was never seen on MTV but was released on The Complete First Season: DVD
Black Eyed Peas	3	Claimed in an interview that they were pranked. They noticed the "police" featured in the prank were not real and got into a fight because they suspected the fake police not of being Punk'd staff, but criminals.
Michael Vartan	4	Denied Punk'd broadcasting rights. (See above)
Pamela Anderson	?	Denied Punk'd broadcasting rights (See above)

Influences

In addition to the obvious influences of past hidden camera prank shows such as Candid Camera and TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes, Scherzi a parte, Method Man, Redman and Matt Besser of the Upright Citizens Brigade had a hidden camera celebrity prank show on MTV called Stung in 2002, a full year before the introduction of Punk'd. Whether this was a direct influence on Punk'd is unclear. In an issue of the hip hop magazine S.M.A.C.K. DVD Vol. 9, an interviewer asks Redman about the similarities between Stung and Punk'd, and the rapper replies, "Fuck you, Ashton Kutcher!", to the delight of the audience, who begin to chant the phrase.

Parodies and derivatives

Shows derived from Punk'd

• Singers Michelle Branch, JC Chasez and Season 1 Punk'd Nick Lachey guest starred in another prank show called Faking the Video during the 11-month Punk'd exile.
• Ryan Dunn created another prankshow called Homewrecker, a show that mixes aspects of Punk'd and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
• Tony Hawk, Vivica A. Fox, and Tichina Arnold, who all appeared on Punk'd, later volunteered on another prank show Hi-Jinks on MTV's sister network Nick-at-Nite.
• During the 2003 NFL Season, Monday Night Football aired a Punk'd-type program during its Halftime segment entitled You Got Sack'd.
• In May, 2006, O.J. Simpson released a candid camera show for pay-per-view and DVD called Juiced. One of the pranks showed Simpson trying to sell a white Ford Bronco like the one he made famous in the slow speed chase in 1994.
• From February to April 2006, footballer Rio Ferdinand of the English football squad starred in a show called Merk'd in which he pranked fellow England squad members Gary Neville, Wayne Rooney, Ashley Cole, David James, Peter Crouch, Shaun Wright-Phillips, and David Beckham. After each punk, Ferdinand said to the camera "You got Merk'd" - "Merk'd".
• In March 2008, E! premiered another Kutcher show, Pop Fiction, in which celebrities fabricate stories and situations in order to fool the paparazzi and tabloids.
• On Chilean's Channel Megavision was made a Punk'd-type program called Golpe Bajo starred by Cristian de la fuente.

Parodies and references

• On his sketch comedy show, Chapelle's Show, Dave Chappelle parodied Punk'd, Ashton Kutcher, and The Jamie Kennedy Experiment in a skit that he called Zapped. He also used a poem on Def Poetry Jam, titled Fuck Ashton Kutcher.
• The That's So Raven episode "Skunk'd" is a parody of Punk'd.
• In 2003, Justin Timberlake spoofed Kutcher and Punk'd, when he hosted Saturday Night Live.
• During the National Hockey League season, the Los Angeles Kings broadcast on Fox Sports West produced a handful of segments called Puck'd featuring practical jokes on various Kings players. The segments were created for pre-game and between-period entertainment. Luc Robitaille, who was retired from the NHL after the season, played the role of Kutcher. Puck'd made a return in the season.
• Stephen Colbert parodied the show in his well-known segment on The Daily Show, This Week In God, introducing a new fake program called Baptiz'd and promising one for the following edition called Circumsiz'd.
• In the television comedy Will and Grace, Jack McFarland, an executive of a gay television network, invents Pink'd, the gay equivalent of Punk'd, in episode It's A Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad World. The first person to be "pink'd" is title character Will Truman.
• In the 2005 Martin Lawrence comedy Rebound, junior high school school principal Megan Mullally asks if she's being punk'd when disgraced college basketball coach Roy McCormick (Lawrence) is suggested to coach her school's junior varsity team.
• In the 200th episode of the sketch comedy show MADtv, Will Sasso, impersonating Kenny Rogers, did his own version of Punk'd. The jokes involved Kenny botching his pranks, forgetting what to do next, and simply kicking the celebrity in the groin.
• In the Family Guy episode "I Take Thee Quagmire", Peter remembers that one time he pranked Kutcher by throwing an axe at him and saying, "You've just been Tomahawk'd! That's my show, Tomahawk'd."
• In the movie Just Friends, ditzy pop singer Samantha James (played by Anna Faris) had microwaved a plastic tub containing food and aluminum foil while traveling on an airplane accompanied by music producer Chris Brander (played by Ryan Reynolds). The aluminum foil caught fire, and the plane was forced to land. When Samantha gets angry about the plane landing, she calls her father and starts to complain. In a ditzy moment, Samantha forgets completely that it is her fault the plane has landed, and states suddenly, "Oh, my God! Am I being punk'd!? (Laughs) Ashton!? Ashton!?"
• The film High School Musical refers to Punk'd in one scene with Lucas Grabeel and his on-screen sister Ashley Tisdale. When Grabeel's character, Ryan, finds out that Troy and Gabriella (Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens) have made it into the callbacks, he says, "Maybe we're being Punk'd...maybe we're being filmed right now! Maybe we'll get to meet Ashton!" Ashley Tisdale and fellow co-star Zac Efron have since been Punk'd.
• In 2006, novelist Todd Brendan Fahey created the term funderbunked, indicative of a particularly vengeful and retaliatory strain of the phenomenon.
• In an episode of The Adventures of Chico and Guapo, the two title characters decide to come up with a prank show called "You've been Guapo-sized", in order to become stars in the next Punk'd.
• On his sketch comedy show Mind of Mencia, Carlos Mencia parodied both Punk'd and Dateline NBCs "To Catch a Predator" feature in a sketch called "Dateline Punk'd."
• The Ronnie Johns Half Hour parodied Punk'd on a sketch, instead naming it Pope'd
• In the episode of Hannah Montana "Grandma Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Favorites", the Queen of England remarks after Hannah's rather speedy rendition of "The Other Side of Me", "Have we just been punk'd?"
• In the video game Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories, when the main character Adell attacks Axel, before the battle Axel asks the question, "Hey, am I on 'Screw'd'?"
• In the film Epic Movie, after Edward, played by Kal Penn, is kicked by the White Bitch, played by Jennifer Coolidge, David Lehre, along with a camera crew, enters the scene dressed like Ashton Kutcher and annoyingly tells Edward again and again that he has been "Punk'd" (exaggerating how Ashton reacts to the celebrities he has punk'd), until eventually Edward knocks him out in annoyance. Lehre did a Punk'd parody himself for his own studio, Vendetta.
• In the September 25, 2006 and February 19, 2007 editions of LAMB!, a Michigan-area magazine, the art news column featured an editorial on the "Ashton Kutcher of the art world", in which the world-famous Leonardo da Vinci's American Horse, a 24-foot (7.3 m) high bronze horse at internationally renowned Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, fell victim to a sculpture punk called Paletta Grande ("Big Shovel").
• On the TV show Reba the titular character pranks her son on Halloween, later saying, "You got Reba'd!"
• On the TV show Boston Legal the character Shirley Schmidt asks if she is being Punk'd while at her ex-husband Ivan Tiggs' latest wedding.
• On Nick Cannon's MTV show, Wild 'N' Out, several jokes have been made at the expense of both Ashton Kutcher and Punk'd, including one skit which makes fun of what is perceived as the show's terrible acting, predictable pranks, uncreatively hidden cameras, and prosaic humor.
• In the comic strip Get Fuzzy, Bucky's friend, comedian Snatch Limelight, says that he hosts a show on MTV called Puk'd, in which he "vomits in the laps of differents celebs every episode".
• On the sitcom Drake and Josh,on an episode after their house has been robbed, the father asks if he has been punk'd. In another episode of that sitcom, when Josh is bonding with his mom, Walter says Am I being punk'd?"
• Season 3 of Entourage features an episode titled "Gotcha" that revolves around the premise of Pauly Shore hosting a Punk'd derivative named Gotcha! with the catchphrase, "You got Got!"
• In the House episode "The Jerk", Dr. Foreman accuses Dr. House of canceling his job interview at another hospital. House suggests it might have been Ashton Kutcher.
• On an episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Jon Stewart referenced the show when he said, "Tonight's guest is former President Bill Clinton, unless I'm being punk'd."
• On the Australian TV show The Shak, an episode parodied Punk'd with the derivative tagline "You've been Shak'd".
• In the 2006 film Black Christmas, Kyle says that the girls are getting punk'd after the threatening phone calls.
• In a sketch on The Late Show with David Letterman, staff member Biff Henderson goes around town doing random pranks to people, saying, "You Got Biff'D".
• In the 2007 film Knocked Up, when Katherine Heigl's character's interview with actor James Franco begins to veer into oddity, he says, "If this is one of those fucking joke shows then I'm not into it."
• The web cartoon site Liquid Generation produced a flash animation called Decepticon'd which was hosted by the fictional character Starscream. This animation first appeared close to the release of the 2007 live-action film Transformers.
• In the premiere episode of the Australian TV series Summer Heights High, when questioned about an incident in which he threw a younger boy's bag over a railway line, Jonah says, "We weren't bullying him. We just Punk'd him." In the following episode, he pretends to be hit by a car by his teacher, then gets up and says, "Miss, you got Punk'd."
• Comedian Chris Rock poked fun at Punk'd during MTV's 2003 Video Music Awards, remarking that African-Americans would never be Punk'd, hypothesizing that rapper DMX would respond to such a prank with violence, saying, "You've been stabbed!"
• In the 200th episode of Stargate SG-1, Cameron Mitchell sarcastically exclaims that he's "being Punk'd" after the other members of SG-1 briefly joke that Jack O'Neill fathered Mitchell during the team's adventures in the Season 2 episode, "1969".
• In an episode of Ben 10, Rojo exclaimed at one point "We've been Punk'd!".
• In the 2004 film Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!, Tad Hamilton's manager and agent convince him to open his motel room door by shouting, "Come on, you're not gonna get Punk'd."
• In a first season episode of Viva La Bam, Bam Margera's uncle threatens to contact Ashton Kutcher and punk Bam.
• The porno series Spunk'd is a parody of Punk'd.
• On an episode of Back At The Barnyard, Otis is shown watching a TV show called Prank'd.
• On Chilean's channel Chilevision, were made a lot of parodies of Punk'd in his program Sin Verguenza, but all the episodes were just acted.
• In an episode of Red vs. Blue, Sarge is reciting one-liners, one of which is "You just got "Sarged".
• In the song Run Harry Run by band Lemon Demon Harry receives a letter informing him Hogwarts has burned down, and after trashing his room Dumbledore appears and informs him, "You've been Punk'd".
• On a upcoming show called Aaron Stone, Aaron is talking to a spy from Hero Rising and says "I'm being punk'd right?, I knew it!"
• On the bonus features for Home Movies disc 2, H. Jon Benjamin and Bill Buckendorff host a fake show called "Baby Pranks," where they prank babies by gluing a bottle to a table, and bringing in a fake grandmother to greet a baby.
• In a sixteenth season episode of The Simpsons, actor Jason Bateman's car is "Chop Shop'd".
• In the one episode of the sixth season of One Tree Hill, Brooke Davis finds out that the girl she took into her home, Samantha, was shoplifting at a supermarket (she was really covering for her friend, Jack,) she says angrily, "Please, tell me I'm getting Punk'd right now!"

Celebrities who have been Punk'd

• List of celebrities who have been Punk'd by episode
• List of celebrities who have been Punk'd by name

International versions

• An Icelandic version of the show, Tekinn, hosted by Auðunn Blöndal, premiered on Sirkus TV in fall 2006.
• A Norwegian version, Bøff aired on BTV Triplet in spring 2007.
• A Hong Kong version, Whatever Things!, was hosted by Edison Chen, in which he pranked famous Asian artists like Vanness Wu.
• A Dutch version, Gotcha was hosted by Georgina Verbaan for the first season and Tatum Dagelet for the second.
• An Indian version, MTV Bakra was hosted by Cyrus Brocha was aired on MTV

External links

• Punk'd website on mtv.com
• Punk'd at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show