Punk'd

Infobox television
show_name = Punk'd


caption = "Punk'd" Opening (2003-2005)
format = Reality/Candid Camera
runtime = 30 min with commercials
creator = Ashton Kutcher
starring = Ashton Kutcher
country = United States
network = MTV
first_aired = April 15, 2003
last_aired = May 29, 2007
num_episodes = 64 [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361227/episodes "Punk'd" (2003) - Episode list ] ]

"Punk'd" is 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. [ [http://www.tvseriesfinale.com/2007/03/punkd_is_ashton_kutcher_really_calling_it_quits.php Punk'd: Is Ashton Kutcher Really Calling It Quits?; TVSeriesFinale.com; March 27, 2007] ]

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 Denver Nuggets' Guard Allen Iverson into thinking he could not enter his own 30th birthday party because the 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 on the sets of movies, TV shows or music videos where his targets are working, as when he pranked Kanye West by convincing him that he could not shoot any footage for his music video for the song "Jesus Walks" on Sundays without a permit, or when he pranked rap artist The Game by convincing him that he could not leave his former studio because his crew had repaved its entrance, or pranked Daddy Yankee where he was slapped with a $463,000 fine by the FCC for swearing on live radio. Kutcher has also done holiday-themed pranks, as when he punked Beyoncé Knowles into thinking she knocked over a convert|50|ft|m|sing=on 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. [ [http://www.nbc10.com/news//detail.html "T.O. -- You've Been Punk'd!" NBC10.com; November 10, 2005] ]

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 early 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 do the interviewing, where he would pretend to be a reporter from a kid's show who would then hurl insults at the celebrities. [ [http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2003-07-13-pinkston_x.htm Soriano, Cesar G,; "MTV prankster Pinkston is a wee bit popular"; usatoday; July 13] , 2003] ] During Season 2, the producers then chose a foreign interviewer accompanied by her interpreter who would then ask inane 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

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. This was the only failed punk to actually make it on air. 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 Crunk." [ [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1837584,00.html Hattie Collins. "The Guardian". "Crunk in charge"; August 5, 2006.] ]
*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. [ [http://www.hollywood.com/news/detail/id/2438860 World Entertainment News Network; "Kutcher's Punk'd Prank Leaves Vartan Unimpressed"; April 10, 2005.] ] [ [http://www.imdb.com/news/wenn/2005-04-08#celeb9 "Vartan: World Entertainment News Network; "I Was Not Punk'd" Internet Movie Database; April 5, 2005.] ]
*"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. [ [http://www.imdb.com/news/wenn/2005-03-08#celeb2 World Entertainment News Network; "Elizabeth Splits from Husband"; The Internet Movie Database; March 8, 2005.] ]
*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. [ [http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/pamela%20refuses%20to%20be%20punk.d "PAMELA REFUSES TO BE PUNK'D"; contactmusic.com; May 2, 2004.] ]
*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." [ [http://www.celebrityspider.com/news/march05/article032205-13.html "Brad Pitt Warns Ashton Kutcher 'Don't Punk George Clooney'"; celebrityspider.com; March 22, 2005.] ]
*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. [ [http://www.celebrityspider.com/news/october05/article100405-7.html "Ellen DeGeneres Refuses to be Punk'd by Ashton Kutcher"; celebrityspider.com; October 4, 2005] ]

Pranks not aired

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

hows 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. [ [http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/stars%20team%20up%20for%20new%20prank%20show "STARS TEAM UP FOR NEW PRANK SHOW"; contactmusic.com; November 5, 2004.] ]
* Ryan Dunn created another prankshow called "Homewrecker", a show that mixes aspects of "Punk'd" and "".
*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. [ [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12754888/ Associated Press; "Treading on the past, O.J. pulls Bronco prank: Simpson pretends to sell vehicle as part of his pay-per-view show"; msnbc.com; May 15, 2006.] ]
* 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.

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".
*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 NBC"s "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 "", 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 convert|24|ft|m|sing=on high bronze horse at internationally renowned Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, fell victim to a sculpture punk called Paletta Grande ("Big Shovel"). [ [http://www.g-rad.org/lamb/archives/2007/02/meijer_garden_r.html Becherer, Dr. Joseph; "Meijer Garden really did get Punk'd" Lamb!; February 19, 2007.] ] [ [http://palettagrande.blogspot.com/ Paletta Grande Exhibit Photos; palettagrande.blogspot.com] ]
*On the TV show "Reba" the titular character pranks her son on Halloween, later saying, "You got Reba'd!"
*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".Fact|date=July 2008
*On the sitcom "Drake and Josh", after their house has been robbed, the father asks if he has been 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".Fact|date=July 2007
*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". [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1019968/?fr=c2M9MXxsbT01MDB8ZmI9dXx4PTB8dHQ9MXx5PTB8bXg9MjB8aHRtbD0xfHNpdGU9ZGZ8cT1TcHVuaydkfHBuPTA_;fc=1;ft=20 "Spunk'd" at the] Internet Movie Database]
*On an episode of "Back At The Barnyard", Otis is shown watching a TV show called "Prank'd".
*In an episode of "Red vs. Blue", Sarge is reciting one-liners, one of which is "You just got "Sarged".

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 [http://www.bt.no/btv/triplet/ 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.
* A Indian version, MTV Bakra was hosted by Cyrus Brocha was aired on MTV

References

External links

* [http://www.mtv.com/onair/dyn/punkd/series.jhtml Punk'd website] on mtv.com
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