Is ‘Impractical Jokers’ Fake? A Closer Look Before Season 7 Premiere

“Impractical Jokers,” a hidden camera show which follows four friends who challenge each other to complete public and humiliating dares or face the consequences, has been a hit on truTV since 2011. However, just like all reality TV shows, the program’s authenticity is sometimes questioned by viewers.

Before stars Brian “Q” Quinn, Sal Vulcano, Joe Gatto, and James “Murr” Murray return for the show’s Season 7 premiere on Thursday, find out just how real the prank show is.

“It’s definitely authentic,”Joe told Life and Style in November. “The show works thanks to that genuine hesitation and fear, dealing with a stranger who doesn’t know they’re on a hidden camera show. That’s the magic of the show.”

Sal shared a similar sentiment during a 2014 Reddit AMA.

“Everything is real. It is one of our golden rules for the show,” he said when asked by a fan to reveal if the series is exaggerated in anyway. “We won’t do it otherwise because the show is built around real reaction, ours included.”

Still, the stars do write some of their jokes ahead of time, they just don’t share them with their cast members.

“Everything is real but we write the jokes too and improvise them,” Sal explained. “In the context of when we are surprised with something, all real. We go through painstaking efforts to keep that [expletive] away from each other. It’s like Mission Impossible in the office.”

With the success of the show hanging on the reactions of its cast and strangers, Sal said there are many times when they run into problems while filming. The reality star admitted it isn’t uncommon for participants to not agree to be on TV when they find out they’re being filmed.

“Usually people are pretty cool when they find out it’s a TV show,” he said, adding that participants who are not interested get their faces blurred or are cut from the footage. However, in rare circumstances, they are paid. “On rare occasion if the person was gold, we try and throw them a few bucks to coerce them,” Sal dished.

“Impractical Jokers” returns to truTV on Thursday at 10 p.m. EST.