When the COVID-19 pandemic shut the world down, “Impractical Jokers” stars Sal Vulcano, Brian “Q” Quinn, James “Murr” Murray and Joe Gatto decided to get creative and do a spin-off of the show entitled “Impractical Jokers: Dinner Party,” in which the four lifelong friends would get personal about their lives — and even engage in the occasional prank or bring on a surprise guest — while eating dinner with one another over Zoom.
“It is one of my favorite things in all the years that we’ve been together. ‘Dinner Party’ is one of the things I’m most proud of,” Quinn told TheWrap. “I loved that show so much. I loved doing it, I looked forward to it and the ratings were great, like up there with Impractical Jokers.”
Quinn said that the guys wanted to keep the show going after the lockdowns ended, but it was ultimately canceled by Warner Bros. Discovery and TruTV.
“I don’t think they [made the right decision]. They said, ‘Look, it’s a pandemic show, and everybody’s sick of seeing people in [Zooms].’ I was like, ‘Yeah, but we’re having so much fun and the audience is having so much fun,’ ” Quinn recalled. “I honestly think we could make more money than we’ve ever made in our career if the four of us got together and did that show for Patreon or something on the internet because people loved it. I think there’s a future for it, and if the network doesn’t want to do it, just don’t call it ‘Dinner Party’ and you do it as a podcast or something.”
Murray added that producing “Dinner Party” was a “blast” during a time when TV shows couldn’t film.
“It led to a different side of the four of us. Seeing our personalities, our real lives at home, it was super creative. We all did things that surprised each other,” he said.
One of his favorite moments from “Dinner Party” was when Q tricked the guys into thinking Paul McCartney would be a special guest.
“We’ve heard that Paul McCartney is a fan of ‘Impractical Jokers’ and specifically of Q. And so Q tricked us and brought on a Paul McCartney lookalike, who looked like Paul McCartney got hit by a milk truck,” Murray said. “He was kind of like him, but none of us wanted to say anything because what if that actually is Paul McCartney on the Zoom with us? You don’t want to insult Sir Paul McCartney if it is him and he had a stroke or something. It was the greatest prank.”
“We let it go for a week. So Sal spent the week telling his father that he had Paul McCartney on the show, he’s telling everybody. And then the next week on the show, I revealed that it was all just a hack and it was great,” Quinn added. “There’s no way you should have believed that was Paul McCartney.”
While “Dinner Party” is no more, Sal, Murr and Q are back for Season 11 of “Impractical Jokers,” which made its TBS debut on Thursday.
The hidden camera series’ latest season features guests including Joey Fatone, Brooke Shields, Roy Wood Jr., Richard Kind, comedian Joe DeRosa and pro wrestler John Silver, among others.
New episodes of “Impractical Jokers” air Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET
