How MTV's Punk'd Was Fak'd

Everyone who's ever watched a reality TV show probably knows that much of the so-called reality is a total lie

But the popular prank show Punk'd took stretching the truth to a whole new level

So, today we're going to take a look at how the producers of MTV's Punk'd manipulated viewers even more than any of the show's celebrity targets

Okay, time to look at how we all got Punk'd by Punk'd

For those who don't remember, Punk'd, which aired on MTV from 2003 through 2007, was a reality TV series hosted by Ashton Kutcher, famous for both his starring role as Michael Kelso in Fox's sitcom That 70s Show and for general handsomeness

Punk'd was a hidden camera prank reality series in the tradition of shows like Candid Camera and TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes, in which Kutcher and his crew would trap unwitting celebrity guests in ridiculous scenarios and film their reactions

Kuchar had originally started work on a series called Harassment, in which he would play practical jokes on ordinary, non-famous people

Despite coming up with a title that perfectly encapsulates the entire prank show genre

Kuchar ultimately abandoned the premise after he got sued for replacing a fake dead body

in the pool of the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. Oh boy, Ashton, that is comedy

Thwarted by the laws of both man and common decency, he came up with a new idea

That idea was punked. And the new spin was that the practical jokes would be played on celebrities rather than

regular Joes, presumably because image-conscious famous people would be better sports about

the whole thing and therefore less likely to sue. The show managed to pull the wool over some pretty famous eyes, including Justin Timberlake

Jessica Biel, Tracy Morgan, Lindsay Lohan, Kirsten Dunst, Hugh Jackman, Zoe Saldana

Kanye West, The Rock, Beyonce, and many, many more. Along the way, Kuchar and his co-producers discovered that pulling off a prank show on targets who are already conditioned to look for cameras everywhere is a lot harder than it seems

They would quickly turn to editing tricks and outright fabrication to get the content they needed

Part of what made Punk'd so memorable was getting to watch celebrities gradually melt down in the middle of an absurd situation

After all, the entire point of a prank show is to capture a person's unaltered reaction

to a practical joke, right? Well, not so much. Often, the celebrity target wasn't happy

with whatever their natural reaction turned out to be and did not want the public to see it

And we get it. You're not going to make the most flattering expression when you're blowing up a wedding

or watching the government repossess your dog. In such cases the raw footage was left on the cutting room floor and replaced with alternate less embarrassing takes One famous example is the episode featuring the rapper Drake Drake thought he was going to meet then President Joe Biden when the Punt crew faked an earthquake

In the episode that aired, Drake is appropriately alarmed. But his initial unedited reaction was apparently much more dramatic

According to Ashton Kutcher's recollection of events, Drake jumped and curled up into the fetal position on his friend's lap

Guess we know why that hotline stopped blinging. Fans of the show may have thought Ashton Kutcher personally orchestrated every prank on Punk'd

since he's almost always shown issuing commands via earpiece to the actors carrying out the pranks

But of course, Kutcher wasn't in charge of whether or not a prank went too far

Instead, MTV had a whole team of lawyers providing on-site legal advice as to whether or not a prank should be stopped

As Kutcher put it, The primary responsibility of these lawyers was to ensure that at no point in time

were we breaking any laws or endangering anyone in any way. It's a long way to say covering our ass

But even with teams of lawyers trying to keep things within the bounds of legal propriety

Punk'd sometimes got dangerous. For example, in Serena Williams' episode, the tennis star bravely drives a car

at nearly 100 miles per hour in pursuit of two children. Again, super funny, Ashton

Rob Pinkston, who played a teenager in the episode, admitted that they pushed the boundaries of personal safety

because he felt like his job was on the line. According to Pinkston, I had pumped co-creators Jason Goldberg

and Ashton Kutcher in my ear during the bit, and they told us to keep going as long as it was safe

But I think we stretched the safe part a bit. Fooling one of the world's greatest athletes into driving like she's in last place

in Mario Kart is definitely considered unsafe by most traffic courts. Furthermore, Pinkston claims that the producers were only concerned

that he saved the sketch by shaking Serena off his tail during the chase. When the episode aired

the editing made it appear like Williams was told to drive to where the kids would take it

The entire prank was essentially rewritten after the fact to make it less upsetting and

less potentially illegal. The performers on Punk'd claimed they were frequently encouraged

to take things too far. For example, Julia Wolov, who acted in an episode of Punk'd featuring

rapper Jadakiss, said that producers tried to get her to push Jadakiss to his boiling point

even though they knew he might be armed. Oh, that is genius, Ashton

When she voiced her discomfort to the producers, she claims they told her not to worry about it

and just to keep going, which lines up with Pinkston's recollection of the Serena Williams episode

Playing a practical joke means dropping an unsuspecting person into a situation that is jarring and stressful

and it's difficult to predict how they will respond. Some people just roll with the unusual circumstances

Some get flustered or become emotional, and some will become outright violent The last one is a lot more common than you may suspect There an entire subgenre of YouTube devoted to pranks that end in fistfights In fact Punk dealt with so many near misses that the show had a standing policy

If you see a weapon, shut the prank down and reveal yourself immediately

Why so specific? Someone actually pulled a gun in an unaired episode featuring the black-eyed peas

A physical altercation broke out when someone in that group's entourage pulled out the weapon

But that was far from the only time things got nasty. Punk'd often manipulated celebrity reactions in post

especially when the star was painted in a negative light. Nobody wants to watch Dwayne The Rock Johnson

pummel improv theater graduates for pretending to steal his Escalade, especially not Dwayne The Rock Johnson

For example, in the episode featuring Zach Braff, the actor actually threw punches

when he thought someone had painted graffiti on his brand new Porsche. Rob Pinkston, who played the delinquent teenager

admitted that the star tried to beat him up as he ran towards fellow actor Chris Elwood

who was playing a security guard. As he ran, a terrified Pinkston could feel Braff's swings

hitting his jacket. Elwood vouched for Pinkston's story, verifying that Braff did indeed try to

attack Rob Pinkston, but struck Elwood's arm instead. To quote Elwood directly

Braff definitely wanted to stomp the ever-living crap out of this kid. To spare Braff the indignity of looking like a violent maniac, MTV cut the punches out of the

broadcast, making it appear as though Braff had merely shouted, expletive-laden threats at

Pinkston. In fairness, he might beat the s*** out of us is a reaction you should anticipate

if you pretend to ruin a guy's $100,000 sports car. Arguably, the most viral episode of Punk'd

featured megastar Justin Timberlake, although in reality, he was not the sweet, helpless dude he

appeared to be on the show. Timberlake described his side of the story in a 2011 interview with

Playboy, during which he revealed that the prank itself, in which the pop star's possessions were

supposedly being seized by the IRS, lasted much longer than what was shown on TV. According to him

the 10-minute segment shown on the episode was actually cut down from a 45-minute ordeal and

featured a much more aggressive reaction. Timberlake recalled showing up at his house, demanding to know

what all these people were doing on his property, and repeatedly ordering them to leave, only with a

Tarantino amount of F-bombs. But that behavior, while an honest reaction, was inconsistent with

Timberlake's generally clean-cut image. And so, it was deleted from the episode. Apparently

JT is only comfortable looking like a jerk in a David Fincher movie. Punk depicts Ashton Kutcher and the gang as brilliant pranksters, who could outsmart

virtually anyone, wreaking havoc on totally clueless celebrities. But in reality, Kutcher

really didn have a great track record at all when it came to fooling his famous acquaintances For instance Kuchar tried to punk Nev Campbell multiple times but only succeeded in fooling her on the third attempt Meanwhile the band Simple Plan proved to be nigh unpunkable

after they spotted the show's hidden cameras. Ironically, pranking them required a more complicated strategy than their name suggests

But Nick Cannon was by far the hardest celebrity to punk. The crew reportedly tried to prank him no less than four times with no success

Ultimately, none of the episodes featuring Cannon ever aired, but Kuchar decided to hire him instead

and Cannon began assisting with pranks in the show's ninth season. Another problem was that as Punk grew in popularity

their cast became too recognizable to fly under the radar. As a result, the celebrity targets began to recognize the Punk crew

even if the show liked to pretend otherwise. In an episode featuring Lil Jon

Ashton Kuchar used some repeat actors to play customs agents who tried to convince the rapper his plane was heading for Ecuador

rather than Las Vegas. Lil Jon recognized the actors and demanded Kutcher reveal himself

reportedly yelling, You can't punk, the king of crunk. And before you ever try that on your own, remember

that particular phrase only works when Lil Jon says it. Baywatch star Pamela Anderson, for example

reportedly knew the prank was happening the entire time. In her unaired Punk'd episode

she was led to believe that an adult movie was being filmed in her garden

However, Anderson claimed she knew it was a prank the entire time. And some stars were so unpunkable that Kuchar wouldn't even attempt fooling them

For example, Kuchar took a pass on punking notorious master prankster George Clooney

after Brad Pitt warned him against it. Well, we can't argue with the logic of doing whatever Brad Pitt tells you

It's a shame we were robbed of the chance to see George Clooney turn the tables on the early aughts' most famous goofball

Though it finished its original run in 2007, the producers of Punk'd knew there would always be a market for celebrity prank shows

In March 2012, Punk'd returned to MTV. Only this time, original host Ashton Kutcher was replaced by

a series of guest hosts, including Justin Bieber, Bam Margera, Tyler the Creator, and Miley Cyrus

among several others. Following that revival, a tenth season, with new hosts King Bach and

DeStorm Power was produced for BET in 2015, featuring celebrity targets like Michael B

Jordan, Rosario Dawson, and Zendaya. And in 2020, an 11th season aired on the short-lived

Queeby streaming service, hosted by Chance the Rapper, and featuring pranks on Meg V

Stallion, Addison Rae, and Lil Nas X. It's hard to say if we've really seen the last of Punk'd

but we can hope. But if you happen to be a celebrity, it might be a good idea to keep

an eye out for hidden cameras. You know, more than usual