TRIGGER WARNING: Mentions of sexual assault and grooming.
being an ‘impractical jokers’ fan
If you read the article that I wrote about a year ago, then you’ll know that I became a fan of the Impractical Jokers TV show sometime last year, and since then, I have seen them live twice. For those unfamiliar with the show, for a little over a decade it has followed four best friends since high school (Joe Gatto, Sal Vulcano, Brian “Q” Quinn, and James “Murr” Murray) setting up hidden cameras and, as the intro to the show states, competing to embarrass each other. Since I started watching the show, it has become a refuge for me, allowing me to have a good laugh during the times I need it the most. I was watching it as recently as a couple of weeks ago when I fell ill with a stomach bug, and it helped me ignore the pain that I was in for just a little while. For the past year, the show has held a special place in my heart. It brought me and my roommate closer together and it was one of the first things I bonded with my boyfriend over just before we started dating. I had nothing but positive associations with Impractical Jokers, and I didn’t see that being interrupted anytime soon.
the allegations
On Friday, March 21, 2025, a girl on TikTok by the username of joozyb made a video accusing Joe Gatto of inviting her into his hotel room while he was on tour and sexually assaulting her while she was drunk. She goes on to show screenshots of various text messages, which include him flirting with her (she was 19, and he was in his mid-40s and married at the time), her telling him that she was drunk that night, and him inviting her over.
Since this video came out, there have been multiple other women who have come out accusing him of being flirtatious and creepy towards them in Instagram DMs, as well as a former employee who worked on Impractical Jokers who accused him of inappropriate behavior and sexual harassment. Not only has Joe released a statement in response to the allegations saying “I have used poor judgment and as a result have violated the trust of the people I love most,” he has cancelled the rest of his “Let’s Get Into It” stand up tour and checked himself into an inpatient facility. Most people, like myself, wrongly assumed that this would be the end of it and that Joe Gatto was just a bad apple in the Impractical Jokers orchard.
Not too long after, two individuals came out anonymously and accused a 2nd joker, James Murray, of inappropriate behavior and messages, notably occurring when the first accuser was 16 and Murr was in his mid-30s. In looking at the screenshots of the messages sent between these women and both Joe and Murr, it has become very clear that there has been a pattern of inappropriate behavior for a very long time, and we still don’t know whether or not Sal or Q had any involvement or knowledge of the behavior. Of course, everything that has been said is alleged since it has not been taken to court at this point in time.
my thoughts
I think it’s safe to say that I am deeply saddened, but I’m also not that surprised by all of the information that has come out. It’s practically common knowledge at this point that we have no idea who celebrities are behind closed doors, and to say that we think we know who they are is foolish, to say the least. I did acknowledge that I really had no idea who these guys were, but what they put out there on television seemed so authentic and refreshing. The way all four of them got along and vibed with each other really gave the impression that they were just best friends having fun and that fame hadn’t really changed them, and I still agree with that sentiment to a certain extent.
Of course, we still don’t know the extent to which Sal and Q were involved, or if they even were involved at all, and I’m still really hoping that they weren’t. I still want to believe that they didn’t know anything about Joe and Murr’s behavior prior to the alleged victims speaking out. This is because of my hope that what was once my favorite show won’t become any more tainted for me than it already has. I feel like I’m hanging onto the last half of the jokers that I have left so that it won’t completely weigh on my conscience that the guys I watched and made me happy are actually bad people. I understood very well that I would likely never know what they were really like, but watching them felt like a breath of fresh air because none of it felt disingenuous. Now, I still have a hard time really figuring out what to do moving forward.
Many people I see in online forums seem to have clear-cut answers as to how they’re going to move on. Some say they’re going to stop watching the show entirely because they can’t look at it the same way anymore, and they don’t want to support those types of people. Others say they’re trying to separate the art from the artist and continue to watch the show since it continues to make them happy and provides some nostalgia for them. As for me, I don’t know what I’m going to do, and if you’re a fellow fan like myself, it’s okay if you don’t either. I especially have no idea since it feels like purgatory waiting to see if any new allegations come out, making this situation worse than it is right now. What I hope can happen is that I can still enjoy the show for what it is and acknowledge that it’s okay to like the personas the guys put out there, but not who they may be in real life. But, of course, only time will tell.