...after online pilot

BBC Three has commissioned the hidden camera prank show Impractical Jokers following its launch as an online pilot.

The show was one of seven trial episodes released on the internet this week as part of the Find Your Funny strand.

Now a source close to the show has confirmed that a full series is going ahead,  with shooting taking place in London this weekend, then at the Edinburgh Fringe in August

Stand-ups Roisin Conaty, Marek Larwood, Joel Dommett and Paul McCaffrey, who are all performing at the festival, will compete to embarrass each other in a series of awkward scenarios, feeding each other humiliating instructions by earpiece, with the loser ‘punished in the most mortifying challenge ever’.

The pilot also included Carl Donnelly, Nathan Caton, Eric Lampaert and Paul Sweeney – although they are not believed to be taking part in the full series.

Impractical Jokers is the first of the BBC Threeweb pilots to transfer to television. Based on the US series of the same name – which stars New York sketch troupe The Tenderloins – it will be directed by Trigger Happy TV and Balls of Steel’s Paul Young.

Filming begins tomorrow in London and will continue for ten days over the Fringe. The comics are unaware of each prank’s details until they receive their instructions via microphone.

Jokes in the two-part pilot episode included asking inappropriate market research questions and performing over-intimate massages in a shopping centre. As the losers, Larwood and Lampaert faced their forfeit in a crowded restaurant.

Watch the pilots here.

Published: 6 Jul 2012