Gimp Fight make a pilot for Comedy Central

Comedy Central is poised to take hidden camera show Impractical Jokers from the BBC – with Late Night Gimp Fight as the stars.

The broadcaster is to pilot its own version of the show, in which the comics challenge each other to carry out strange pranks in public via a secret earpiece.

Lee Griffiths, Matt Ralph, Paul Biggin and David Moon will all star in the test episodes. They comprise four-fifths of Gimp Fight. The fifth member not taking part is Richard Campbell, who is also a professional lawyer and who has previously taken a sabbatical from the group.

Impractical Jokers originally started in the States in 2011, with New York sketch troupe The Tenderloins, and the imported version is currently Comedy Central UK’s top-rated show.

It was then remade for BBC Three with stand-ups Roisin Conaty, Marek Larwood, Joel Dommett and Paul McCaffrey, running for two series in 2012 and early 2014.

A press release announcing the new pilot makes no mention of the BBC Three version, but heralds the show as ‘part of Comedy Central UK’s remit to commission more original content’.

Channel executive Lourdes Diaz said: ‘Impractical Jokers taps into the mischievous child inside many of us and we hope this new UK pilot brings our audience as many laugh-out-loud moments as developing the pilot brought us. We’re very pleased to be in production on the new UK pilot for this hugely popular and very funny show.’

The show – like the BBC Three version – will be made by independent production house Yalli.

Robert Gray, from the indie, added: ‘We are thrilled to be making Impractical Jokers UK with Comedy Central UK. Lee, Matt, David and Paul have known each other for 12 years. During all this time they have performed award winning comedy on stage, as well as constantly pranking each other off it – something which makes them the perfect choice for Impractical Jokers UK.’

The pilot of Impractical Jokers is being produced by Gray, George Sawyer, Gina Lyons and Fraser McKinlay and is written by the producers and the Gimps.

Published: 6 Jan 2015