Who doesn’t love those six happy, friendly, good looking people who make our day? Who doesn’t love that familiar theme song and the dance around the fountain?Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler and Ross are great friends and make us wish they were our friends. The plot revolves around these six singles in their 20s. They make mistakes, have relationships, play pranks and hang out together. Most of the time, they can be seen either at the coffee house, Central Perk, or at Monica’s house. Monica’s cooking jobs, Joey’s failing acting career and Ross’s love of palaeontology leaves us in splits. But, Ross and Rachel’s dramatic relationship is definitely one of the main storylines and one that we love.

This show’s first episode aired on  September 22, 1994 and after this, the show reached new heights. Through the course of this phenomenal sitcom, Charlie Sheen, Robin Williams and Brad Pitt are just some of the famous guest stars on “F.R.I.E.N.D.S”. The finale aired on May 6, 2004 and in the U.S., 52.5 million viewers watched it, making it the most watched entertainment telecast since the “Seinfeld” finale in 1998. 

“F.R.I.E.N.D.S” has become one of the most popular TV shows and definitely will continue to be. The show was produced by Bright/ Kauffman/ Crane productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. I salute Jennifer Aniston(Rachel), Courtney Cox Arquette(Monica), Lisa Kudrow(Phoebe), Matt LeBlanc(Joey), Matthew Perry(Chandler) and David Schwimmer(Ross), the main cast and funnily, great friends.

 

Impractical Jokers is a reality hidden camera television show shot in New York City and New Jersey. The first episode appeared on TV on December 15 2011. It follows four lifelong friends, namely:

Joseph Gatto (Joe), Brian Quinn (Q), James Murray (Murr) and Salvatore Vulcano (Sal).

Joe is the oldest of them and my favorite joker. Q is an unruly chap with a ridiculous hairstyle. Murr is an overconfident scrawny guy. Sal is comparatively well mannered and is obsessed with cleanliness.

 

In the show, the guys challenge and embarrass each other with omnifarious dares in various public places. It is different from other comedy shows as here; the jokers do not know the details of the challenge/dare till the last minute. Before every dare, they introduce the place they are in and what the challenge is. The opening dialogues before each episode are (season 3 onwards):

Sal- Prepare for something amazing!

Q- Hey mustache, what’s up?

Murr- I want my mommy!

Sal- I will NEVER forgive you!

Joe- Larry!

 

For every completed challenge they get a thumbs up and a thumbs down for every failed one. At the end of the episode, the joker with the most thumbs down loses and has to take a punishment, which is decided by the rest of the jokers.

 

They play games such as asking for signatures, acting as workers in different restaurants and playing around with bullhorns. The punishments range from picking up poop to singing funny songs, explaining power point presentations to giving speeches and stealing to wearing embarrassing dresses.

 

The stats for the thumbs up, thumbs down and punishments for the jokers are:

 

Jokers	Punishments	Thumbs up	Thumbs down
Joe	23	90	160
Murr	30	112	143
Q	23	90	161
Sal	32	105	151

 

The jokers got the top prize in NBC’s ‘Its Your Show’ sketch comedy contest. This show has also been received well by most critics.

 

I personally really enjoy watching the show. It is highly entertaining and is undoubtedly one of the wackiest and funniest T.V shows that have existed to this day. On the contrary, my mother doesn’t really approve of the show and although she finds it mildly amusing, she thinks it is ‘yucky’. My father pretends he doesn’t like it but he does enjoy it although he finds some challenges embarrassing.

 

Source(for stats and dates only):

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impractical_Jokers