Are The Pranks On The Eric Andre Show Real?

There have only been 40 episodes of his infamous "talk show" over the course of eight years, but there's little question that Eric Andre has made the most of every single second of his gonzo Adult Swim series. Unfortunately, for the celebrity guests who appear on The Eric Andre Show, or anyone who might casually bump into the funnyman during his "on-the-street" segments, that usually means taking a sledgehammer to the thin line between good fun and extremely bad taste — not to mention his own desk and often everything else on the show's set.

Simply put, to watch an episode of The Eric Andre Show is to watch a relentless (possibly sociopathic) prankster who's made it his job to literally and figuratively play with fire in the celebrity realm. If you've never seen an episode of The Eric Andre Show, it's essentially a low-budget talk show spoof that finds real celebrities (with occasional look-a-likes) turning up to promote this project or that, only to find themselves exposed to all manner of torturous tricks and beyond-gross gags. 

As you might've guessed from that setup, The Eric Andre Show's "hard to watch but impossible to look away" quotient is higher than pretty much any series in the history of television. So vile and shocking are some of Andre's acts and interviews on the show that many viewers simply cannot believe that the pranks are actually real. Of course, if you're paying attention to the visceral reactions of The Eric Andre Show's guests, there's little doubt at least some of the series' traumatizing acts are as authentic as can be.

Andre was asked in a recent interview with Esquire about whether or not the pranks on The Eric Andre Show were actually real. The man behind the madness confirmed as much, stating emphatically, "It's all really real."   

We're as disturbed by that fact as anyone because, well, Eric Andre and his co-host Hannibal Buress really do pull some crazy stunts on The Eric Andre Show. Andre continues to claim, however, that there's actually a method to the pranking insanity, and that method is that he and his cohorts are categorically not allowed to fake anything.

"There's an ethos to it. You don't want to start faking it ever, not a single reaction is faked," he explained. "My show is all real. You never, never fake reactions. You can tell when the reactions are fake. You can just smell it. The audience smells it. And then that ruins your reputation."

Eric Andre's quest for prank purity has, of course, earned him the ire of some guests who could not have been less in on the joke. Andre's now-infamous interview with Lauren Conrad had the fashionista's press team threatening to black ball the comedian in Hollywood, and Flavor Flav didn't have any kind words for Andre after his own appearance on the show. 

As wild as the interviews are on The Eric Andre Show, the bar is clearly raised when he leaves the studio. Per Andre himself, he's actually been threatened, arrested, and badly injured for the sake of the show's "on the street" scenes.

"I had to go to the hospital. I put my hand through a window in Season Four and had to get stitches. I got arrested twice. You can count on one hand the people that are willing to do this. High stakes pranks where violence is involved and getting arrested as a probable outcome."

With a fresh season of The Eric Andre Show hitting Adult Swim in 2020, the mad prankster of extended cable will surely be pushing boundaries further than ever. Frankly, we cannot wait to watch the madness unfold — even if we're watching through our fingers.