25 Best Impractical Jokers Episodes Ranked

For the last decade, "Impractical Jokers" has delighted audiences with its willingness to go to great lengths to make us laugh. The gist of the show is this: four guys — comedians James "Murr" Murray, Brian "Q" Quinn, Sal Vulcano, and, formerly, Joe Gatto, who left midway through Season 9 — compete in a series of contests amidst real people in the hopes of cracking each other up and winning enough to keep from enduring a painful/embarrassing/awkward punishment at show's end. Said contests typically involve saying or doing stupid things to and around unsuspecting participants while hidden cameras capture the action. "Jokers" may opt-out of a situation they're not comfortable with but absolutely must fulfill the punishment given to them, per the show's rules. Think "Jackass," only more family-friendly (the editors beep out a majority of the swearing) and less painful.

Created in 2011, "Impractical Jokers" has continually found new ways to shock and surprise us over the years, which is why we decided to rank the best 25 episodes (the numbers of which have been taken from HBO Max). The order has been determined using Episode Ninja, which, per its website, uses "thousands of audience votes to determine ranking." So, if you want to skip right to the good stuff, we've got you covered. Each of the following episodes features at least one classic moment from the series that truly makes it stand out from the others. Because, let's be honest, there really aren't any bad episodes of "Impractical Jokers," just those that tickle the funny bone a little harder than others. Let's get to it!

"Browbeaten" is chock full of hearty laughs. The first involves Murr trying to convince strangers to give him cash donations for a silly cause. There's a fun exchange between him and a police officer revolving around the donations, to which the kindly woman hands over some of her hard-earned money. Guilt stricken, Murr hands the cash back, unwittingly forfeiting his earnings to that point.

Murr then engages with a group of kids to whom he asks, "Are you all over 18?" The bizarre question catches the attention of the loitering cop, causing Murr to panic and blow the show's cover, resulting in an automatic loss. As a result, Murr must shave off his eyebrows and take a new driver's license photo to capture the moment. He takes the punishment as well as one would expect: "I look like Lex Luthor," he screams. "Well, not yet," Joe proclaims as the barber then proceeds to shave off whatever hair Murr has left on his head.

The "Impractical Jokers" episode "Out of Left Field" promises homeruns with its title, and the guys knock it out of the park in the very first challenge, which isn't even related to baseball. "Laugh Man Standing" features the guys sitting in a waiting room trying not to laugh as they attempt to crack each other up. Joe goes on the offensive with a pair of plastic vampire teeth, and Sal is toast within seconds. He has the giggles even before Q starts having a conversation about his upcoming nuptials. The real showdown occurs between the last two men standing — or, technically, sitting — in the waiting room: Q and Murr.

Murr's ridiculous fake eyebrow gag doesn't even provoke a smirk from Q. It looks like Murr has nowhere to go from there, and it will simply be a stare-down rather than a laugh-off. That's when Murr FaceTimes filmmaker David Zucker on his iPad. Murr confesses to the "Airplane" director that he's unable to get Q to laugh. "That's because you're not funny," Zucker responds, which finally gets Q to crack up. Joe ends up being the episode's biggest loser, though, and he is punished by having to pose as a producer and do 100 impromptu push-ups during the taping of a MLB Network show, interrupting Mark DeRosa and Carlos Peña in the process.

"Sound EffeXXX" has the jokers running their mouths — and Sal wishing he could run for the hills. The "You Don't Want That Challenge" features a twist on the guys' usual grocery store hijinks. Instead of having to physically steal food from shoppers' carts, the guys are tasked with talking shoppers out of buying what they already have in their carts. Each joker is given a wild reason and a crazy justification for their behavior, which leads to some hilarious explanations.

Q, for example, warns a woman against buying cans of soup because they might attract cats. "You open that in the house?" Q gestures to the can in the woman's hand, and continues: "You won't be able to sleep at night." Amazingly, the woman puts the soup can back. Later, the often-punished Sal takes his latest punishment: He has to sit in a busy coffee shop while the rest of the guys play extremely adult sound clips through his laptop at full volume.

One of the funniest Joe moments of the entire series takes place in the episode "Everything's Just Rosie," in which the man with no fear works an Italian accent to besiege a surprised (and very amused) family with heaps of mashed potatoes. His goal? To dish out more scoops than his fellow Jokers. Sal manages to deliver five before the guests realize he doesn't work at the restaurant, and Murr's plans for a sneak attack fail miserably. Q, clearly misunderstanding the rules of the game, dumps his entire potato bowl onto a customer's plate.

This leaves Joe needing six scoops to win — and the man delivers 30! Even better, the guests involved in the gag practically fall out of their chairs with laughter. Making the episode even more memorable, the group forces Q, the day's loser, to deliver a science lecture to a group of strangers. The bit eventually leads to a "cloning machine" where special guest star Rosie O'Donnell — Q's doppelgänger, per the group — steps out to the surprise of everyone in attendance, especially Q.

Some Season 1 episodes of "Impractical Jokers" are almost impossible to find these days — and such is the case with "What'd I Eat." While this episode is stuffed with many bizarre challenges and moments that are otherwise lost to time, the most important thing you need to know about it is that the guys go to Ikea and "work" in the bedding department. If the thought of the guys telling each other to do bed comedy bits in public puts a chill in your blood and/or a tickle in your funny bone, don't worry — you're not alone.

Boundaries that would not be crossed on TV today are pushed hard during the Ikea challenge (which is titled "We Don't Give a Sheet"), but there's some good, clean fun to be had as well: There's an amazing, department-wide pillow fight orchestrated by Joe. The grainy episode is worth seeking out for this low-resolution, high-charm moment alone. Some people get into the Friday night pillow fight action, including a pigtailed child who scores a direct hit on Joe.

"Cruisin' for a Bruisin'" is a rare gem in that it's an episode shot somewhere other than New York or New Jersey. That's because, As the title hints at, it's a cruise episode, and means an entire ship full of innocent people who are trapped on the high seas with the jokers. The episode starts on a surprisingly low-key note given the circumstances. The guys lightly menace folks trying to enjoy the sun by attempting to rip their shorts (Joe), get a nickname (Sal), and crawl under a deck chair while someone is lounging in it (Murr.) The whole first half of the episode is almost adorably high-school in its prank purity.

However, things get choppy when the punishments get doled out. Joe and Murr earn special, separate punishments. Murr takes on the role of the ship's Master of Ceremonies and gives a speech — in full costume, mind you — that will keep you cringing until the credits are rolling. Meanwhile, Joe's punishment is to crash a diving contest with nonstop belly flops. He has to carry on slamming against the water until the others tell him he's done. Even though this is painful to watch, it's still less traumatizing than Murr's terrible speech.

Sometimes, "Impractical Jokers" triggers fears you didn't even know you had, like turning around and finding a random balloon attached to you. While there's been wilder challenges, the "Fly Me to Balloon" game from the episode "Sorry for Your Loss" is probably still haunting viewers, especially those who are familiar with Stephen King's "It." In the episode, the guys must follow unsuspecting customers around a grocery store and clip balloons to said customers. You would think that most people would notice a grown man attaching a balloon to them, but the guys are surprisingly successful with their task. Things get a lot more hectic from there.

In "Face the Music," the guys have to do embarrassing tasks while "working" at a music store. If they refuse, they lose. No one refuses, not even Murr when the guys tell him to show off a harmonica to an interested student by putting the entire instrument in his mouth. Sal gets stuck with a tailor-made terrible punishment at the end of the episode: He must run the "No-Apology Gauntlet," which Joe knows will be hell for Sal as he constantly apologizes in real life. Against the odds, Sal successfully refuses to apologize for stepping on someone's foot, woofing at a baby, and even sneezing on someone.

Throughout "Impractical Jokers," it's amazing just how willing most of the unsuspecting participants are to engage in the gang's silly activities. In "Dark Side of the Moon," the gang splits into two teams and they pretend to work as grocery store stockers. They must get a customer to relay a message to their cohort, and if the customer refuses, they lose. Somehow, Sal and Murr manage to converse via a very patient woman who travels back and forth dozens of times to the astonishment of everyone involved. She gets a free cake for her efforts, but her willingness to play along makes her one of the more memorable contributors to the series.

Murr comes up short in the episode and endures what, in all likelihood, will go down as one of the most memorable punishments ever conceived on the series — a prostate exam. Of course, it's a very public exam, so the fact that there's no harm in getting checked out by a professional is overshadowed by the fact that lots of people can see it happening. Just when he thinks it's over, another doctor shows up to give a second opinion, meaning a second exam.

The Season 2 episode "The Alliance" is tough to find online nowadays, and it was no doubt tough for the guys to get through, given the challenges. The opening one, entitled "Keep it Together," involves the old rogue PowerPoint setup. They pair off into two teams and the goal is not to laugh at the other team's focus group presentation, which is about online safety. In the second challenge, "Joker vs. Joker," the guys venture into the park and tell people which celebrities they resemble via bizarre hints from the other jokers.

The episode's big set piece is a punishment that calls to mind the Sherlock and Moriarty showdown at Reichenbach Falls. Here, the showdown is about Q, and it takes place at the top of "Q Falls," a very real, freezing cold waterfall that punishment losers need to jump into if they don't know enough about Q. As you would expect, Q loves having his own personal Splash Mountain. While Sal has a strong start, he ends up going over the edge, but only after Murr takes the first plunge.

Sal is perhaps the ultimate loser on "Impractical Jokers" — which is a great thing for the viewers. Unlike the others, Sal appears to feel shame and he blushes a lot when embarrassed. These qualities combine to make him awful at executing some pranks but the most entertaining joker to watch. This is especially true in "Drawing a Blank," when Sal has to pretend to be an ace reporter and ask questions penned by the other jokers. He manages to ask a very embarrassing question of a college student — but when her mom approaches, Sal quits his promising career in reporting.

Later, when Sal serves his punishment for the episode, he pretends to be an author at his first book event. He doesn't know his book title until he reveals a poster for the book, and discovers that he's written a memoir about living with chronic flatulence. Sal is surprised, but gamely opens "his" book, clearly ready to read some prompted material... Only, the entire book is blank. Sal's panic is apparent. The guys crack up, but Sal settles himself and makes up a sob story about his flatulence surgery, something he calls a "flatulectomy." Sal might be a habitual loser, but he has a place in the hearts of "Impractical Jokers" fans as a result.

When it comes to committing to the bit, Sal might just edge it as the best, especially considering how much he dreads the instructions the other guys give him. Sal kicks off the episode "Blind Justice" by losing the "Rope-A-Dopes" challenge. In the episode, the guys are made to do and say ridiculous things while teaching an unsuspecting student how to box. Sal's student is subjected to the Electric Slide and what Murr calls Sal's "gelatinous moves." You can't help but admire Sal's prizefighter-like commitment to being the stupidest boxing teacher he can be.

Sal is also the subject of the punishment at the end of the episode: He must pretend to be a hardened convict and use his story to scare a bunch of teenagers away from a life of crime. The catch? Sal has to wear blackout glasses so he can't see who he's really yelling at — a group of senior citizens, who can't stop laughing at him. The icing on the cake is that he has to carry on with his pep talk after removing the glasses and seeing that his audience is elderly. Their reaction to Sal's Jaden Smith leg tattoo alone is worth watching this episode for.

If you can't handle cringe comedy, you should avoid the "Impractical Jokers" episode "Parks and Wreck." Sal talks to kids at a pool about what happens when adults fall in love as part of the "Pool Sharks" challenge, and things get a lot wackier from there. Sal takes his public speaking skills to a much older demographic in the episode's punishment. His task? To present a project to a neighborhood planning committee. A real one. The catch? Sal doesn't know what he's proposing until he clicks through the presentation slideshow live.

At first, Sal's proposal seems like a good enough idea: He wants to have a public playground geared toward seniors built. Sal's delivery would make Leslie Knope from "Parks and Recreation" (which the episode's name is a clear nod to) beam with civic pride, but only until Sal pitches a complaining booth and a wheelchair-friendly trampoline terrace. Of course, the majority of those in attendance are older people, which just makes these ridiculous and offensive ideas all the more cringe-worthy.

Season 6's "Rubbed the Wrong Way" will always be remembered as that "Impractical Jokers" episode where Murr has hair. Lots of it. So much, in fact, that Sal can hardly keep a straight face looking at Murr's not-usually-there-mane before they engage in the challenge"Over the Shoulder," which is the highlight of this episode. It's a simple premise: One joker must steal stuff from an unsuspecting grocery shopper's cart then throw it over their shoulder to another joker, who must catch the items without getting caught or dropping them.

While Sal gets taken down by a rogue bunch of bananas, Murr does manage to bank a squash off a freezer case so Sal can catch it. But the squash toss isn't even the most amazing feat of this episode. That distinction belongs to the shoppers who continue to browse, unfazed, as the jokers wreak havoc on the same grocery store they've been terrorizing since Season 1. Nobody loses this challenge, which means that Joe (who failed the first challenge, which involved texting total strangers) takes on the punishment: He has to play a floating genie in a play while the others control his harness.

With a title like "Panty Raid," it's no surprise that this episode is deeply cringe. The punishment involves having to go into a laundromat and put a stranger's underwear on your face for 10 seconds. Believe it or not, this isn't even the most cringe-worthy moment. Perhaps the most sublimely silly challenge in "Impractical Jokers" history takes place in this Season 1 midpoint episode, and it involves awkward dojo dad energy.

The guys team up and go head-to-head to "teach" a self-defense class. Of course, they're getting fed scenarios to play and lines to drop from their opposing joker teams via earpiece. Their total commitment to playing ridiculous martial arts instructors make it a rip-roaring, snort-inducing delight. Joe really leans into the role, coming up with a persona that would be at home in a Ben Stiller movie. At one stage, Joe locks Murr in a hold and triumphantly shouts "Seatbelt, locked!" The crowd reactions to the defense lessons are absolutely priceless.

Considered by many to be the greatest episode of "Impractical Jokers," "The Permanent Punishment" delivers 20 solid minutes of pure comedy gold and ends on one of the most bizarre bits of TV you're likely to ever see. To start, the jokers set up shop as "security guards" at a convenience store. The bit takes a turn when Murr engages with a quick-witted (though good-natured) man who hits him with a plethora of insults — "Get off of me, you freak!" — that leads to the jokers retaliating by instructing Murr to say, "I figured out what smells. It's your p***y!"

Murr blurts out the word without thinking and immediately recoils. "It just came out," he screams, leaving Joe, Q, and Sal in stitches. The next bit has the awesome foursome pinning balloons on unsuspecting grocery shoppers just like they did in the previous season with surprisingly hilarious results. Whoever attaches the most balloons without the customer's knowledge wins, leading to a contest that's more intense than it has any right to be. Finally, Joe emerges as the episode's lone winner and punishes his three cohorts with random tattoos (which they can't see until they're finished). Q ends up with a cat and the words "38, Lives Alone, Has 3 Cats," Murr gets a skydiving ferret, and Sal gets a portrait of Jaden Smith.

"The Blunder Years" earns its place on this list thanks to a final act that sees poor Murr engaging in a one-on-one with his childhood crush, Danica McKellar (who played Winnie Cooper on the popular TV show "The Wonder Years") while wearing nothing but a thong. How did we get here? Well, after striking out in the first two challenges, Murr is tricked into thinking he's performing at an amateur bodybuilding contest, which he seems surprisingly game for. The boys dress him in a red, white, and blue speedo, lather him up real good, and even take the time to walk him past other contestants.

Except, when he walks through the stage door, he's greeted with Danica sitting alone in a chair awaiting an interview. Obviously, the actor is in on the joke, but that doesn't make the moment any less awkward. At one point, Murr is instructed to show off his muscles, and he reluctantly obliges while Danica watches in disgust. Once the sketch is over, the actor lets out a laugh as poor Murr quietly slinks away.

It's fairly clear from the start of the Season 4 episode "Bathroom Break" that Sal will be its biggest loser. He refuses to be vulgar during the first challenge, which is commendable, but always likely to come back and haunt him. As a result, he has to endure a disgusting time in the Bathroom of Horrors. But we'll leave talk of the bowlful of opaque slime he finds in there aside — really, it should be seen to be believed — and zero in on the middle challenge of the episode: "Off the Hook."

This challenge might be the most visually pleasing in "Impractical Jokers" history, and what makes this episode truly memorable. The guys head to a fancy mall to go fishing for shopping bags. Working in teams, one joker has to distract a shopper so they put their bags down, then the other one can hook the bags from the balcony above. The go-to strategy for the joker doing the talking is asking the mark to take a photo of them, which then gives the fisher time to scoop their purchases up.

Is anywhere safe when "Impractical Jokers" is in the process of filming a season? The episode "Theater del Absurdo" is proof that just about any place of business within the same tri-state area as the show is fair game — especially if located in a shopping mall. In this Season 1 classic, restaurants and eateries are the jokers' stomping ground. Things kick off with the jokers "working" at a donut shop. Their goal is to sell donuts to get money for their charity — which, of course, the other guys have invented.

Possibly the best fake charity of the bunch has a name that can't be mentioned here, but it prompts Joe to say "It's kinda like Hands Across America, but they're holding something else." While Joe doesn't have a ton of luck, Murr is able to get at least a quarter for a fake charity called "Fake Charity." The guys also attempt to steal as much food as possible off of diners' plates at a busy Staten Island Chinese restaurant. Viewers might recognize the restaurant from the bloodbath that befalls it in "What We Do in the Shadows" (and thus be reminded of Sal Vulcano's amazing cameo on that show).

Some of the best "Impractical Jokers" episodes knit together several threads into a trauma-comedy tapestry. Among these episodes is "The Needy and the Greedy." It begins with a challenge called "Ghost Writers," which features the guys taking focus group notes on laptops. Everyone in the focus group can see what the guys are typing, which gets increasingly more wild and off-topic with each passing moment. At one point, Joe — not knowing how he'll be able to really "get" his particular group — types that he has low blood sugar then smashes a series of random keys before finally "passing out" on his keyboard.

The episode ends with a particularly harsh punishment for Q, who has to play a guy that can't stop sampling the food bank food he's supposed to be packing up for donation. This was likely a tricky punishment to pull off — the guys calling Q's shots know they have to make him come across as a real jerk who the other volunteers can unite against, not just someone in desperate need of food. The guys accomplish this by instructing Q to open many products and eat just a little bit from each, which understandably begins to annoy his fellow volunteers. The highlight is when planted producer Cole Weber shouts at Q, "Is this your second cooked ham can?" It's a question that both men can't stifle their smiles over.

Some prank shows are downright painful to watch. In the "Impractical Jokers" episode "The Shame of Water," there are cringeworthy crack-ups across the board, whether it's the guys reading their fake teen daughters' diaries to strangers or Sal getting soaked in the final punishment. Sal must work as a server at a busy Times Square eatery, which in itself would be punishment enough for someone inexperienced in restaurant work. What makes it that much harder for Sal is that he has to serve water from trays while wearing alcohol impairment goggles.

The warped plastic goggles completely throw off Sal's sense of depth perception, so he can't help but drench the customers with his clumsy water service. This is hilarious (if somewhat anxiety-inducing) to watch, but then the guys up the ante. The goggles come off and Sal is spun around multiple times, like it's a game of pin the tail on the donkey. Hopelessly dizzy, he flings trays of food and water everywhere and even crash-lands himself when he hits a wall (and then the floor) while trying to deliver some appetizers. The customer reactions really are priceless in this episode.

"Sweat the Small Things" leans hard on the lewdness, with hilarious results. After an opening bit in which Sal sabotages a painting class with poorly conceived ninja drawings and bizarre flirtations with the female artists in attendance, we jump to a restaurant where the jokers crank up the obnoxious levels to 10. Joe speaks to a man in "baby talk," which is as funny as it sounds; Q somehow gets a man to rub his thigh; Murr puts a stranger's sock in his mouth; and Sal tries (and fails) to kiss one of the customers on the hand in princely fashion.

Still, the best gag of the episode sees Sal in front of a group of people delivering a lecture on stress management — ironic, given his propensity for extreme levels of anxiety. Much to his horror, a pre-recorded video features Q, Joe, and Murr engaging in, ah, crude behavior in and around Sal's home. Naturally, Joe takes it all to the extreme by rolling around naked on Sal's couch. The three jokers cap off their antics with a hilarious public display that draws the gaze of neighbors and prompts Sal to contemplate moving.

It's not every episode of "Impractical Jokers" that the guys face consequences for their prank actions, but "Who Arted?" provides a nice little dose of the real world clapping back. The guys pretend to work in a shoe store and are prompted to be the worst employees ever. Sal is told to be inappropriate, and halfway tries it. But when he's prompted to swear at a customer, he refuses — and loses. It's always great to see the little angel on Sal's shoulder keep him on the straight and narrow, even if it means he loses most of the time.

Unlike Sal, when Murr is prompted to start slinging F-bombs while trying to sell an older woman shoes, she slings them right back. It's a memorable moment for both Murr and the viewers, and it's just one of many laugh-out-loud parts of this classic Season 1 episode. For example, Murr gets his revenge when it's his turn at the mic — he makes Joe smell customers' feet and even caress his own face with some new shoes.

Sometimes, the best pranks are the simple ones. The opening challenge of the "Impractical Jokers" episode "Down in the Dump" is an utter delight: The guys must put as many pencils as possible on a stranger, without said stranger noticing. It's not a wild challenge, but it's the best part of the episode, a forerunner to the balloon-clipping challenge in "Sorry for Your Loss." It's even set in a grocery store. The episode's moment of true sublime comedy comes when Sal's mark — a young girl chatting with her mom as they grocery shop — gets in on the joke.

Sal successfully stashes some pencils in the girl's hood. Her mom notices them, but she just thinks her kid is being a kid. But when Sal drops his second batch and the girl reaches back for them, the two lock eyes — and become co-conspirators. Sal gets away with placing 10 pencils on his mark — and his mark gets to take home 10 pencils that "mysteriously" appeared. It's rare that an episode of "Impractical Jokers" is so adorable, but this moment provides a really cute crack-up.

The first season of "Impractical Jokers" is considerably more out of control than later seasons, and "Pick a Loser" is a perfect example of just how wild the guys — and prank shows in general — could be back then. In this episode, the jokers try to get strangers to kiss them, steal and eat food out of strangers' shopping carts, and take over a stranger's conversation for at least 30 seconds. There is a fine line between pranking someone and just being a menace, and in this episode, that line is drawn in stolen grapes.

Of course, the guys are running this horror show out of the most cursed grocery store in the New York area, and many faces from people who clearly refused to sign a release form are blurred out. Later in the episode, the guys ask for directions — and kisses — in a city park, with mixed results. This episode is a time capsule that shows just how in-your-face "reality" TV was in the early 2000s. Q faces the punishment, which involves him having to pick his nose and eat what he finds up there while on the jumbotron at a baseball game.

In "Impractical Jokers," the titular pranksters often seek out their marks, but in "Out of TP," the guys lure poor, unsuspecting people into their wicked web and trap them there using the promise of free handwriting analysis. Each joker takes a turn providing absolutely terrible handwriting analysis to a "customer" while being prompted by the team off camera. Hilariously, while these guys have no problem stealing food from shopping carts, telling people what their unique handwriting really means about them clearly strikes a nerve with every joker. It's also a great look at how each joker handles pressure, all encapsulated in one episode.

Joe is practically sweating bullets when he is prompted to say awful things to a woman by Q, and he ends up losing (his punishment involves him having to act like he's run out of toilet paper in a restaurant bathroom). Murr looks initially very nervous when he's encouraged to ask a man to gently slap him in the face. Sal ties himself in visible knots when a sweet young man wonders why he would need to write "I am going to an interview, wish me diarrhea." Q, for his part, seems just fine with petting a customer's arm as he looks, dead-eyed, into the middle distance. Malls definitely bring out the weirdest parts of the jokers.

To create this list, we consulted Episode Ninja, which uses "thousands of audience votes to determine ranking," according to its website. All of the episodes on this list have at least a hundred votes, which we used as a cut-off point for inclusion. The highest-scoring episode is in first place, with the second highest-scoring episode directly behind that, and so on.