What Was The Impractical Jokers Imagine Dragons Opening Act Concert Really Like
"Impractical Jokers" has been going strong on truTV for well over 10 years at this point. The basic premise of the show is simple: a group of friends tries to humiliate one another in public by pranking unsuspecting victims, but the brunt of each humiliation is always on the jokers themselves. After a few basic challenges, one or two members are branded as "losers," and they must indulge in one final act of indignity for the others' amusement.
Suffice it to say, the show has needed to consistently one-up itself over the years. After all, they don't want to give audiences the same thing over and over again, and they have to up the ante to embarrass each other. That was the case with one particular final challenge that saw the losers of that episode – Sal Vulcano and Joe Gatto — forced to play as the opening act for Imagine Dragons at a real-life concert in front of 14,000 people.
"Enter the Dragons" remains a fan-favorite episode, and for good reason. It's natural for a loser to get embarrassed, but to be put on the spot in front of thousands of people is next level. But according to people who were actually at the concert, things went a little differently than they were presented on television.
A lot of the crowd was in on the joke
You can watch the Imagine Dragons final challenge on YouTube as it was aired on truTV. The way it's presented, Sal Vulcano and Joe Gatto played for a little bit amongst all of the booings from the crowd. However, if social media is any indication, the concert may have actually gone better than what the show presented.
Don't get us wrong; Vulcano and Gatto can't play instruments to save their lives, but there's evidence to suggest the crowd understood the bit was being played up for comedy. Underneath the YouTube video are comments from people who said they were actually at the show. One user said, "I actually went to this concert ... they cut out the good parts of the songs and left only butchered portions. Also, in real life, the audience was laughing more so than booing, so they obviously edited it to make it look like they were ruining the concert."
Elsewhere on YouTube, someone uploaded their own video of the concert. It's a completely unedited 20 minutes of footage of Vulcano and Gatto goofing off onstage. While there's certainly some booing, most people seem into the joke, with one of the commenters writing, "Notice the audience wasn't as harsh as the episode made it out to be." Naturally, TV thrives on conflict, so it makes sense they'd stretch the truth a bit. But no matter what lens you put on it, the one and only performance of "Señora Lanza" was hilarious.