The Bad Reception game where the jokers have to pretend to be receptionists is a fan-favorite challenge on Impractical Jokers, and for good reason.
There are many reasons why fans keep tuning in to watch Impractical Jokers, and seeing a few childhood friends do everything in their power to embarrass each other, is certainly part of the charm.
This is also why the Bad Reception game, in which the jokers have to act as receptionists while reacting to the other jokers’ whims, is still such a fan-favorite.
The Impractical Jokers charm
A hidden camera improv-show may not be everyone’s cup of tea. But the hosts of Impractical Jokers have managed to win over audiences for well over a decade.
Countless factors have contributed to the show’s success over the years, including the many celebrity special guests, the funny candid reactions from the public and a few perfectly-timed jokes.
But there is absolutely no doubt that what sets this show apart, is the pure, unadulterated joy that James “Murr” Murray, Brian “Q” Quinn, Sal Vulcano and Joe Gatto (four real-life childhood friends, known by fans as The Tenderloins) get from messing with each other on the show.
Impractical Jokers Receptionist
Most of the games that Impractical Jokers challenges its hosts to complete throughout the show require that one of the hosts wear an earpiece.
All of the other hosts will then give them hilarious instructions on how to handle the situation at hand, and the Bad Reception game is no different.
In Bad Reception, one impractical joker acts as a receptionist serving the general public, while the other jokers think up some of the most unexpected responses and actions for the receptionist joker to carry out.
If the receptionist joker is unable or simply refuses to carry out any of the other jokers’ instructions during the game, they lose the game and will be punished accordingly.
This skit proved to be a hit the first time that it appeared on the second season of the show.
So much so that it quickly became a reoccurring game which has the jokers, the audience, and even the show’s crew in stitches every time that it makes an appearance in an episode.
Moreover, it has even inspired the premise for other games on the show, like “The Name Game”, which has become a fan-favorite in its own right.
Some of the most memorable moments in this game’s history on the show were when Sal kept mispronouncing the name “James” in the “Tipping Point” episode, Joe walking off the set when he laughed so hard at one of his instructions that he could not complete the challenge, Joe being tasked to sniff a random person’s seat, and many more instances of pure hilarity.
Why do people love the Bad Reception game so much?
The Bad Reception game has become a crowd-pleaser on Impractical Jokers because it encapsulates everything that fans love about the show.
It puts the jokers in an uncomfortable position, and completely at the mercy of their fellow jokers, which is simply a winning recipe for chaos.
As an additional bonus, this game usually also requires a lot of direct interaction with members of the public (who obviously have no idea about what is going on behind the scenes). And this always leads the jokes into a completely unexpected direction.
Other similar games on Impractical Jokers
Bad Reception has been such a hit with audiences over the years that it has even inspired some new, but similar, ways for the jokers to try and mess with each other.
One of the other games on the show, which was certainly inspired by some of the most hilarious moments on Bad Reception is The Name Game.
In this game, the jokers are tasked with reading out a list of ridiculous made-up names as the receptionist of a focus group, without laughing at the names as they are read aloud.
Episodes where Bad Reception makes an appearance
Whether you are feeling nostalgic or you simply want to make sure that you have seen absolutely every hilarious Bad Reception moment in the show’s history, we have rounded up every time that Bad Reception makes an appearance in the Impractical Jokers challenge lineup.
All in all, the jokers have played the Bad Reception game seven times on the show, in the following episodes:
| Impractical Jokers season | Episode |
| Season 2 | Episode 5: “Strip High Five” |
| Season 2 | Episode 15: “Joker vs. Joker” |
| Season 5 | Episode 1: “HellCopter” |
| Season 6 | Episode 1: “Swim Shady” |
| Season 7 | Episode 7: “Lords of the Ring” |
| Season 8 | Episode 3: “Tipping Point” |
| Season 9 | Episode 3: “Drive, Drive, Drive” |