Impractical Jokers’ star Joe Gatto shocked fans recently by announcing his sudden departure from both the successful comedy troupe The Tenderloins and its beloved TV series. His transparency in explaining the personal reason for his exit made it understandable why he’d step away. Soon after Gatto’s departure, a number of episodes of the TruTV series were reportedly removed from streaming, and it’s not exactly clear at the moment why the changes happened.
Reportedly, both HBO Max and TruTV have removed a number of episodes of Impractical Jokers in which Joe Gatto was put into compromising positions. At the time of this writing, Season 4 is missing Episodes 9 and 24, Season 7 is missing Episode 12, and Season 8 is missing Episodes 16 and 25. According to Paste Magazine, clips tied to those episodes were also removed from TruTV’s YouTube channel.
It’s unclear exactly why the episodes are missing, nor whether they are being removed from airing on TV in the future, as TruTV hasn’t offered comment or explanation thus far. It seems, however, that some of the episodes that were removed featured Joe Gatto in compromising situations, such as kissing strangers and massaging others while inside a massage chair, as part of pranks.
It’s the latest headline-making news for a show that hasn't faced much controversy before. Joe Gatto unexpectedly announced his departure from Impractical Jokers in a statement that cited a mutual split from his wife of 8 years, Bessy, as part of the reason for his desire to step away. Gatto explained he wanted to be an effective co-parent to the two’s children, and assured audiences he’d continue to search for other avenues to provide comedic online content now that he'll be unable to fulfill his obligations to Impractical Jokers.
The rest of The Tenderloins — James “Murr” Murray, Brian “Q” Quinn, and Sal Vulcano — issued a joint statement of support for Joe Gatto’s decision and expressed their sadness to see him go. The statement indicated little to no ill-will on behalf of the rest of the cast, which didn’t really come as a surprise given their long-lasting friendships. If there are answers as to why TruTV and HBO Max removed these episodes of Impractical Jokers, they certainly don’t appear to be in Gatto or the cast’s statements.
Impractical Jokers fully intends to press on with a new season without Joe Gatto. It’s unclear at this time whether or not Impractical Jokers will replace Gatto, or if the format will stay the same without one of its former stars. It seems feasible the show can go on sans replacement without many problems, though fans would obviously be disappointed to see The Tenderloins will go on without their full lineup. Fans might be extra bummed considering they’ve now possibly lost episodes that featured Gatto on top of all that. Though there’s still plenty more to enjoy regardless.
A new season of Impractical Jokers is currently in development. Fans can always catch re-runs by checking out the TruTV schedule, especially considering the series airs quite often on the network. Hopefully, the coming days will bring more answers as to why some episodes are no longer available.
