‘Impractical Jokers’ is a show starring four lifelong friends, since high school, who give each other challenges to do. If they cannot accomplish a challenge, they get a thumbs-down. Whoever gets the most thumbs-downs by the end of the episode, has a punishment. For the punishment, they have to do whatever the others tell them to do.   

The show has been going on since 2011 with nine seasons. 

The four friends are Sal Vulcano, Brian Quinn (Q), Joe Gatto, and James Murray (Murr). 

However, on December 31, Joe Gatto announced he was leaving the show. 

Fans were going crazy about this post, confused with why he was leaving.

In Gatto’s post, he stated that he was leaving due to family issues. Him and his wife, Bessy Gatto, have decided to part ways. They both announced that they would still do whatever they could to be with their children and continue to rescue animals. 

Gatto added, “Outside of my family, my relationships with Murr, Q and Sal have been the most important in my life. I know they will continue to make the world laugh.”

For Sophomore Hollan Schweitzer, Joe was his favorite Joker.   

“I’m really sad because Joe is my favorite Joker. He always made the punishments funny and he was the funniest.” 

The same day, Vulcano, Quinn, and Murray all posted about the news. 

“Hi everyone, so here we are… After all these years together, we never imagined making Impractical Jokers without Joe. While we are saddened to see him go, we want to keep making people laugh, keep our relationship with the Impractical Jokers fans going, and keep working with the members of our team that we consider family. With the support of our fans, we’ll get back to making a new chapter of ‘Impractical Jokers’ in January.” 

Some fans believe that Gatto will be back after he clears up things with his family, while others are theorizing that this is a punishment for Gatto if he lost in an unaired episode. 

“I think it’s sad that he got divorced but I think it’s good for him to get a break from it and spend time with his kids,” said Freshman Kate Venneman.    

The question fans are asking is: Would Gatto go this far for a punishment in a show? 

He and his wife seem to be serious about the split, but some fans have been saying that they are looking back at videos and photos from a few weeks ago and they looked very happy together. 

The Jokers were also going on tour starting on November 19, 2021 through August 19, 2022. 

One of the locations near Fort Thomas was at the Heritage Bank Center in Cincinnati on December 28. 

Sadly, the whole tour was cancelled due to Gatto’s unexpected leaving.Originally, only 12 tour dates would be cancelled, but then they decided to cancel the whole tour.