Unseen Moments From MTV's Punk'd

Leaving pins and tacks on a seat or TP-ing a house might be fun practical jokes for regular people, but those stunts are incomparable to the pranks that went down on Ashton Kutcher's legendary show Punk'd. The series had audiences in stitches every week in the early-to-mid 2000s, as it played pranks on unknowing celebrities from Justin Timberlake to Kanye West, to Beyoncé to Frankie Muniz. TV Overmind even ranked the series number five of their "Top 20 Original MTV Shows of All-Time".

But like many other reality TV shows out there, there are moments on Punk'd that aren't as realistic as you might think. There were scenes that Punk'd edited due to safety and legal concerns, and moments that didn't make the air by the requests of the celebrities who were pranked. From episodes involving Serena Williams, JoJo, Drake, and more, here are some of the unseen moments on Punk'd.

While viewers loved Punk'd, it was undoubtedly a stressful situation for the subjects of the pranks. That was never more than clear than in Justin Timberlake's 2003 appearance. The Man of the Woods crooner was rused by actor Dax Shepard, who played an IRS agent repossessing his home for failure to pay taxes, and he totally lost it. As in, broke down into tears lost it, according to Buzzfeed.

But that wasn't all that went down. Through his cries, Timberlake allegedly got tough with Shepard by chastising him and threatening to get physical, even when the prank was over.

In an interview on Marc Maron's WTF podcast in 2014, Shepard said (via Entertainment Tonight), "[Timberlake] keeps saying, 'Yeah, man. I was about to f*cking punch you.' And I was like, 'Hmm mmm, alright.'"

According to Shepard, Timberlake continued his war of words, putting the actor on the verge of losing it. "'Dude, I was for real man, I was about to f*cking punch you out,' [Timberlake said]. And I'm like, 'OK, that's number two.' I'm thinking, how many times can I hear this dude in his golf outfit — he was wearing a golf outfit — tell me he can punch me out before I'm just not going to be able to handle it?"

Luckily, Kutcher stepped in and diffused the situation. Timberlake later told Playboy (via Buzzfeed) that he only got so worked up because he was "so stoned." NBD.

Who could ever imagine America's sweetheart, singer and songwriter JoJo ever unleashing a mouthful of profanity? Brace yourself, because that's apparently what happened when she appeared on Punk'd in 2007.

In her episode, JoJo visited a hospital children's ward to meet and take photos with some "sick" children. During a tour of the ward, the "Baby It's You" singer was introduced to a girl named Hailey, who doctors said had an autoimmune disorder and was being held in a glass enclosure to prevent her from getting sicker. At some point, JoJo "breaches the glass" while trying to entertain Hailey, allowing contaminated air into the room.

In the final edit that made the air, JoJo appeared fairly calm considering the circumstances. But there was apparently more to her reaction than what the footage showed. According to Comedy Central, JoJo was so flustered that she dropped a bunch of obscenities, but because she was worried it would upset her fans, the moment was edited from the episode.

We believe that beloved tennis star Serena Williams was a NASCAR driver in another lifetime, thanks to what really went down behind the scenes during her 2005 episode of the show, and you might too, once you're all caught up on the true details. In the episode, Williams was parked in a strip mall lot when she noticed a teenager abducting two children. Who knows what the Punk'd crew expected her to do in the heat of the moment, but they surely didn't expect Williams to chase down the assailant at nearly 100 mph.

Rob Pinkston, who played the delinquent teenager and abductor, told the Huffington Post in 2017 that he had "stretched" the boundaries of personal safety in an effort to save his job. "I had [Punk'd co-creators] Jason [Goldberg] and Ashton [Kutcher] in my ear during the bit, and they told us to keep going, as long as it was safe," Pinkston explained. "I think we stretched the 'safe' part a bit... Jon [Huck, the producer] wanted to save the sketch and escape Serena, and I wanted to keep my job – let alone survive the car chase!"

Considering Pinkston only had a learner's permit at the time, it's not totally shocking that the clip was edited out and tweaked to look Williams had only been told to drive where the kids had been taken.

Outbursts on Punk'd are a part of the show's shtick. Throughout the years, there have been tons of vicious spats and arguments between unknowing dupes and the pranksters that made the show absolute gold. But there were times when encounters went completely off the rails — like when Zach Braff appeared on the show in 2005. The actor's reaction was apparently so intense that it had to be cut from the show.

The stunt, set up by friend and Scrubs costar Donald Faison, involved a teenager spraying graffiti on his brand new, $100,000 Porsche. When Braff spotted the kid doodling on his car, he chased after him, screaming profanities. The teen — played by Pinkston — ran straight to fellow co-star Chris Elwood, who was acting as a security guard. Braff was shown telling the guard he wouldn't hit the kid, but perhaps it was because the actor had already swung at him during the chase.

Elwood opened up about the experience, which was cut in the final edit, in a 2017 interview with the Huffington Post, telling the outlet, "Zach tried to pummel Rob [Pinkston], but instead pummeled my arm. He basically hit my arm as he was trying to hit this kid. He definitely wanted to stomp the ever-living crap out of this kid."

Geez, he must've really loved that car.

The masculine bravado that Drake often portrays in his music was apparently nowhere in sight during his 2012 appearance on Punk'd. In his episode, the Grammy award-winning rapper and singer was tricked into believing he was on his way to meet Vice President Joe Biden. Instead, the Punk'd crew simulated an earthquake during the car ride, which allegedly frightened Drake so much that he jumped into an acquaintance's lap and assumed the fetal position. Yes, the same Drake that penned hard-hitting, grimy bangers like "Started From The Bottom" and "I'm Upset."

The encounter must've been too embarrassing for Drake to share with viewers, because when the episode aired, the footage was MIA and he was only shown looking scared. The extent of his fear was only made public when show creator Ashton Kutcher let the cat out of the bag in a 2016 appearance on The Late Show With James Corden.

It's surprising that more people haven't caught on to the show's jig. Punk'd had countless moments where the pranks were so unbelievably outrageous that you'd think people would just know their experiences were too wild to be true. While that clearly wasn't the case for many of the show's guests, Baywatch icon Pamela Anderson was apparently one of the few who knew what was happening the entire time.

According to Ranker, the crew's prank included making the model believe that an adult movie was being filmed in her garden, although as far as we can tell, the episode never aired and no one has really spoken about it publicly. However, according to an admittedly dubious report from Reality TV World, Anderson, a sex icon herself, didn't have much difficulty sniffing out Kutcher's antics. After allegedly confronting a nude model on the premises, she got the confirmation she was searching for: it was a setup. Guess Kutcher and co. weren't too keen on broadcasting their failed attempts.