Photo by Katie Sokoler
If you haven’t figured it out by now, the Jar Jar Subway Car “mission gone wrong” was faked for April Fool’s Day. The three guys who “attacked” our actor in the Jar Jar Binks costume were actually our friends from The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Everything was completely staged, and everyone on the train was told what was going on beforehand.
On Monday we’ll post a behind-the-scenes video that will show how the fake mission came together, as well as some funny outtakes. Subscribe to our YouTube channel so you won’t miss it.
As with the Best Funeral Ever and the No Underwear Subway Ride, many people believed the video to be real. In order to prevent people from spoiling the joke, I disabled comments on the post on our site, but don’t worry, there are hundreds of comments you can read on our Facebook page.
And here’s the original video in case you missed it:
(View it larger on YouTube) | Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Produced by Charlie Todd and Matt Adams
UPDATE: We’ve posted the behind-the-scenes video.
Read the behind-the-scenes report and see the photos.
Ooh! I thought it might have been…but you got me! Well done. :)
Wow, you had me fooled… which is saying something, because I wasn’t fooled by your last two April Fool’s Day videos.
I guess because it’s such a realistic possibility that some guys would react badly to a prank.
Did you do a “reveal” so quickly because you weren’t getting the worried/concerned reactions your were hoping for?
Nope, we always reveal at the end of the day on April 1.
And every year people are always worried, concerned, angry, outraged, etc. It’s part of the fun.
I don’t see why it’s funny to make people concerned and upset… You guys have REALLY disappointed me on this one :S I was one of your biggest fans until this, but this just disgusts me, it’s very mean-spirited and not funny AT ALL :S You’ve lost my support with this one…
You forgot to say “April Fools” Holly–that’s the only way your post makes any sense.
It’s all part of the april fools fun Holly, lighten up.
April fools! There I said it 4 u holly, ur welcome lol Im a fan of improveverywhere all the way! U guys just keep making my day :{D
My mom died on april 1st. She collapsed on the floor. I phoned 911 but they thought it was a prank. I always thought that if it wasn’t for this stupid day my mom would still be alive.
APRIL FOOLS!
You guys really know how to bring out the crazies–or were the ugly comments I read earlier part of the joke?
So glad your actor is okay–I was fooled…o_0
Those comments were all real. I closed them because too many people were saying “April Fool’s” and spoiling the joke.
I have a pretty good sense of humor, but when you fake a person getting hurt, and I see a child in the subway car watching, you lose me.
Read what I wrote. Everyone on the subway knew what was happening. We announced it before each take that we were shooting a short film and we were all friends. All children and parents on the train were fully aware of what was happening.
I get that everyone was informed and all, but to beat someone up, even fake beat someone up, in front of a kid and say it was all in good fun tends to give out a bad message :/
Also, I hope you get the word out to *everyone who watched this video* that it was a fake, or your actors might end up accused of assult while walking down the street, by people who have only seen the original.
I liked your previous April Fools – once you realised it was a joke, it was pretty funny because if it had been real, it would’ve been tasteless. It was a relief! But this one, there’s no feeling of relief, just that it was a bad idea all together :/
As someone who works with kids on a daily basis, I can reassure you that it probably won’t affect kids that much. Not that we should expose them to lots of violence, but in this sort of situation, it would be fine because they know fighting is bad and would see the video as showing what one *shouldn’t* do. The people being violent are perceived as the “bad guys” to a child. And they wouldn’t want to imitate that.
Yeah, sure.
Obviously the kid never watched TV and isn’t aware of violence.
I agree with this. This “joke” wasn’t funny at all.
Bravo…well played
Your videos are super funny but this was stupid.
Didn’t fool me for a second because you wouldn’t post it. Butttttt if I ever saw Jar Jar, I would beat him down too! Seriously not the funniest thing, even though giggle worthy.
How cool to find this out! I was afraid the negative element in society was trying to ruin all the good things you guys do! :)
You guys got me! I really thought this was serious…good job!
Damnit this was the only April Fools joke I fell for. Kudos guys and the strangers on the subway as well because they sold it brilliantly.
Thanks! Three of the “strangers” were also friends of ours. And everyone else either just played along and laughed, or ignored us.
Drunken: Same here. I was so aggravated later in the day when a friend pointed out my gullibility. Grr. Well played, Charlie and IE. Well played! LOL
Ha, I figured it out it was your friends from The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater BEFORE I saw this post. lol.
I was at work and in the middle of posting this on FB with furious, righteous indignation when my coffee kicked in and I realized it was probably an April Fool’s joke. Personally, I thought it was pretty damn funny guys as April Fool jokes go……but, I have to agree with Jason, I probably would’ve joined in Jar Jar’s beatdown!!! ;- ) Kudos to the actor for donning the costume!
Do you really think a little child can make a conscious decision to watch someone getting kicked and punched ‘for fun’? What about when that child goes out and does this to his classmates? This is how our society is desensitized to violence. I am the parent of a bullied child. This is the senseless violence that children are exposed to daily at home, in school. I thought you were better than that.
I’m pretty sure obvious fake punching between friends laughing and having a good time didn’t harm the one kid on the train too much. His mom sitting next to him certainly didn’t give a shit.
No kidding. Geez Kelly, relax.
Well, yeah actually. Do you think that no one should ever be allowed to portray violence in any way? That would be way more unreasonable than anything IA has ever done. Just because the 90-second video was cut in such a way that it looked serious doesn’t mean that it was like that the whole time.
Also, there’s pretty good evidence that shows that kids who are bullied typically have overprotective parents; I think this is probably the case here. Kids, regardless of what you seem to think, actually are people, and can make conscious decisions without their mothers or other adults telling them what to think. And even that doesn’t apply here, as the kid was explicitly told that they were just pretending to hit the guy. Simply never exposing a child to even 90 seconds of pretend violence in an attempt to protect them is ridiculous.
I don’t understand how you kids are bullied at home.
Gah! For the last two years, I’ve been trying to catch the April Fool’s Day joke before the reveal, but you guys are just way too fast!
Now I bet people are sorry for saying bad things about the three attackers, lol
This isn’t humour. At all. Regardless of whether the child knew what was happening, it is still “faux violence” of a situation that happens in New York City at least once a day. It happens for reasons far, far less valid than getting in someone’s face too. Something has simple as the colour of a shirt, or the perceived sexual orientation of someone.
How can you justify this as a humourous “joke”? Honestly. Why is it funny when realistically it could happen to any of you on ANY of your missions?
I’m pretty sure the funny part was that one guy was in a Jar Jar Binks costume and another guy was in a Darth Maul costume with a plastic lightsaber.
Yeah, seeing this a couple days after a video of someone picking a fight on the subway for people eating…
This wasn’t funny at all.
uh… can you post a link to the fight in the subway over eating video. That would be hilarious. The world spins, and people live. Things happen and if you want to get all hell bent out of shape about it, you are going to live a short and miserable existence.
Gah! You got me on this one. ‘Course, it was still pretty early on March 31st when I saw it, ’cause of the time zones. Still, glad it wasn’t real!
Yeah, nothing we can do about the time zone thing! Sorry west coast! April 1 starts at midnight here. :)
West Coast needs some IE too! you guys should come to San Francisco
Funny, but you still didn’t get me! Seriously, guys, just keep trying, I’m still waiting for something to top Best Funeral Ever!
Tough to top the first one. :)
I don’t understand why people are still angry about this.
Well, people in halloween costumes pretending to fight each other on the subway is SERIOUS BUSINESS.
I have some qualms with your initial prank, but I have more qualms with the way that comments criticizing the spirit of this video are being responded to.
The majority of people commenting on your website are your fans (or at least were your fans). Your sarcastic responses come off as mean-spirited and are not what I thought ImprovEverywhere was about. I’ll probably keep watching your videos because overall I respect what you do and think you make the world a brighter place for the people involved in your community, but this whole situation has just made me uncomfortable.
Ok, good one, but it really did sadden me that you lost your touch.
Ouch.
Make sure this is labeled joke, and not stupidity. You have done such great work.