Characters / Impractical Jokers

The four stars of the hit comedy reality TV series, Impractical Jokers.

In General:

Murr, Sal, Joe, and Q.

• Butt-Monkey: All four have their moments, given that it's essentially the premise of the show, but Murr gets it the worst because he's treated this way even outside the challenges.
• Catchphrase:
  • Whenever the jokers need to give someone directions: "Up your ass and to the left."
  • Whenever a joker is tricked into believing that they're doing a challenge rather than a punishment, the other jokers will say "Weeeeeeeell..." before revealing the punishment to the loser in question.
• Deadpan Snarker: Each of them have their sassy moments and are equally prone to a good quip now and then. Sal is generally the quickest, usually when he's being punished.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Q is Melancholic, Murr is Sanguine, Joe is Choleric and Sal is Phlegmatic.
• Gag Haircut: In the Season 1 finale - Joe got a mullet, Q got bright red curls, Sal got two bleached horns, and Murr's head was completely shaved except for a tuft at the front.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: They've been best friends since high school.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: All of the guys know their limits when it comes to challenges, even if it means taking a loss for that challenge (and potentially the episode as a whole). Joe and Murr are a little more fearless than Q and Sal, but even they know when they've been outmatched by the other guys.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Murr and Sal. Murr memorably does this when he has to skydive; he screams the whole way down. Sal also does this when the other Jokers scare him in a few punishments, most notably the haunted house, the haunted corn maze and the virtual reality game.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: All four are equally susceptible to swearing. Sal especially drops F-bombs when he's being punished while "Holy shit!" is a favorite phrase of Murr. The other two aren't slouches, either.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: The four of them have been best friends since high school, but the amount of shit they're willing to put each other through has to be seen to be believed.
• With Friends Like These...: They're genuine lifelong friends, yet the goal of the show is for them to publicly humiliate and torment each other as much as humanly possible.

Brian Michael "Q" Quinn

"I'm thirty-six, I live alone, and I have two cats."

• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Will often resort to saying "Come on!" to convince people to go along with his requests of them.
• Animal Lover: Not only does he love his cats, but he loves animals in general.
  • During the intro of the "Animal Antics" Joker vs. Joker challenge during "Enter The Dragons," Q is very happily holding a penguin.
  • Though he was scared out of his head when tarantulas were put on him during his "Spider Man" punishments, he still wanted to take care to not hurt any of them. This is partially why he was shackled to the platform for the punishment.
  • Q voluntarily joined Sal during the latter's "Ruffled Feathers" punishment just so he could hold some zoo animals.
• Butt-Monkey: Started down this road in season 2; the other guys suddenly started to give him worse punishments than ever, culminating in the episode where they pulled a challenge out of a lottery barrel at random and they would vote on who should do it. Q got the first one, and while he was doing it, the others decided to make him do every challenge they picked. It wasn't long until he caught on, and he declared that if he successfully completed the challenge of unzipping someone's fly, the other three would collectively take the punishment for the episode. Q managed to find someone willing to have his fly undone, resulting in him winning the episode and forcing the other three into the punishment, which was to answer questions about him to avoid going over the edge of a waterfall; the winner would be declared his best friend. Joe won.
  • In some older episodes, Q would either get a free pass for the challenge or he'd forfeit because he had such bad luck with the crowds. A man even threatened to kill him and several other people if Q's charity was fake in one of his challenges.
• Celebrity Resemblance: The other guys jokingly compare his appearance to Rosie O'Donnell, even after he started growing out his facial hair. They even bring in O'Donnell as his Opposite-Sex Clone once.
• Chained Heat: His punishment in "Mime and Punishment" had Pierre the Mime being handcuffed to him for 24 hours.
• Character Tics: Will turn his head to the side with eyes closed when asked to say or do something he finds objectionable. He is also the Joker who is most likely to facepalm in uncomfortable situations.
• Does Not Like Spam: There are two foods he refuses to eat: peanut butter and sushi. The former is justified, because he is allergic to peanuts. The latter is simply his steadfast refusal to eat raw animal protein of any kind, and has been exploited once to make him lose a challenge.
  Q: [at a Japanese buffet by the sushi station] Can I ask you guys a serious question, though? Seriously, how do you eat this stuff?
  Joe: Do you like fish? Do you eat seafood?
  Q: Yes.
  Joe: So then you'd like sushi; it's the same ingredients.
  Q: No, no.
  Joe: Yes.
  Q: No. I like hamburger. I'm not gonna eat a raw cow.
  Joe: [microphone off, to Murr and Sal] We all know that just to make him lose, it would be to just eat sushi, right? That's it. But let's make him do a whole bunch of other stuff first, and then at the end, we'll just do that.
• Dreaded Kids' Party Entertainer Job: In "Smushed," his punishment was to be a clown at a girl's birthday party. He was made to jump on a mini trampoline and break it, attempt to hula hoop, and perform a "magic" trick that only served to make him look all the creepier. After he smushed the birthday cake with his hands, the kids then all retaliated by smushing his face into the cake.
• Everyone Has Standards: There are a few times when he thinks a punishment goes a little too far.
  • In "Look Out Below", he is clearly not as enthusiastic as Sal and Joe are to watch Murr skydive. In the Inside Jokes special for the episode, it was revealed that he had tried to talk the other guys out of having Murr skydive in the first place, but he was overruled.
  • While he was in high spirits during the "Brow Beaten" punishment, which had the Jokers shaving Murr's hair and eyebrows off right before their trip to London and two weeks before his nephew's confirmation, Q stated, as the Jokers arrived at the salon, that if he were the one getting the punishment, he would've quit the show entirely. He doesn't make a move to stop the punishment, but he does watch the spectacle looking rather distressed.
  • He is pretty disturbed by and is reluctant to watch when Murr has a catheter inserted into his penis as part of a punishment at the end of "The Bachelor Party." After the catheter goes in, he says, "I feel like we've done something bad." Subverted when he mentions a nearby zip line, which comes into play during the next part of Murr's punishment. Q also can't watch when Murr's then-fiancée, Melyssa, removes the catheter.
  • In general, Q seems to be most empathetic to Murr during his physical punishments. Since he is not allowed to interfere, he is often shown to watch the punishments with dismay on his face (if he even watches at all) while Joe and Sal watch with rapt anticipation.
    • Ironically, he tends to be the one who Murr is first to attack in retribution for his punishments.
• Everyone Hates Mimes: He thinks mimes are creepy, so his punishment during "Mime and Punishment" had him chained to one for 24 hours. A montage shows him slowly breaking down because the mime refuses to break character. Once the punishment is over, the mime finally speaks, thanking Q before walking away.
• Face of a Thug: Q is a nice enough guy, but the other Jokers, particularly in earlier season episodes, would often poke fun at his appearance, comparing him to homeless people.
  • During the "What's the Scoop?" challenge, the following exchange takes place right before Q takes his turn:
  Joe: Y'know, it's really nice of Redd's with their "food for the homeless" program, with their big bowls of mashed potatoes.
  Q: I'm dressed exactly like Sal.
  Murr: I mean, you're wearing the same outfit, you both have a beard, you both have a good head of hair, but somehow, you still look homeless.
  Q: It's actually weird, because you and Joe are dressed alike and you look like an asshole.
  • In one challenge involving the guys finding a potential roommate, Q was given a free pass because, supposedly, no one answered his poster.
  • Strangely enough, people have been more receptive to him after he grew out a beard. When he was clean-shaven, people tended to either ignore him or tell him to back off.
• Formerly Fit: Q has admitted that he isn't quite as svelte as he was when he was a firefighter. The other guys have ripped on him for this.
  • Lampshaded during the call-and-response of his musical punishment during "Stage Fright":
  Alex Brightman (singing): Can you climb up a ladder?
  Q (singing): I can't do that!
  Alex Brightman (singing): Can you get any fatter?
  Q (singing): I can do that!
• Incoming Ham: "WELCOME TO THE CASTLE OF WHITE!"
• Intimate Open Shirt: Has unbuttoned a couple of extra buttons to expose a bit of chest a few times. Subverted at least twice when he completely unbuttoned his shirt only to reveal a black T-shirt underneath.
• Jabba Table Manners: In the "Eat and Run" challenge.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: In the punishment special, he revealed that one of his 3 cats was rescued from traffic right before Murr became a human pinata. He cradles said cat in his arms for all of his segments.
  • The Inside Jokes edition of episode "Catastrophe" revealed that Q showed up early to the set so that he could play with the cats and kittens gathered for Sal's punishment.
• Loophole Abuse: One of his favorite strategies. In "Take the Cake," where the guys would crash unsuspecting diners' meals, then convince the diners to let them stay, he secured the win by offering to pay for the diners' meal. Joe called him both a genius and a cheater for this.
• Malaproper: He gets words and letters mixed up when speaking. The kicker is the punishment in the episode "Film Fail", where he has to explain scenes he created to an audience of movie buffs.
  Q: We met at an-, uh, at a- orchid. (He meant "orchard").
  • In another episode, he pronounces shiitake mushrooms as "shit-take" mushrooms.
  • There's this one: "I was wondering what Kate Upton would look like with texticles."
  • And this one where he works as a hot dog vendor.
  Q: So just to... just to paint this picture, money's been extranged.
  • Ironically, in "It's Electric," where he and Murr have written each other's TV show pitches, bonus footage shows Murr struggling to read a pitch that Q had loaded with extremely verbose and flowery words. Made funnier by the fact that Murr has a Bachelor's degree in English!
  • Occasionally subverts the trope by showing acute understanding of some phrases' hidden meanings; during a head-to-head challenge in which the Jokers pitched new fragrance ideas, Sal's was called "Eau Ver Compensate," which he made a big show of pronouncing "ew vair com-pon-sah-tay." After Sal uses the pronunciation twice, Q cuts in with the actual pronunciation: "overcompensate," which perfectly fit the visual that had been composed for the pitch, namely a smug "douchey"-looking guy posturing in front of an expensive sports car.
• Muse Abuse: Some of his punishments have him acting out stories and stage productions based on his life. None of them portray him in a positive light.
• Naked People Are Funny: In the picture where he and Murr are in bed with Sal's sister, and during the "Sweat the Small Things" home invasion.
• No Social Skills: Because he tends to mumble and mix up words and letters, he's had some poor luck with social interaction at times, especially in earlier episodes where he was given a pass in some challenges because not a lot of people want to approach him. He's even forfeited challenges if people have been intentionally ignoring him or have threatened him.
• Noodle Incident: Why did a tooth fall out of his mouth during a speed dating challenge? It stems from an unfortunate encounter he had with a German police officer.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: The number of times that he's been called by his given name, Brian, by the other Jokers during the run of the series can be counted on one hand.
• Only Sane Man: Well, the sanest of the bunch. With a Neat Freak Nervous Wreck of a germaphobe (Sal), a Large Ham with a Thousand-Yard Stare (Joe), and a sensitive Butt-Monkey with a lack of foresight (Murr), he's a step closer to normal.
• Primal Chest-Pound: Does this once during the "Bowled Over" segment of "Everything's Just Rosie."
• Retired Badass: He's a former firefighter, which the becomes the basis of a few punishments. One punishment had him perform in a badly written play for his fellow firefighters. Later, as revenge for that punishment and his punishment involving tarantulas, Q had the other three go through a firefighting boot camp.
• Self-Applied Nickname: He sometimes calls himself "Tony Gunk" during challenges.
• Sucks at Dancing: Q is arguably the worst dancer of the four. During his punishment in which he had to perform in a deliberately badly-written play in front of all of his firefighter buddies, he clumsily attempted to do a tap dance alongside an obvious professional.
  • Painfully obvious when he put his Martian hula hoop dance up against Sal's double Dutch dance.
  • He cannot do the worm.
  • Especially noticeable and exploited in the "Q's Crew" punishment.
  • Seemingly subverted in the Season 8 hotel concierge challenge, when he wore tap shoes and tap danced briefly as "Brian, the Tap Dancing Concierge."
• Three First Names: Brian Michael Quinn.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Hot cherry pepper pizza, particularly from Ambrosino's Pizzeria on Staten Island. In fact, Ambrosino's now has a hot cherry pepper pizza named after him as a regular menu item!
• True Companions: He tests it by ordering his friends to answer questions about him while standing over a cliff. Joe wins while Murr and Sal, in that order, are forced over the edge into the very cold river below.
• Vomit Discretion Shot: In the "Not Safe For Work" punishment, where the sight of Murr posing nude in front of a classroom of art enthusiasts was apparently just too much for his stomach to handle, prompting him to drop his lunch in a bucket (from laughing too hard).
  • It happens to him again during "Stare Master", when he went behind a tree, and "Statue of Limitations", where he ducked behind a counter to throw up. An Inside Jokes edition of "No Child Left Behind" reveals that Q threw up seconds after the cameras stopped rolling for his punishment.
• Why Did It Have to be Spiders?: His arachnophobia is on full display in the punishment segment of "Spider Man." This is the one time in the entire series run when he is truly terrified.

James Stephen "Murr" Murray

"You don't ever want to confuse the inferior vena cava with the pulmonary valves, or someone could die."

• Animal Motifs: Ferrets, much to his annoyance.
• Butt-Monkey: He is often subjected to My Friends... and Zoidberg treatment by the other guys and his punishments are noticeably more brutal than anyone else's. Chances are, if someone's gonna get screwed over, it's Murr; i.e. Joe making him lose the hide-and-seek challenge by calling his phone, even though Sal and Q were also fair game. There's also the fact that they've used his crippling fear of heights against him numerous times. (And speaking of "butt", one of his punishments was a prostate exam.)
• Catchphrase: Some variation of "I think I have a foolproof plan."
• Celeb Crush: Danica McKellar and Tristin Mays. Naturally, they've both appeared on the show, in a Murr punishment and challenge, respectively. Danica McKellar also appeared during a Now You See Me challenge, where she and Murr performed a gender-flipped version of their previous encounter.
• Character Tics: Will tip his head sharply to the right when he is told to say or do something uncomfortable.
• Didn't Think This Through: In "Tooth & Consequences", due to one of his teeth suddenly falling out right as they're beginning a challenge about getting selfies with challenges, he decides to forfeit the challenge. He forgets that, due to the scoreboard and how this was the last challenge of the episode, it means that he loses the episode as a whole and has to do a punishment. Sure enough, the other jokers decide that his punishment is get strangers to take selfies with him anyway.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Too many to list; the guys seem to always give Murr the worst punishments.
  • A notable example is the punishment for "Human Pinata." Even though both Joe and Murr lose, the guys decide to give the punishment to Murr for no apparent reason, other than because it was funny.
• Embarrassing Old Photo: There is a particularly humiliating one of a younger, hairy-chested Murr wearing nothing but his favorite blanket, which once popped up in a live theater in front of a hundred people. The same photo appears during the punishment segment of "Doomed," before Murr's precious blanket is thrown into a fire pit.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: He is into boy bands and intense personal grooming (such as shaving his chest and plucking his eyebrows).
• Mr. Fanservice: Murr is the thinnest and fittest of the four, has been naked the most times and there are hundreds of fangirls calling him cute/hot/etc. on social media.
  • Zig-zagged in "Stripteased," where he is forced to perform with the Australian male striptease troupe Thunder From Down Under in front of a packed house... covered in red skin and hives from an induced allergic reaction.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: He is often subjected to "odd man out" treatment by the other guys, though they do indeed care for him.
• Naked People Are Funny: In "Strip High Five." It happens twice more in the first three episodes of the second half of Season 2, both of them as part of a joke on Sal: pictures of him and Q in bed with Sal's sister, and he, Joe, and Q cavorting about in their birthday suits in Sal's house.
  • In the episode "Not Safe For Work", Q laughs so hard at Murr's nudity that he vomits.
• Nice Guy: Is quite possibly the most sincere and sensitive member of the cast, especially when it comes to outright insulting a woman.
• Oh, Crap!: After losing an episode, he is made to dress as a pinata, is hoisted up by a crane, and is hit with bats by the other Jokers until candy comes out. Unfortunately for him, the other Jokers decide to bring in a ringer: Joe's brother-in-law, Vinnie, a muscular NYPD cop who wasn't exactly pleased about Murr groping his wife, Joe's sister, during a raunchy video in a previous episode. Murr is understandably terrified when Vinnie is handed a bat and allowed to go to town.
  • The third season premiere. Murr is the episode's big loser, and he's tricked by the other guys into thinking that his punishment was just another challenge; he thought that they were teaching a skydiving class, but in fact, he would have to actually go skydiving (something he had vehemently refused to do his entire life). His desperate pleading didn't help, and he screamed his way all the way down to the ground.
• Omniglot: This allegedly earns him a pass in the challenge where the guys must teach foreign language classes; he gave a demonstration of what he claimed was Armenian and Dutch. However, what he tried to pass off as Chinese was extremely inaccurate and VERY cringe-worthy.
• On Second Thought: In the episode "Joke & Dagger", Murr, the episode's loser, was forced to take a Coney Island knife show's "Wheel of Doom". He initially refuses, but the other Jokers remind him that if he refuses the punishment, he's off the show, causing him to very reluctantly take it. Thankfully for Murr, the wheel was rigged so that the balloons would pop by themselves while the knife thrower merely mimed throwing the knives.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: The other guys either call him "Murr" or "Murray," but never by his first name, James.
• Panty Thief: As part of his punishment in "Panty Raid."
• Perma-Stubble: Sports a heavy five o'clock shadow.
• Perpetual Smiler: His smile never seems to crack, even during the most brutal punishments.
• Pet the Dog: During the “Drive, Drive, Drive” punishment, Murr asked Q to go to the White Castle in the Bronx to get food for him. Q, having already endured an arduous trip to and from the Bronx, pleaded with Murr to let him go to a White Castle on the way to his (Murr’s) home in New Jersey instead. Murr agreed.
  Q: [holding up box of laxatives] Joe gave me this laxative to slip into your food. I promise not to mess with your food at all if you just let me go to a White Castle on the way to you. Please!
  Murr: [beat] My friend, you have a deal. Absolutely!
  Q: [cheers with relief]
• Prematurely Bald: He mentions in "The Butt of the Jokers" that he started balding at 20.
• Security Blanket: He still sleeps with a blanket that his grandmother made for him. In one punishment, the other Jokers arrange for a Mola Ram expy to burn what turns out to be a replica of the blanket (Murr didn't know it was a replica until afterwards).
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Dr. Frank Contacessa, who gives him a prostate exam as a punishment and sometimes comes back to check up on him.
• The Strategist: Murr at least sees himself as this and usually walks confidently into a challenge with a foolproof plan. With a couple of exceptions, the end results usually don't go his way.
• Teeny Weenie: The doctor who fits him with a catheter makes a comment about his "below-average-sized penis".
• This Is Gonna Suck: His reaction when he has to cross the tightrope first in the Live Punishment.
• Three First Names: James Stephen Murray.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: While he was the first loser in the Nitro Circus special, he made up for it by having the fastest time on the obstacle course and winning $100,000 for the Make A Wish Foundation.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Soup and lo mein.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Sal. There have been several instances where Q and Joe will leave and they'll immediately begin arguing about something.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
  • Murr's fear of heights was brutally exploited in the skydiving punishment.
  • It happens again in the Live Punishment Special when Q picks him to be the first one to cross the tightrope.
  • "Hell-Copter" has Murr once again punished alongside Sal and sitting on the edge of a helicopter. Thankfully, he didn't have to jump like Sal did.
  • Murr also has a phobia of sharks. Guess whose punishment in the Hawaii episodes was to swim in an open water shark cage?
  • And for one literally involving snakes, he has to play a flute to charm actual snakes, freaking out the whole time. (He even makes the Indiana Jones quote.)
• You Keep Using That Word: At least twice, Murr has mistakenly said that he's "barren" because he can't have kids, leading the other Jokers to correct him that women who can't have kids are barren and men who can't are sterile. He then once covers his mistake by saying that he meant "baron", as in he's of royal lineage.

Joseph Anthony "Joe" Gatto

"If Ray Ray come 'round these parts looking for me, you don't go droppin' no dime. Do yous?"

• Achilles' Heel: After Joe got married to his wife, Bessy, he's gained a new weakness.
  • His Achilles heel was discovered in the season 3 premiere in the hot dog stand challenge, when he refused to say that a pig in a blanket is his wife on a cold day.
  • A season later, the Jokers played a challenge where each one must find a particular actor at a mall food court and kiss them. When Joe found his, an attractive young lady, the other guys brought out Bessy, who parked herself next to the actress. When Joe goes in for the kill, he chickens out and kisses Bessy instead. Leaving, he tells the other Jokers to go f--- themselves.
  • Later on in the season, Joe asks a woman some questions. When he gets to the question "Are you a good kisser?", he closes the book and tells her he's done. When asked if he found out if the woman was a good kisser, Joe replies "No, I'm good".
  • In the next season, the boys were managers at a Hooters restaurant. When it was Joe's turn, he first had to clink his wedding ring against a glass, which he did with some trepidation. When an attractive waitress passed by him, the guys told Joe to take off his ring and go after her, but he refused. He then turned to the camera, showed his ring, and said, "My Kryptonite."
• Affectionate Nickname: The other guys often call him "Joey." Interestingly enough, he signs his autograph as "Joey Gatto."
• Aside Glance: He throws these out quite frequently, usually whenever the challenge is ridiculous.
• Berserk Button: He appears to have a passionate hatred for bloggers, as shown in the intro of the first challenge pertaining to blogs.
  Joe: (mockingly) My blog's about puppies that can do somersaults! (goes back to his normal tone) Shut up! NO ONE CARES!!!
• Big Eater: Seriously, the guy can stuff an entire doughnut into his mouth!
  • There's a challenge where Joe is eating a large pastry during Murr's turn and Sal calls him out on it. It turns out that Joe had already eaten breakfast at home, namely a breakfast sandwich, a big bowl of macaroni and cheese, two slices of pizza, a sub sandwich, a pickle, AND an apple before he began eating the pastry.
    Joe: What's your point?
    Sal: You're like rail thin for what you eat.
    Q: You're like the Kate Moss of fat fucks.
  • While backstage during an unrelated challenge, Joe is shown to have devoured nearly an entire cheesecake by himself, to the point that paramedics had to be brought in because he had a severe sugar crash afterwards. To reiterate, this was not even part of a challenge, just Joe pigging out.
• Big Fun: Joe’s waistline has been the butt of a lot of ribbing and wisecracking, but he’s a good sport about it, and shamelessly funny himself. Probably most notably, he was once made to wear a spandex superhero outfit as “Captain Fat Belly.”
• Character Catchphrase:
  • "LARRY!"
  • "SUCK IT!" (Shouted multiple times during his "Captain Fatbelly" punishment at everyone who's not from Staten Island)
  • He's also the one most likely to sing the last four notes of the opening theme. ("Da-na-na-na")
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: After he left the show following season nine, he stops being mentioned altogether in it.
• Dragged into Drag: In "Bellydancer", "Dog Days of Bummer" and "Fe-Mail".
• Fearless Fool: Joe is constantly described as this by the other guys because he apparently has no fear, though there are lines even he won't cross. For example, Joe will shake his rear end in a woman's face, but couldn't work up the nerve to insert the word "circumcision" into a sentence. A case of Everyone Has Standards, according to Joe himself.
• Friend to All Children: He allowed Q to take a pass on ruining a little girl’s autographed picture of Yankee great Tino Martinez during the latter’s "Autograph Corrector" punishment, overruling both Murr and Sal. This is understandable, since he is the only one of the four who has children.
  • Subverted when he stole baseballs autographed by Mets pitcher Noah "Thor" Syndergaard for kids during practice at Citi Field for his "Take Me Out at the Ball Game" punishment. He did later admit that this was his most uncomfortable punishment ever.
• Funny Foreigner: Sometimes pretends to be this to get an edge in challenges.
• Fun Personified
• Imaginary Friend: We have yet to find Larry.
• Incoming Ham: Pretty often, particularly when Larry is mentioned.
• Large Ham: Is he ever.
• Naked People Are Funny: Narrowly subverted in "Strip High Five", where he survives humiliation in front of hundreds by managing to keep his boxers on. Also in "Down in the Dump", when he's wearing only Q's cap in front of his crotch, and during the "Sweat the Small Things" presentation for Sal's home invasion.
  • And in one of the White Castle challenges, "White Castle regulations is the cap and apron."
  • Then his rear on Q's computer during an identity theft presentation...
• Nerves of Steel: Joe got this label from the start, as the "shameless" one, but it got the display of a lifetime when he sat on a toilet in a cafe, threw the door open, and yelled for toilet paper for several minutes. See also Fearless Fool.
• No Indoor Voice: Whenever he calls for Larry.
  • In the first episode as well, when he screams a White Castle customer's order back to him.
• No Sense of Personal Space: His common trick of "nosing" (touching his nose to someone) slips into this category.
• Pet the Dog: In bonus footage of the punishment in which he had to ruin pictures signed by Yankee great Tino Martinez for fans at a meet-and-greet, Q begged the guys to give him a pass when his next target was a little girl with her father. Being the father of a young daughter himself, Joe snatched the microphone from Murr and Sal and emphatically granted the pass.
  Joe: (to Sal and Murr) You'll thank me when you have a little bambina.
• Put on a Bus: He left the show after season nine due to personal issues.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: His pet dog, Cannoli. Likewise for the other five dogs of his we meet over the course of the show.
• Sweet Tooth: Is often seen eating something sweet during challenges that take place at supermarkets or restaurants.
  • It got him disqualified, but in the "Weigh Too Much" challenge of "Butterfly Crime Scene," his strategy to pay the least for a large cup of self-serve frozen yogurt with toppings, which was sold by weight, was to stick his face in the cup and eat some. After Joe had helped himself to about half a cup of frozen yogurt in this way, the young man behind the counter threw him out of the shop.
  • Crossed with Big Eater in a few supermarket challenges; in one, he was already shown to be eating cookies when Q showed the audience more cookies and some cake that he (Joe) had brought into the offstage area for later consumption.
  • In another supermarket challenge, he snags a macaron from the package that Sal is holding, then, after polishing that off, proceeds to inhale half a dozen cannolis.
  • In the opening sequence for their Carlo's Bakery challenge, he is practically doing a potty dance while the other Jokers are laying out the rules, and once they finish, he turns and runs into the shop screaming, "Cannolis! Cannolis!"
  • At one point, he actually has a medical situation from eating too much cheesecake in just a few minutes. Of course, everyone jokes about it, including Joe himself.
    Joe: Jesus almost gave me the big thumbs-down!
• The Teetotaler: Shown in the nightclub challenge, the first cruise episode, and the New Orleans episode. In real life, Joe's father was an alcoholic, which contributed to his premature death, when Joe was just 19. Joe had never taken a drink before this, but because of his father's passing, his refusal to drink alcohol was cemented in stone.
  • Played With in the "Steal A Sip" challenge in which the Jokers were to use ridiculous straws to steal sips from strangers' alcoholic drinks at Dallas BBQ; since the objective was to just get one sip from a drink (unlike in New Orleans, when the Jokers competed to see which team could steal the most sips), Joe got the sip, but only enough to taste the drink and not swallow.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: One of Joe's signature traits. It becomes even funnier in "Stare Master" when he goes around staring at people in the gym without changing his expression and just staring. He even stares while eating a sub sandwich!
• Trademark Favorite Food: Cannolis, with doughnuts a very close second.
• Troll: Joe is the most prone to messing with the other guys, usually Murr, even outside of challenges. This comes back to bite him when the others giftwrap the entire contents of his house as a combination birthday gift and punishment.
• True Companions: He won Q's friendship test and didn't have to go over a cliff.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Out of the guys, he's more likely to go shirtless than the others for a stunt, showing off his belly.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: He sometimes puts on a quasi-Slavic accent that makes him sound like a bad Dracula-wannabe.

Salvatore Edward Anthony "Sal" Vulcano (Prince Herb in the latter half of Season 9)

"If you ever do that to me again, our real relationship is gonna be in jeopardy."

• Acrofatic: In spite of his girth, Sal is a very good dancer, which certainly stands out among the other three, particularly Q.
  Murr: You realize that Sal is the only one of us that has any kind of rhythm, right?
  Q: Tell you what, I love to watch him dance.
• Affectionate Nickname: He gave himself the nickname "Sally Retro" for his love of all things 1980's. The other guys still occasionally call him "Sally."
• Apologizes a Lot: This was turned against him in a punishment where he had to first step on someone's foot, then woof at a baby, sneeze on someone, blow an airhorn at someone, and finally, flip off an old lady, all without saying "I'm sorry." Seems like an easy punishment that any of the Jokers could do, right? Nope! Sal was asking to back out by just the second task. He soldiers on, growing more distressed with each passing task. When he completes his final task, he is screaming in agony.
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: His weapon of choice when it comes to challenges where he has to speak a different language.
• Berserk Button: Messing with his sister Jenna. He has stated that none of the other Jokers are allowed to date her. Murr's quirks can sometimes be this for him. Then he is forced to watch Murr marry Jenna.
• Butt-Monkey: He runs second to Murr in this category, since so many things irk him. Frequent targets include his germaphobia, his fear of cats, and fooling around with his sister Jenna.
• Camp Straight: Can sashay and pose like a runway model and affect mannerisms that rival the sassiest drag queens.
• Chick Magnet: Has managed to attract at least four women over the course of the series, more than any of the other guys.
• Corpsing: In-Universe. It's not hard to get him to fall on the floor laughing.
  • In fact, during the first "Now You See Me" challenge, the other guys lampshaded this during Sal's turn. He tried to show the others how well he could maintain his composure, but Joe got him to giggle by saying "fart noise." Just to be clear; Joe didn't actually make a fart noise, he merely said the words "fart noise," and Sal broke. That's how easy it is to make him laugh. Suffice it to say, he lost that challenge miserably.
  • In the challenge where the Jokers have to call out fake names without laughing (aka Cranjis McBasketball), this got lampshaded again. Sal laughed at a normal name the other Jokers gave him to read first (Frank Sampson), and they outright told him how hard it was going to be the further he got.
  • A rare subversion occurred during the "Cranjis McBasketball" segment of "Brow Beaten." Despite his reputation, Sal actually broke less than either Q or Murr did.
• Disappointed in You: His father sometimes shows up to express his disappointment in his son.
• Embarrassing Old Photo: A picture of Sal from when he was much heavier has resurfaced many times, including in a movie theater, a photo booth, and as an Employee of the Month picture at White Castle.
• Embarrassing Tattoo: Has one on his left thigh of Jaden Smith. He actually gets another Jaden Smith tattoo in the movie, this time on his right thigh.
• Everyone Has Standards: Admitted to feeling bad when watching Q get pummeled by Tommy Dreamer during the former's punishment in "The Lost Boy." He also watched with extreme discomfort when Q had to paint red X’s on art students’ canvases during his “X-Man” punishment.
• Gasshole: During the boardwalk massage challenge.
• The Hyena: More than the others, Sal will laugh so hard at a challenge that he'll fall over. He's usually the first to lose it.
  • During the first "Now You See Me" challenge, Sal went from completely composed to laughing hysterically in the blink of an eye upon seeing his father "marrying" Q.
• Insistent Terminology: "I'm not Mexican!"^explanationHe really isn't; Sal is of Italian, Cuban, and Puerto Rican heritage.
• Lethal Chef: In the hibachi restaurant challenge.
• The Load: In team challenges, Sal is the weakest link, due to being more prone to Corpsing than the others and worse at coming up with convincing responses on the fly. Joe especially seems to become visibly exasperated with him in numerous team challenges.
• Lovable Coward: He is very easily frightened, which the other guys exploit by making him endure a creepy cornfield, a haunted house, and a scary virtual reality game.
• Love Is a Weakness: Gets weepy around couples, which earns him a pass during the jewelry store challenge.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Sal is very protective of his sister Jenna; he has stated that none of the other Jokers are allowed to date her, and is understandably miffed when she appears in a video in which Q gropes her and in a slideshow presentation in which she is first seen kissing Q, then posing with a naked Q, and finally shown in bed with both Murr and Q. Exaggerated when Jenna and Murr got legally married for a Sal punishment.
• Neat Freak: To the point that he starts dry heaving when Murr accidentally spits in his mouth.
• Nervous Wreck: He's the fussiest member of the group by far, and thus the easiest to mess with.
• Nice Guy: So nice, he was able to do THIS .
• Pizza Boy Special Delivery: Referenced in his past as a delivery boy, having the door answered by a topless woman.
• Politeness Judo: His method of choice during challenges, particularly in the early seasons. It's eventually used against him in the "No Apologies Gauntlet" punishment, which included woofing at a baby and flipping off an old lady without him being allowed to say he was sorry.
• Self-Applied Nickname: He once gets the other Jokers to call him "Ja'Crispy".
• Shaking the Rump: His Double Dutch dance is a variant.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Benjamin Cat.
• Sudden Name Change: As punishment for losing the 10th episode of Season 9, he is publicly renamed "Prince Herb" (in the middle of Times Square, no less!) and was referenced by this new name for the rest of the season.
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: "Welcome to White Castle, bitch."
• Took a Level in Badass: He used to bow out of challenges a lot more frequently in the early seasons. He stopped doing this around the time he grew out his beard.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Murr. Q and Joe have jokingly stated that Sal and Murr wouldn't even be friends if they weren't in the picture.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: In addition to being germophobic (self-explanatory), Sal is acrophobic (afraid of heights), claustrophobic (afraid of enclosed spaces), and is especially ailurophobic (afraid of cats). Of course, the other guys are all too willing to exploit these fears. He's also easily scared by creepy little girls, to the point that he can list the times that the other Jokers have sent little girls to scare him (the corn maze, the VR room, etc).
• Would Hurt a Child: Tells a little girl set to scare him in the corn maze that he won't hesitate to punch her.