Punk’d (2020): Season One Review

Synopsis: Punk’d is back! And no one is safe! The iconic series returns with Chance the Rapper as host—masterminding the biggest pranks behind the scenes. The biggest stars are about to learn what happens if their fates were up to Chance.

Format: All episodes streaming now on Quibi.

Cast: Chance the Rapper, Ty Dolla $ign, Chloe Bridges, Miles Brown, Sabrina Carpenter, Adam DeVine, Scott Disick, Liza Koshy, Marsai Martin, French Montana, Offset, Quavo, Takeoff, Lil Nas X

Although I didn’t grow up with access to MTV and the original Punk’d, I snapped up each DVD as it hit my local Video Ezy. The fact that this reboot now streams on my phone—when I used to rent it from a brick-and-mortar store—definitely isn’t lost on me.

Chance the Rapper is your new Punk’d host, with MTV teaming up with Quibi for the latest iteration. It’s the same core concept: Chance pulls pranks on unsuspecting celebrities, usually with help from someone in their circle. There’s the set-up, the reaction, and then the reveal. Chance sits in a nearby control room watching everything on monitors and directing the actors with lines to push the prank along. If you’ve seen Punk’d before, it’s the same stuff—now one prank per episode—and with less imagination.

As host, Chance is fine. He seems genuinely into it and gets super excited even when the pranks are pretty mild. But that’s the thing—he’s just the host. Ashton Kutcher wasn’t simply a host of the original; he played a conniving kid with a penchant for cooking up simple, fantastic pranks.

If you grew up with that early 2000s era of MTV—shows like Jackass and the original Punk’d—this will be a tough sell. The pranks are mostly tame, often lame, and rarely funny.

The focus seems to be on making pranks look bigger rather than starting with simple but effective ideas. A lot of bits boil down to messing with a celebrity’s car. In Adam DeVine’s case, it’s pretending to obliterate it.

Too often they don’t push the envelope far enough for the premise to land. In one episode, they try to prank Lil Nas X by arresting his clothing designer for money laundering. She’s escorted away without much fuss, the “cops” ask for selfies with Lil Nas X to keep the peace, and he mostly looks confused. There isn’t enough comedy or drama to make it engaging on either front.

Maybe there’ll be some hits eventually, but right now this reboot feels like a dud—especially in a world where YouTube pranksters (real and fake) are delivering bolder, sharper bits.