REVIEW: WE JUST GOT PUNK'D
Punk’d returns: Justin Bieber is no Ashton Kutcher when it comes to pranks
Punk’d is back on MTV after going on a five-year hiatus — its 9th season premiered Thursday night. This time around, Ashton Kutcher and his trucker hat are nowhere to be seen, and instead, we’re stuck with starting-the-transition-to-becoming-an-adult-singer, Justin Bieber — but luckily, only for tonight.
We learn in the episode that each week, a different guest host will be featured in the episode. People like Miley Cyrus, Bam Margera, Hayden Panettiere, Nick Canon and others will eventually end up punking people like Demi Lovato, Khloe Kardashian, Zac Efron, Snooki and Ronnie.
Perhaps it’s me getting older (and by older, I mean in pop culture years), because this list of people is uncomfortably skewing a little young for me.
After watching the episode, I couldn’t help but feel things were a little lackluster. Taylor Swift was the first victim of the season and perhaps it’s hard to get a good reaction from her, because she’s got the whole acting “surprised” during all occasions nailed down. When she “accidentally” sets a wedding boat on fire, her look of “oh shit, what did I just do?” closely resembles “oh my gosh, y’all! I just won another award!”
You can see a clip from the prank below:
Maybe I’m being a bit too harsh, because during the whole episode, I kept getting nostalgic for the old Punk’d that brought people like Justin Timberlake to tears, got Zach Braff to curse at little kids and had Kanye West steal his reel of film on the set of his music video.
Still, there was one standout from the episode and that was Bieber’s reversal punk on Miley Cyrus, who reacted in a way that I think most people prefer: the belligerent cursing, middle finger, pushing and shoving reaction.
All in all, the show is back, and will probably get better as different hosts come on and the show finds itself again, but if you’re into seeing celebrities flipping their shit, you’ve probably disregarded every negative thing I’ve had to say and will be glued to the TV screen Thursdays at 9 p.m. on MTV.
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Punk’d airs on Thursdays at 9 p.m. on MTV. You can catch the first full episode online at MTV.com