The Inspired Unemployed: The List review – taking the show on the road

For two seasons on 10 and Paramount+, The Inspired Unemployed (Impractical) Jokers brought good old-fashioned pranks back to our screens. And now we have their new show, The List.

Turns out there actually is a limit to how many times you can wiggle your arse in a fake yoga class or insult tradies while manning the front counter at Bunnings, as for a change this year sees the core of the team – Matt ‘Falcon’ Ford and Jack Steele – heading overseas to try their hand at a travel show.

Well, not exactly. They may have always dreamed of a series where they travel the globe ticking off items on their bucket list, but The Inspired Unemployed: The List has them taking on a very different kind of journey. They’re still seeing the world (across the six episodes they visit Germany, Japan, India, Finland, South Africa and Malaysia), but their dream job has turned into something of a nightmare.

The List: Germany

The first episode opens with a crowd fight scene somewhere in Malaysia, with narrator Angus Sampson saying over a freeze frame of the duo’s terrified faces ‘you may be wondering how these two ended up here’ in classic Guy Ritchie movie fashion. If you’ve seen the promos, you’re probably not.

Instead of seeing the sights when they visit a country, the duo have to find a local – the first episode is set in Germany, which means they’re meeting ‘the quirkiest ice cream vendor in Munich’, complete with steampunk top hat – who then gives them a list of tasks they have to complete.

They have no idea what they are ahead of time; sometimes they’re cool with things, other times they’re more than reluctant.

ScreenHub: The Inspired Unemployed (Impractical) Jokers Season 2 review

(Impractical) Jokers worked as well as it did because the pranks were largely kept in-house. Instead of tormenting innocent members of the public, the Inspired Unemployed had to embarrass and humiliate themselves.

It wasn’t always comedy gold: each episode was a competition where the loser had to perform an even more embarrassing task. Often that meant saying or doing something disruptive at a public event, which could be risky.

Watch The List trailer.

They stirred up some controversy last year when a Sydney event featuring feminists Antoinette Lattouf, Clementine Ford and Yumi Stynes also had Steele on board. The first three were trying to have a serious discussion; Steele was saying embarrassing lines fed to him by the rest of the team.

While the panellists were in on the joke, the audience was reportedly less than impressed, with some taking to social media to complain.

The List: on the road

Taking the show on the road largely avoids such issues. Instead, we get to see Falcon and Steele tackling tasks like carrying around loads of beer steins (each one weighs around 2.5 kilos) at Oktoberfest. They take part in a medieval fight club, visit a haunted castle, spend a day at a heavily pixelated nudist camp, and have a surprise final task foisted on them after they’ve had a bit too much to drink.

The focus is on the challenges, but you don’t have to look far to realise that this really is basically a travel show – it’s just that instead of talking to people about how great Oktoberfest is, they’re trying to carry around a dozen or more mugs full of beer at Oktoberfest.

They visit scenic castles (which happen to be haunted due to ‘hundreds of years of murderous atrocities’), explore history by swinging swords at each other, and just generally hang out having a good, if occasionally violent or scary, time.

Sampson as narrator is a strong addition (one the show leans on a fair bit to explain the various set-ups and challenges), the travel footage can be nicely scenic, and Steele and Falcon continue to have decent chemistry as just a couple of knockabout larrikins. But the shift from being tormented by their mates to an impersonal list turns out to be a surprisingly big drawback.

The List: glee team

A big part of the appeal of their previous work was the way we saw the glee of their mates coming up with even more embarrassing things for them to say and do. Anyone who’s ever been with a group of friends competing to come up with the funniest line or take on a topic knows the thrill as things escalate and the jokes get further out there.

Now there’s just a list. There’s definitely some fun ideas on it, but it’s not quite the same.

The Inspired Unemployed: The List premieres on 10 and Paramount+ on 1 May 2025 at 7.30pm.

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