Meet The Pranker... aka Slaphead
Meet Ross Lee, aka The Pranker, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Three's new hidden cam scam artist...
When does The Pranker become the pranked? When ambition surpasses common sense and basic memory, that's when. Ross Lee explains how taking an idea just that little bit too far backfired on him... doggy style.
"One of my many weird and wonderful characters in The Pranker is a character called ‘Slaphead’.
The premise of Slaphead is that I enter a hairdressers, paint glue all over my head, roll around on the floor and walk out a happy baldy with new hair. It’s not the sort of thing you can practice as it’s a messy stunt and the bald head cap takes hours to put on. So we just had to suck it and see.
We turn up at the location, see the punter that we are setting up, in this case a nice hairdresser chap, start the cameras rolling, and in I go...
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The only problem was the idea was so ‘weird’ that the victim, or the ‘mark’ as they like to call them, did nothing. He Just stared at me, as if he were watching a cat about to get run over by a bus. He held a sort of glazed, helpless, expression. Luckily, it all looked so bizarre that it’s still funny.
What wasn’t as funny was when I tried out the same stunt in a hairdressers for dogs. I skulked in and poured an entire bin of freshly cut dog hair over my body in front of a terrified young girl as she shaved a St Bernard.
I knew it was a mistake immediately, as my eyes began to water, my skin turned into red bubble wrap and I had dog hair (along with nits and god knows what else) in my throat, ears, in my socks and down my pants. I’d actually forgotten that I’m allergic to dogs. This was indeed a curt reminder. As I tried washing myself down in the cold ‘dog shower’, that resembled a large men’s urinal, an image entered my head.
It was me on a hot beach, surrounded by a bevy of beauties, all fanning me as I sipped on a Manhattan and laughed about the time I was blind, itching, and taking a cold dog shower."
If you think this is extreme you ain't seen nothing yet... and you really don't want to miss Episode 1... tonight, 22.30 on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Three.
Comment number 1.
At 16th Jul 2011, europeeno wrote:ohhh missed this - hurrah for iPlayer
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Comment number 2.
At 27th Jul 2011, Sophie wrote:By now you would suspect there would be decent shows around, which usually there is on the ´óÏó´«Ã½, however, for what is meant to be a new humorous show I can honestly say there wasn't one point in that show that made me laugh. I found it more sickening, I genuinely feel disgusted and quite disturbed by this regardless to these being so called "pranks". I honestly do not understand how ´óÏó´«Ã½ could degrade their high standards with such a show.
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Comment number 3.
At 29th Jul 2011, Leighton wrote:I have to agree with Sophie, the Pranker is in no way funny at all, it is just like Dom Jolly's old show, and that was not funny either..... what is happening at the Beeb? None of the pranks seem belieavable at all??? what a waste of airtime.... thumbs down, very dissapointed :(
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Comment number 4.
At 29th Jul 2011, dennis aspinwall wrote:i have to say well done if you have been paid for this absolute load of very sad attempt of ,sorry i don't know how to describe it,humour(not).It is not even childish more like desperate.I wonder about the judgement of whoever commissioned it,.
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Comment number 5.
At 29th Jul 2011, Super D Boon wrote:Actually I think this show is quite funny. The music shop one was hillarious where he's told to stop playing the drums then when the shopkeepers' back is turned he rushed to the drumkit and starts bashing away like Keith Moon. Not exactly original but funny in places.
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Comment number 6.
At 29th Jul 2011, fizz16 wrote:Ross Lee’s show is incredibly disappointing and quite frankly lacks comedic humour, the show hasn’t made me or anyone I know laugh so far! Ross Lee comes across more desperate then funny. His show also lacks originality, how many times have we seen desperate comedians making a fool of themselves for entertainment purpose..my guess a lot! .. other comic who use prank as humour really do sell it as their own AND they manage to entertain the audience! But Ross lee, his too cringe worthy and it’s not even funny type of cringe.. its more get him off the air cringe! Any monkey can produce a show like this, it's nothing special .. his shows is much better suited for YouTube then ´óÏó´«Ã½ three. I’m sorry to sound like a broken record.. but those pranks!! agh!!!!!There soo old school and intensely annoying ... I don’t mean the entertainment type of annoying BTW!.. I would rate this show 2/10 ( and that's me being generous)
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Comment number 7.
At 5th Aug 2011, len wrote:Ross i think your great mate,that one you done when you dressed up as a devil worshipper in the bedroom with the guy trying to rent the house was great!
His reaction as he tried to call someone when saying what you doin man?
it was great,and some of them stunts take balls as you never know how people will react! cant wait for the next show ! If people dont like the show why watch it?
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Comment number 8.
At 10th Aug 2011, Juplika wrote:Do yous know if there's a way to apply for this?
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Comment number 9.
At 12th Aug 2011, scatteredmist wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 10.
At 14th Aug 2011, VikingBC wrote:Ross Lee isn't trying to re-invent the wheel. Yes, we know it's all been done before(Candid Camera, Trigger Happy TV etc). Not everybody wants "edgy", political or topical humour. Sometimes a bit of ridiculous situation type humour can do the job and I for one find this show funny.
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Comment number 11.
At 19th Aug 2011, FrankyR wrote:I'd agree wholeheartedly with comments #2,3 and 4 - just not even close to being funny. Like much of the new humour on ´óÏó´«Ã½3 such as the truely crass 'tank commander' just another load of self indulgent drivel from the performer imo.
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Comment number 12.
At 24th Aug 2011, jismith1989 wrote:I thought this show was very funny, I've loved it and looked forward to every episode, so I find it hard to understand the comments that take such a different view, but I suppose that we all have our own opinions.
It's not especially original, but it's not supposed to be -- it's just good old belly-laughing comedy. (I really like Trigger Happy TV too though.) I don't want to get pretentious about it, because it's one of the least pretentious shows on TV, but these kind of pranks shows almost give some form of sociological insight too, as one of the best, and most funny, things is to see how ordinary people react to very strange situations. I'm not a huge fan of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Three as a lot of its programmes are shoddy (though the situation isn't nearly as bad as it was a couple of years ago), but this is great, lowest common denominator but in absolutely the best way. I really hope that they commission another series.
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Comment number 13.
At 17th Jan 2012, gringo wrote:I've just discovered this show and personally I think it's a stroke of comic genius. Candid camera for the 21st century, like only the UK could ever produce and I loved it. Evidently it's not to everyone's taste but who's holding a gun to your head?
Favourite sketch is the Silence of the Lambs, took me a while to recover after that one
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