Most would agree that actor and comedian Eric Andre is a master when it comes to pulling off pranks, which comes from years of honing his skills. He’s since put them to use on his eponymous TV show and in his upcoming film, Bad Trip. However, you have to wonder if Andre himself has ever been pranked by anyone and, as it turns out, he has. In fact, some friends once pulled a pretty sweet prank on him, and it even led to him hitting on a complete stranger.
Due to Eric Andre’s tendency to prank people, one would imagine that anyone would be afraid to prank the comedian in fear of him seeking revenge. During my conversation with him and his Bad Trip co-star, Lil’ Rel Howery, Andre explained that this was the case. Though he admitted that a couple of friends once managed to pull one over on him when he was younger:
I mean my friends didn’t grow up pranking me too hard because they knew I would retaliate. One time my friends Kira and Christina, I was like at a bar with them in my early 20’s in New York, and I like got up to go to the bathroom and I came back and they were like, ‘Yo, that girl outside has been asking about you. She says you’re really cute.’ I was like, ‘What, really?’ This girl’s like waiting for a taxi or something. So they’re like, ‘Yeah, go talk to her. When you went to the bathroom, she keeps talking about you.’ So I ran out to talk to this woman, and I was like, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ And she was like, ‘Hey?’ And I was like, ‘How you doin?’ She’s like, ‘Can I help you?’ And she just like got in her taxi and drove off. I was like, ‘Guys, she didn’t like me at all.’ They were like, ‘Yeah, we just made all that up. We just pointed to some random lady waiting for a taxi. I was like, ‘Dammit!’
Well, that was certainly an awkward moment, which is ultimately what you want when you’ve fooled someone. You really have to give it up to Eric Andre’s friends for pulling off a simple but utterly sweet prank.
And Eric Andre isn’t the only Bad Trip star to be on the wrong end of a prank, either. Lil’ Rel Howery also revealed to me that he’s been pranked more than a few times. But in this case, the pranking isn’t being done by his friends:
My kids prank me all the time, I don’t know when they got into pranking me, it became weird. They like seeing me scared, I am easily scared of people just popping out on me. So they like hid in the closet, just popped out, and I started shaking. They’re like in tears laughing, and I’m trying to calm down.
Well, it’s like they say, “Start ‘em off young!” It sounds like Lil’ Rel Howery’s kids are already seasoned pranksters and, while he may find himself being tricked on multiple occasions, he has to be somewhat proud that they’re following in his footsteps.
But Eric Andre and Lil’ Howery definitely weren’t the ones being pranked in Bad Trip. The hidden-camera comedy sees their two characters embark on a trip from Florida to New York and, along the way, they employed various pranks -- even some wild ones that didn’t make it into the finished film.
You can check out Eric Andre and Lil’ Rel Howery’s tricks when Bad Trip cruises onto Netflix on March 26.
