During its heyday in the 2000s, Punk’d built a reputation by pranking Hollywood A-listers like Kim Kardashian using unfathomable scenarios. Most of the outrageous pranks paid off, with the stars at the center of them left mad, sad or utterly shocked. But not all the ventures were successful, as its been rumored that certain episodes were scrapped due to the target figuring things out. One person who didn’t fall for anything was Gabrielle Union, who was a target of the show on different occasions. And just recently, she and series alum Dax Shepard hilariously recalled the multiple failed attempts.
The major misses came to light when Gabrielle Union was a guest on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast. As mentioned on the show, he host had interviewed the actress' husband -- former NBA star Dwayne Wade -- in 2022, so they're definitely familiar with each other. However, the former Parenthood cast member pointed out they'd met more than two decades earlier. Union couldn’t recall when or where she'd met him, leading Shepard to mention her unaired Punk’d episodes:
You’re ready for this. You’re the only person in my tenure at Punk’d that didn’t fall for the joke [out] of the 26 people I was involved with pranking. You were the only person that was like ‘Hmmm, this is bullshit.’
Upon the podcast host recalling his Punk’d days, the actress immediately recalled being on the popular hidden camera show. She even specifically remembered how many times she was on it, saying that the crew "tried twice" to get her. Dax Shepard further clarified that he was only part of one of the attempts, and it's very specific:
I was only a part of the Armas satellite dish. We put it in your front yard.
Clearly, he just wanted to make sure his guest (and listeners) knew that he personally only failed once. From here, the Inspection star detailed the first failed trick the MTV show tried to play on her:
That was the second attempt. [The first attempt] it was a car crash. They tried to fake like my car had been hit or something with my car in a parking garage… I feel like I came back and either my car was gone or something. And I’m like ‘No, no.’ Ashton was trying to save it, and then the more the weird lying starts, that’s like ‘This is Punk’d,’ and I think I probably said ‘This is Punk’d.’
This first fake scenario actually triggered Gabrielle Union, as she called parking garages “the bane of her existence.” She brought up her anxiety associated with them and remembered where her car is parked. Dax Shepard corrected her by saying that those ventures happened before the prank reality series’ first season premiered. Shepard then shed light on the second time the team tried to get Union:
If I remember correctly, you were married… You were somewhere in the Hollywood Hills, like facing the Valley. Maybe you lived [in] south Woodland hills. And it was a curvy street, and the premise was your husband had signed up for a cable package? Not knowing that it was an enormous satellite dish like the kind you see NASA uses. So, in your modest front yard, it was in the Hills.
Anyone would be thrown off when seeing a huge satellite dish (associated with space exploration) in your yard. Union recalled pulling up to her home with the dish in her driveway, and it apparently didn't take her long to sense what was really going on:
No, You guys put it in my driveway. You know on a hillside there’s no parking. So, that was the first order of business where I could park… [Thinking] this is not a thing, and then Jamie Foxx was trying to sell it, but we were having a fight party that day. And I was like a) I didn’t put anything past my first husband, but I was like ‘No.’
So the Cheaper by the Dozen star already came into the outrageous situation with a healthy amount of skepticism. It's also interesting to hear that Jamie Foxx was involved, and it seems that little detail had even slipped Shepard's mind:
I had forgotten Jamie Foxx was a part of that… He and I kept going back to this garage. So, I was the person delivering the shitty news, and I had an earpiece in. So, I made my pitch. I explained what had happened on the paperwork [, saying] ‘This was the package that you signed up for,' and the look on your face is like absolutely not and so then, you walked away.
After Union caught on and walked away from Shepard, he mentioned series creator Ashton Kutcher trying to persuade him to push the prank even more. But the podcast host recalled having to give Kutcher a reality check after Union’s skepticism kicked in:
I know Ash can hear me because I’m mic’ed, and I have an earpiece, and I’m like ‘This is gonna happen.’ And he’s like ‘no, no,’ and I’m like ‘No, let me tell you something. I just looked in her eyes. It’s unsavable. We made a bunch of attempts, but we never got you on the hook… I mean, it was a bummer for me because I [had] fucking drove out to Woodland Hills, and I got in a stupid outfit and the whole nine, and we had nothing to show for it afterward, but I applaud your skepticism.
So I'd say that the chief takeaway from both of these situations is that you simply can't pull one over on Gabrielle Union. The star -- who recently voiced a character in Disney's Strange World -- is just too astute. So if Ashton Kutcher's proposed Punk'd reboot does ever get off the ground, don't expect her to be one of the prankees.
The actress will return as a guest star on a different sequel series -- The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder -- later this year though, and you'll be able to stream her episode using a Disney+ subscription. You can also watch classic episodes of Punk'd if you're a Hulu subscription-holder. And don't forget to look over our 2023 TV schedule for more small-screen premieres.
