The Fear

Michael Carbonaro is a magician by trade, but a prankster by heart. Michael performs baffling tricks on unsuspecting people in everyday situations, all caught on hidden camera. Everyone is left stunned and delighted, even though they have no idea what just hit them.

Scare Tactics is a hidden camera/comedy television show, produced by Kevin Healey and Scott Hallock. Its first two seasons aired from April 2003 to December 2004. After a hiatus, the show returned for a third season, beginning July 9, 2008. The first season of the show was hosted by Shannen Doherty. Stephen Baldwin took her place in the middle of the second season. Since the beginning of the third season, the show has been hosted by Tracy Morgan. The fourth season began on October 6, 2009. In Europe the first season of the program aired on MTV Central from 2003 to 2004. The show is also broadcast in Australia on FOX8, in Canada on MTV, in India on AXN, in Russia on MTV Russia, in Turkey on Dream TV, in Poland on TV Puls, in Finland on Jim, in South Korea on Q TV, in Sweden initially on TV6 and currently on TV11.

Could you pass off a complete stranger as your new best friend for one short weekend to win £10k, even if your 'friend' was actually a brilliant actor hell-bent on humiliating you?

Monstrous frights meet hilarious reveals on this hidden-camera prank show as real people become the stars of their own full-blown horror movie.

You've Got A Friend was a 2004 reality comedy show on MTV, produced by Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg. It was launched near the same time as their reality prank show Punk'd, and although successful in ratings, was cancelled at the end of the first season so they could focus on its more popular counterpart. The show filmed contestants having to tolerate a 'friend' for 48 hours, while filmed on hidden camera in their home and different public settings. The 'friend' would be a trained improvisational comedian, who would progressively torment the contestant, their friends and loved ones. The catch was that the friends and family of the contestant were unaware of the folie à deux. If able to endure the embarrassment caused by the irreverent demands of the friend, the contestant would win a cash prize.

What happens when the biggest stars in the world get too high on the Hollywood hog? When their bank accounts start swelling bigger than their heads? Master prankster Ashton Kutcher is there to punk 'em down to earth.

Repeat After Me is an American hidden camera comedy television series. Host Wendi McLendon-Covey instructs celebrities to interact with people via a remote ear piece.

Hi-Jinks is a hidden camera show that premiered on Nick at Nite in 2005. The show is hosted by Leila Sbitani. The show gives parents a chance to play practical jokes on their children, in a similar fashion to Candid Camera. Taking a cue from Punk'd, each show features a prank that is conducted with the assistance of a known celebrity.

A group of local animal control workers' lives are complicated by the fact that animals are simple, but humans are not. Leading the crew is Frank, an opinionated, eccentric animal control officer who may not have gone to college but is still the most well-read person in the room. In his past life as a cop, Frank tried to expose corruption in his department, but his efforts got him fired, leaving him cynical and curmudgeonly. Despite his rough exterior, he is blessed with an almost superhuman ability to understand animals.

Oblivious is a comedy game show that aired within the United States of America on TNN/Spike TV at various points between 2002 and 2004. It was also aired on Challenge in the UK, Ireland and The Comedy Channel in Australia and still airs on Real TV in South Korea and on TV2 Zebra in Norway. It no longer airs on Spike TV. Comedian Regan Burns served as host. A DVD was later released featuring the best clips of both seasons.

Damage Control is a reality TV series produced by MTV. Hosted by Simple Plan frontman Pierre Bouvier, and directed by Sebastian Doggart, the show was a real-life version of the movie Risky Business. It first aired on MTV on March 6, 2005. The last episode was broadcast on April 24, 2005.

Kevin Hart and Nick Cannon take their famous friendly feud to the next level. It's an all-out war as one celebrity pranks another, and the payback begins. Each episode features celebrities planning and perpetrating some of the wildest and most viral pranks on each other, as hosts Nick Cannon and Kevin Hart choose one winner of the Prank War. Celebrities are always trying to up the ante as each prank is more elaborate than the next - all of them with unexpected twists, embarrassing situations and shocking reveals.

Bailey Kipper's P.O.V. is a US children's television series that aired in 1996 on CBS Saturday Mornings, starring Michael Galeota, John Achorn and Meg Wittner. It lasted for only 13 episodes of 30 mins length each and received airings on the BBC's CBBC programming strand as well as on Nickelodeon in the UK. The show has not yet been released on VHS or DVD. The series was one of the first efforts by CBS to comply with the then-new E/I ratings.

Trigger Happy TV is a hidden camera/practical joke reality television series. The original British edition of the show, produced by Absolutely Productions, starred Dom Joly and ran for two series on the British television channel Channel 4 from 2000 to 2003. Although Channel 4 is owned and operated by the Channel Four Television Corporation, he made a name for himself as the sole star of the show, which he produced and directed with cameraman Sam Cadman.

One couple, one challenge: for a boyfriend to last the entire evening at his girlfriend's parent's house, as he Meets the Parents, unaware that his every move is being recorded on 30 hidden cameras. What the boyfriend doesn't know is that everyone in the house is an actor.

A small traditional (but fictional) family pranks everybody that walks through their door.

A weekly half hour hidden camera prank show, where our group of pranksters show the world how they think a lady should act. Ladylike takes the attitude and subject matter of Girl Code and steps out of the studio and onto the street where the cast will prank their friends and the unsuspecting public. Along the way they may even break down some social barriers and have fun the way only a real lady can!

Impractical Jokers: Inside Jokes packs classic, fan-favorite episodes of the show with shareable pop-up facts directly from the Jokers themselves, giving viewers a unique and unprecedented look behind the curtain.

Monster House was an Australian reality/comedy television series broadcast on the Nine Network. Debuting on 12 February 2008, the program was hosted by Bernard Curry, brother of Stephen and Andrew Curry. The show centred around the Webb family, played by actors Rebel Wilson, Celia Ireland, Travis Cotton, Jody Kennedy, Julie Herbert and Glenn Butcher, who act as a fictional family in a house purpose-built with hidden cameras to capture their performances and those of the unsuspecting guests who get brought into the family's "web". The show debuted with an unimpressive 793,000 viewers tuning in. It was pulled from schedules after its second episode, and axed by the network the following day. Nine had commissioned ten unaired episodes of the show, which were filmed in December 2007 and January 2008. Nine stated it would air the remaining episodes later in the year, and did so as counter-programming during the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Videomatch was a late-night 120-minute Argentine comedy show hosted by Marcelo Tinelli and broadcast on Telefe that debuted in 1989 in the midnight time slot. Currently the show still airs under the name of Showmatch.