Punk’d was MTV’s hidden-camera series built around elaborate pranks on celebrities.
The program premiered in 2003 and was created and initially hosted by Ashton Kutcher. Episodes staged convincing situations designed to make a target believe that something chaotic, embarrassing, or unexpected was happening before revealing the prank.
Punk’d became one of MTV’s defining reality-comedy formats of the early 2000s. Its victims included actors, musicians, athletes, and other public figures, and the show relied on the contrast between celebrity confidence and genuine surprise.
The title uses a stylized spelling of “punked,” meaning tricked or humiliated through a prank. It is sometimes confused with Scare Tactics, another hidden-camera program that focused more specifically on horror-themed scares rather than celebrity-centered practical jokes.