Elderly American 'superhuman athlete' accidentally ended up on 'Impractical Jokers' — and it changed his life

Brian Quinn, a.k.a. Q, has endured hilarious and embarrassing punishments from the other "Jokers." From demonstrating a wonky stress-relieving meditation to experiencing what pregnant women go through during labor, Q has done it all. But during a 2019 episode of "Impractical Jokers," Q’s rib-tickling comedy turned into a "wholesome" discovery as he realized he had unintentionally stumbled upon a "superhuman athlete." The episode, posted by Comedy Central UK in 2020, has more than 350,000 views and countless fans across the internet.

“Impractical Jokers” is an American hidden camera comedy and reality show in which three comedians and lifelong friends compete to embarrass each other publicly with a series of comical stunts and outrageous dares. The aforementioned episode, titled “Irritable Vowel Syndrome,” was about the “Jokers” seeking help from customers when escaping security at the grocery store and telling bizarre tales to diners at a food court. During one segment of the episode, while Q was performing a dare in the Fairway Market, he came across a man.

Dressed in a black coat and with white hair, the man was strolling in front of a grocery aisle with a cart.

"Do you know anything about grapes?" Q asked the man. "I am already in trouble here because the security guard hates my guts; he’s always pi**ed at me because I am always eating burritos in the store," added Q, dressed in an orange T-shirt. He asked the man what his name was. "David Jacobs," the old man replied.

Q asked the man to cover him in case the security guard popped up at the spot. "If you see the security guard, just scream out..." Seeing him stutter with confusion, Murr and the other Jokers interrupted him from behind the camera and told him a random sentence to finish his dialogue with Jacobs. He repeated the sentence to Jacobs, saying, "So just scream out, 'I’m not saying she’s a gold digger.'" Q then thanked Jacobs and walked away. Eventually, a security guard named Terry was brought to the scene.

Terry approached Jacobs, who was "trying to get a small quantity of grapes" from a shelf. The Jokers guffawed after noticing that Jacobs didn’t say a word to the guard. While the guard ran after Q, Jacobs didn’t do anything. "This guy just watched the whole thing in silence as he sampled the grapes," Murr said, cracking up. After the guard was gone, Q resumed his interaction with Jacobs, still holding burritos in his hands. Then, suddenly, out of the blue, he asked him how old he was and specified his age as 43 years. "How old do you think I am?" the old man cross-questioned him.

When Q guessed his age to be 57, Jacobs said, "You’re only off by 20 years. I am 77." The mouths of all the Jokers popped wide open as they heard his age. He asked Q to search for him on YouTube, as he was a former "superhuman athlete" and had won "three consecutive national championships." Meanwhile, the other guys jumped into the conversation, pretending to know about Jacobs’ stardom and embarrassing Q for not knowing it. Murr exclaimed, "My wife has the same birthday as you." Seemingly surprised, Jacobs humbly said, "I’ve never met someone who’s ever watched his YouTube channel on their own before."

One guy walked in holding several packets of bread in his hands. He gasped and dropped the packets, acting as if he was stunned to see Jacobs. Jacobs, on the other hand, seemed puzzled by the entire drama. While the old athlete seemed delighted by all the paparazzi, the guys requested to take a selfie with him. With the sound of a click, as they took a selfie, the episode wrapped up.

And even though Jacobs was a star athlete of his time, his name was soon forgotten, and not many people knew of him. With an unintentional appearance in this comedy show, Jacobs’ glorious history came to attention, and he gained newfound fame. Jacobs was an American trampoline gymnast in the 1960s. According to a Facebook post by NCAA Men’s Gymnastics Alumni, Jacobs won "the synchronized trampoline title at the 1966 Trampoline World Championships" and "individual titles at the 1967 and 1968 World Championships."

Thousands of fans toasted the comedy show, seeing how this episode brought the acknowledgment and recognition that the former athlete deserved. "He may not have been really 'noticed' by those guys, but now he’s more popular than ever and has real fans because of the show," said @arcangeloiurato. @nidhim7632 said it was “so wholesome.”