James “Murr” Murray got dressed up as a human mop and hoisted 1,250 feet into the air outside the Empire State Building, marking the biggest physical stunt Impractical Jokers has ever attempted. Castmates Sal Vulcano and Brian “Q” Quinn handled the hoisting after Murray lost a challenge, sending him dangling near the top of the Midtown Manhattan skyscraper in a segment that will not air in full until next year.
The stunt, first reported by TMZ, took place outside the landmark building in New York City, with Murray suspended at a height matching the skyscraper's roof and top observatory deck. The Empire State Building, completed in 1930 and 1931, stands 1,250 feet tall at that level, according to the Empire State Building Observatory. Impractical Jokers is known for punishing whichever cast member loses a challenge, and this time that was Murray, the show's longtime punching bag for physical stunts.
A Pattern of Punishing Murr
Murray has taken the brunt of the show's most uncomfortable bits over the years, including skydiving, an impromptu public prostate exam, a catheter insertion, and forced tattoos, according to USA Today. The mop stunt fits that pattern, though the scale of dangling someone 100 stories above Manhattan streets outstrips almost anything the group has tried before. Murray himself hinted at what was coming months in advance, offering just three words, Empire State Building, as a clue during an appearance on The Preston & Steve Show in May, per a video posted to the show's Facebook page.
That early tease suggests the stunt was in the works well before cameras rolled, consistent with the kind of long-lead production planning needed to secure access to one of the world's most recognizable skyscrapers. The full segment will not air until 2027, leaving fans to wait for the complete footage even though word of the stunt is already circulating.
Staten Island Roots, Big Apple Ambitions
Murray, Vulcano, and Quinn originally met as students at Monsignor Farrell High School on Staten Island before forming their comedy troupe, The Tenderloins, back in 1999, according to Looper. More than two decades later, the trio pulling off a stunt atop one of New York's most iconic buildings carries a certain hometown-boys-made-good symmetry. It also isn't the group's first brush with high-wire theatrics in the city: for a live 100th-episode special in September 2015, the cast walked a tightrope five stories above South Street Seaport, according to a report at the time from TheFutonCritic.
The Empire State Building stunt arrives amid a strong run for the show. Season 13 premiered on TBS in July, following a Season 12 that drew 6.5 million total viewers and was described by Warner Bros. Discovery as the series' highest-rated season in its 15-year history, per TV Series Finale. Impractical Jokers originally debuted on truTV back in December 2011 before expanding its premieres to TBS and TNT in 2024 as part of a broader Warner Bros. Discovery network realignment.
A Landmark With Its Own Cleaning History
There's a bit of dark irony in dressing a grown man as a mop for this particular building. The Empire State Building has 6,500 exterior windows, and high-altitude window cleaning has been part of its identity since 1931, when workers scrubbed the glass without the benefit of modern suspended safety platforms, according to a 2010 report from The Guardian.
Any high-profile exterior activity at the skyscraper comes with tight security and permitting requirements. That was made clear just weeks earlier, on July 1, when two unauthorized individuals climbed the building's spire to unfurl a banner before being taken into police custody, as Hoodline reported at the time. A sanctioned television stunt involving a cast member suspended outside the building stands in sharp contrast to that unauthorized climb, underscoring how much coordination a production like this likely required.
The timing also lines up with a period of active promotional partnerships for the landmark, as international tourism shifts and competition from newer observation decks like Summit One Vanderbilt affect visitor numbers this year, Hoodline has previously reported. Hosting a major television stunt offers the kind of publicity building leadership may welcome as it competes for tourist dollars. Exactly how the mop segment will be structured within the Season 13 finale, and what safety rigging was engineered for Murray's 100-story suspension, remains to be seen when the full footage airs next year.
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