A correspondent has sent me details of broadcast on channel 10 as part of their new program ‘The Inspired unemployed impractical jokers’.   I’ve not seen the show but the website says:

The Inspired Unemployed Impractical Jokers have to do and say what they are told in secretly filmed challenges . If they refuse, they lose. At the end of the episode, the joker that loses the most challenges takes on the ultimate punishment.

Lifelong mates, Jack, Falcon, Dom and Liam receive commands through an earpiece and hidden cameras capture the chaos. This is the show that revels in The Impractical Jokers’ social awkwardness, as they are instructed to do and say the outrageous.

Episode 4 has the ‘jokers’ running a mock first aid course. In the video available on YouTube, the ‘instructor’ says, at about the 45 second mark, ‘I’ve been a paramedic for about three years …  – see:

For the episode on 10Play see  https://10play.com.au/the-inspired-unemployeds-impractical-jokers/episodes/season-1/episode-4/tpv230904uzvep but you do need to have an account to watch that version.

My correspondent is concerned about the ‘instructors’ claim that he ‘has been a paramedic for about three years’ delivered to

… an unsuspecting course who have been invited to learn CPR by the looks of it. My worry is the broadcast appears to encourage the use of a protected title by others who may watch the episode. I’d be very interested to hear your views.

I don’t think it’s an issue. Section 113(1) of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law says

A person must not knowingly or recklessly—

(a)        take or use a title in the Table to this section, in a way that could be reasonably expected to induce a belief the person is registered under this Law in the health profession listed beside the title in the Table, unless the person is registered in the profession, or

One of the protected titles is ‘paramedic’. Did he use the title in a way ‘that could be reasonably expected to induce a belief’ that he was registered?  The audience are in on the joke so there would be no suggestion that anyone watching the show would be misled.

As for the alleged participants the whole segment on 10Play takes a little over 10 minutes so there is clearly much more than is shown on the video. We don’t know what they knew, or were told or how they came to be there, nor what they were told after the event. In an interview about the program (Tess Connery ‘The Inspired Unemployed and the logistics of hidden camera shows’ mediaweek, 9 August 2023) Network EP Sophia Mogford is quoted as saying:

Crucial to it all is that we need to be able to get the release form signed, so you need to have the compliance of the general public afterwards. You need to be able to explain to them what’s happened and make them feel that the joke isn’t on them, it’s very much on boys, in order to make everybody feel comfortable in the situation.

So the whole joke is explained to them at some point and presumably as soon as it’s finished.  Even if for a few minutes the audience were misled I would think most people, and if push came to shove, a court, would not think that the title was used ‘in a way that could be reasonably expected to induce a belief the person is registered’.

I fail to see how the program ‘appears to encourage the use of a protected title by others who may watch the episode.’ The joke would have worked equally whether the person described themselves as a paramedic or not so perhaps the Paramedicine Board may write suggesting they don’t do it again, but I cannot imagine anyone would contemplate launching a prosecution against Channel 10 or the performers in the show.  

This blog is made possible with generous financial support from the Australasian College of Paramedicine, the Australian Paramedics Association (NSW), Natural Hazards Research Australia, NSW Rural Fire Service Association and the NSW SES Volunteers Association. I am responsible for the content in this post including any errors or omissions. Any opinions expressed are mine, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or understanding of the donors.