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How Much of ‘Bad Trip’ Is Real? How Eric Andre Pulled Off Those Epic Pranks

Where to stream:, the 'impractical jokers' moved to tbs for season 11 — but murr and q tell us all about how it's the same funny show it's always been, johnny knoxville sued by former 'prank panel' producer for being tased, stream it or skip it: ‘trolls band together’ on peacock, a threequel stuffed with visual tomfoolery and cutesy karaoke, stream it or skip it: ‘disenchantment’ part 5 on netflix, as matt groening’s epic fantasy comes to an end.

Believe it: Eric Andre ‘s Netflix movie Bad Trip is about as real as prank movies get. Those who watch The Eric André Show already know that the absurdist comedian has no qualms about wreaking havoc on the unsuspecting general public. But for Bad Trip , André teamed up with producer Jeff Tremaine—best known as the director of the Jackass franchise—to create an actual story connected to his wild pranks.

In the film, André stars as a car wash employee named Chris who has a chance encounter with his crush from high school, Maria (played by Bones actor Michaela Conlin). Maria tells Chris to visit her in New York, so Chris enlists his best friend Bud (comedian Lil Rel Howery ) to embark on a road trip. The two friends borrow a car from Chris’s sister, Trina (played by Tiffany Haddish ), not knowing that she has recently broken out of prison.

That story is fictional, but the absurd things these characters do on their “road trip” are real things that the Bad Trip production did to real people.

How much of Bad Trip is real?

Every reaction to a prank you see in Bad Trip is real. In an interview with Decider , Andre explained that while there are actors who work with the production to help pull off his pranks on real people, you never see their reactions on screen. “Our whole thing is that there’s not a single fake reaction in the movie,” André said. “We never had people pretend they were in shock or anything. We had like an ethos about it. Because even if there’s one fake reaction in the movie, it jeopardizes all the rest of them.”

That said, André did not really cut off his hand in a blender or get into a horrific car accident, as you see his character experience in the film. Those are carefully planned pranks intended to fool the public involving professional stunt performers, fake blood, and gorilla suits. Read more about how André pulled off the stunts below.

Are the people in Bad Trip actors?

Very few of the people you see on screen—besides Andre, Howery, Tiffany Haddish as Trina, and Michaela Conlin as Maria—are actors. As the end-credits scene reveals, that Army guy who gave André solid life advice and then took a hit of his vape was real. The worker who thought he was helping Tiffany Haddish escape from prison was real. The bisexual waitress who doled out love advice was real. The guy with the dreadlocks and tie-dye shirt who helped André with the car crash was real, too—though Andre told Decider that he fooled Iron Man director Jon Favreau with that one.

“Even the guy in that scene—the guy with the dreadlocks and the peace sign that was really helping us out? I showed the movie to Jon Favreau, an early cut of it and he goes, ‘Dude, I thought even that guy was an actor until the end credits, where you show all the reveals!'” André said. “So that’s what I want to stress and reiterate: We go to these great lengths because we want every single reaction to be authentic. You feel the authenticity and the reactions.”

Eric André and Lil Rel Howery really got chased out of a barbershop in Bad Trip:

Yes. Andre explained to Decider how that prank went down:

It was one of the first days we were filming and crews were still getting on their feet. [We got sent to] the wrong barbershop. So our hidden camera ops were in another barbershop a few doors down. We got sent to the wrong place! That’s why there’s only the exterior shot, unfortunately. But you caught the tail end of it—basically, we went in there, Rel and I, and our penises are stuck in the Chinese finger trap. We entered this like, really hood barbershop, we went to the guy and I said, “Hey sir, sorry to bother you…” And he’s like giving a guy a haircut! He’s giving the guy a fade! [Laughs.] “Excuse me sir, we got our dick caught in a Chinese finger trap. Can we borrow those scissors and you can cut us out of this thing?” And the guy was just like, “Aw, hell no!” And he had like murder rage in his eyes and he looked for a gun. He told us later that he left his gun at home and he usually doesn’t. Thank God. Looked for the gun, grabbed his knife, and then chased us out. Then you can kind of see the rest. And I was stuck in this dick trap contraption, so I can’t run! So I’m like, “Ahh!” Me and Rel are like going in opposite directions. It was like Laurel and Hardy.

The “dick trap contraption,” however, was not André and Howery’s real penises, but prosthetics. That didn’t make the fear any less real, however. In an interview for the press notes, producer Jeff Tremaine said, “You know, this guy ran out with a knife, and it’s not very easy to run away when you’re connected by prosthetic penises.”

Tiffany Haddish really fooled a city worker into helping her escape from prison:

Obviously, Tiffany Haddish did not really escape from prison, but the Bad Trip production really did trick that city worker into thinking that she had.

“One of the best reactions in the whole thing is when Tiffany escapes off the prison bus,” producer Jeff Tremaine said in an interview for the press notes. “A guy is cleaning graffiti off a wall as this prison bus pulls up. The guard gets out, walks past him, and all of a sudden Tiffany drops out of the bottom of the bus and starts talking to the guy. And the guy, looking out for her, tells her ‘You gotta go. You gotta get out of here.’ I had no idea that she would be so good at the hidden camera game. She’s just a natural at taking people for a ride.”

Eric André lured real people to a new zoo opening for the gorilla prank:

Andre pulled back the curtain on how he pulled off the bit where he was attacked and violated by a gorilla for Decider. He said:

We would do stuff like put stuff on Craigslist, like, “New zoo just opened up, free admission, bring a friend and you’ll get free food!” We would entice people like that. When you film in a location, you have to get permission for the location because it’s a private place of business. But we’re not pranking anybody that’s in on it. Nobody that’s in on it is in the frame. We’re not cutting to a reaction of a zoo worker like “Oh my god!” So, we had the Zoo master who worked there corralling the people we were pranking into the “prank cage,” as it was in that zoo. When you’re shooting in a private location, six hours out of that 12 hour day is the art department and the camera department setting up their hides and their cameras—robo-cams, little backpack cameras, little tiny GoPros hidden in fake bushes. It’s like a CIA operation. You have the art department building fake trees and fake animal cages. The camera department is rigging these like hidden cameras. So, to be able to do that you need to get permission from whatever location you’re pranking. However, you don’t show the people. Anybody that’s in on it is not featured in the image.

Bad Trip used a stunt driver to stage a real car crash:

Andre also walked Decider through how he faked the car crash, which involved tricking a group of people in Atlanta who thought they were on an Art Walk. He said:

Our stunt coordinator, who’s a precision driver, did the car stunt: drove the car, flipped the car—I think it’s called the sidewinder—flipped it, boom! The car crashed. He got out, we made sure he was safe. Then as makeup is putting fake blood and scratches all over Rel and I, we ran into the flipped car, got in position. That group of people that we were pranking, they thought they were on an “Art Walk of Atlanta,” like a graffiti Street Art Walk. So one of my producers is pretending they’re a street art curator, like a block and a half, two blocks away. He has his earphones in like an iPhone earbud, but that’s really his communication. So the other producers are right, like, “Alright, Charlie flipped the car. Alright, Rel and Eric are in place. Cue the art group.” So then he’s like, “Ah, that brings me to my next part. Here’s a piece of graffiti that blah blah blah… Oh, my God, a horrible car accident!” [ Laughs .] “Oh my god, that car just crashed!” Then he ran over, then everybody else in the group is like, “What?” Then they ran over. And then, you know, Rel and I start crawling out of like, shattered glass all in a daze.

The Bad Trip musical number took weeks of rehearsal, and two separate shoots:

In an interview for the Bad Trip press notes, Andre and director Kitao Sakurai explained that the film’s musical number was filmed in two public locations: Once in Atlanta, and once at a mall in Los Angeles.

“The first time it was too much of a ‘guerilla style’ thing,” Andre said, “and we realized we needed to shoot it really beautifully and cinematically — as cinematic as a hidden camera movie can be, and make it feel like Singing in the Rain. The version that made it into the movie is the cannibalized version of both the old shoot and the new shoot.”

André even took dancing lessons.  “I was rehearsing at the mall weeks before we shot, going over the location, and even secretly going to dance studios,” says Andre. “All that work paid off because, by the time we filmed, I felt actually good about my dancing which is typically very embarrassing for me.”

Eric André really did dangle from a roof for the Bad Trip finale… with an added precaution:

In an interview for the film’s press notes, director Kitao Sakurai explained that Haddish was secretly holding a camouflaged safety cable that was secured to the rooftop, in order to make sure André didn’t really fall. “We didn’t fake it or cheat it,” Sakurai said. “Everything you’re seeing is legitimately real. The fact that people fully believed that this crazy dangerous thing was happening and that they decided to get involved, that they decided to take it upon themselves to try and get Tiffany to pull Eric up onto the roof, was incredible.”

André added that the production did have a few of their own people in the crowd to encourage the reactions. “The people on the street were so engaged with what she was doing that they didn’t really notice that we had a guy down there, passing them a megaphone to help them negotiate.”

So there you have it! Hearing all the work that goes into making a movie like Bad Trip , it’s no wonder that it took five years to make. And be sure to stick around for the Bad Trip credits, which features footage of the moment that André and his team revealed to the people they were pranking that they’re on a hidden camera show. It’s all in good fun.

Watch Bad Trip on Netflix

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How Much of Netflix's Bad Trip Is Scripted? The Answer Is Surprising

If you can't go on a road trip yourself right now, then the next best thing you can do is watch Netflix's new hidden-camera comedy flick, Bad Trip . Starring Eric André, Lil Rel Howery, and Tiffany Haddish, Bad Trip follows two friends on a prank-filled road trip to New York, and though it's undeniably hilarious, it's unclear how much of the movie is scripted and how much is actually real. But just like Borat , Bad Grandpa , and other unscripted comedy prank films, the pranks and the reactions are all very real — so real, in fact, that Howery feared for his life at one point and almost quit the movie.

During an interview with USA Today , André discussed that scene where Chris and Bud pretend they're bound together by a Chinese finger trap — but of course, it's not their fingers that are stuck. The two men go to an Atlanta barbershop looking for a pair of scissors, and an unamused barber ends up pulling out a knife on the actors. That whole scene? Completely real. "Part of my brain was like, 'Wow, I could die right now,'" André recounted. "Another part of my brain goes, 'This is going to be great footage.' I felt the movie needed a couple of death-defying scenes to give it real stakes. To make it feel raw and intense." According to André, his costar was more than a little freaked by the whole incident. "He walked from the movie," André continued. "We had to seduce him back."

Though the knife-brandishing barber presented a real threat, director Kitao Sakurai took precautions to make the filming process as risk-free as possible. "It's such a stressful process because it's the real world," Sakurai told USA Today . "The benefits of doing something like this are also the dangers of it. Things are unpredictable. You're working in a crowd with people that don't even know they're on camera. Really anything can happen." To lessen the threat, Sakurai put together a team headed by ex-law enforcement officials to vet potential prank victims, and they had a stunt coordinator on set who previously worked on Jackass and Punk'd . André also had a safe word ("popcorn"), which he unfortunately forgot at one point during a heated bar altercation. Luckily, his security team eventually figured out he was in trouble.

The pranks are real, the threats are real, and all those reactions you see from other people are just as real . As André explained to Decider, "Our whole thing is that there's not a single fake reaction in the movie. We never had people pretend they were in shock or anything. We had like an ethos about it. Because even if there's one fake reaction in the movie, it jeopardizes all the rest of them . . . We go to these great lengths because we want every single reaction to be authentic. You feel the authenticity and the reactions."

• Tiffany Haddish
• Lil Rel Howery

Here's How 'Bad Trip's Filmmakers Pulled off the Movie's Crazy Pranks

Updated March 29 2021, 5:31 p.m. ET

Looking for a new laugh-out-loud comedy? 

Netflix 's latest film, Bad Trip , follows Eric André and Lil Rel Howery, who play best friends Chris and Bud, as they embark on a cross-country road trip. However, this comedy is not scripted and is instead filled with hilarious pranks and very real reactions from innocent bystanders.

So, how did the filmmakers and actors of Bad Trip pull off these outlandish pranks? Keep reading to find out more about how the film captured real reactions from people standing nearby. 

Yes, 'Bad Trip' is real! Here's how the Netflix movie pulled off its crazy stunts.

From the creators of Jackass, this hidden-camera film is filled with hilarious (yet raunchy) pranks and hijinks that only the actors are clued in on. So, how did they pull this wild movie off?

"It's a fascinating process, figuring out how to do something that seems crazy impossible," director Kitao Sakurai told USA Today . "But using tricks and sleight-of-hand, you realize that it's actually crazy, but possible."

In one scene, Chris (played by Eric) gets extremely drunk and falls about 15 feet while at the Electric Cowboy bar in Kennesaw, Ga. To prepare for this stunt, the actor practiced the fall the day prior, and fell into folded boxes with padding hidden underneath so he wouldn't get hurt.

"I did it over and over, so that it looked fluid when it was real," he told USA Today . Additionally, a crew member posed as a bar patron and very covertly fixed a tube that was attached to Eric's body, which allowed him to (fake) projectile-vomit on cue. A lovely combo of pea soup and vegetables was used.

'Bad Trip' star Tiffany Haddish tricked a city worker into thinking she had really escaped from prison.

There's no denying that Tiffany Haddish is one very funny individual. The actress stars in Bad Trip as Bud's sister Trina, who escapes from prison. 

The scene in which Tiffany is spotted escaping from the prison bus garnered one of the best reactions from a clueless bystander. 

“A guy is cleaning graffiti off a wall as this prison bus pulls up. The guard gets out, walks past him, and all of a sudden Tiffany drops out of the bottom of the bus and starts talking to the guy," producer Jeff Tremaine explained to Decider . "And the guy, looking out for her, tells her, ‘You gotta go. You gotta get out of here.’ I had no idea that she would be so good at the hidden camera game. She’s just a natural at taking people for a ride.”  

The bouncer in Netflix's 'Bad Trip' was not happy with filmmakers.

Though the innocent bystanders were not aware that they were being captured on hidden cameras at the time of their scenes, they eventually had to sign a release form after the gag, so filmmakers could use them in footage.

However, Eric revealed that some people had to be persuaded. 

During the scene when Chris (aka Eric) attempts to enter a Los Angeles art gallery party hosted by Maria (Michaela Conlin), he's denied entry by the bouncer several times.

The bouncer had been given very strict instructions not to let anyone enter the event unless they were on the list. But he eventually allows Chris inside after being told that he's trying to get ahold of his true love.

After finding out that he was part of a prank, the bouncer was not happy. "He had a long, seething moment," Eric revealed, adding that he needed to convince the man to sign a release form to use the scene in the movie. "We really had to massage his emotions after the prank to get him to sign. But he did."

Bad Trip is now streaming on Netflix.

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Where 'Eric Andre' Ends and Eric Andre Begins

With his new prank film Bad Trip , the comedian takes his art form to new heights. But who is he when he's not terrorizing unsuspecting marks for the camera?

“I’m losing my mind,” Eric Andre tells me as we greet each other over Zoom in early February. Alone in his living room, hunched uncomfortably above his webcam, he’s not the manic, human Tasmanian devil I’m expecting to see on the other end of the Zoom call. “I'm just in the fucking purgatory of promoting the movie,” he says.

It’s Groundhog Day, and our call had already started on a weird note. Before he answered, I was sitting here in Brooklyn for our scheduled appointment time, two thousand miles away from his home in LA, waiting in anticipation for him to appear. Something was wrong, though–Andre was nowhere to be found.

When I finally get Andre on the line (turns out he’d taken an unexpected mid-afternoon nap), he seems uncharacteristically reserved. Shifting restlessly from room to room, position to position, at-times sitting cross-legged in front of the camera, on his stomach, his side, or even standing in his kitchen as I try in vain to keep our interview on the rails, this guy appears almost nothing like the “Eric Andre” he plays on TV. And yet, the stories he tells me about his life and career are nonetheless every bit as chaotic and unhinged as you’d expect.

We’re speaking shortly following the announcement that his long-lost passion project, Bad Trip , will finally be reaching audiences by way of a Netflix release on March 26. Its original SXSW premiere, like with so many others, had been cancelled when all of life shut down in the early months of the pandemic. Its theatrical run, of course, got the ax, too. “I demanded, I wanted it to come out. I demanded I want to have that red carpet moment for all the pain...It was painstaking.”

I’d spoken to Andre once before, back in 2019 , when Bad Trip was sizing up to be a genuine breakthrough. In that interview, he sounded more like the prankster fans are familiar with on screen, regaling me with bonkers details from his upcoming movie about nearly getting stabbed while his penis is caught in a finger trap, or getting fucked by a man in a gorilla suit at the zoo. But then everything got put on hold.

“It'll be seven and a half years,” he tells me now. “I think October of 2013 is when we started talking about making it.” This film, which marries traditional narrative comedy with pranks that actually advance the plot, is like the culmination of his entire career–his reality-defying pranks in The Eric Andre Show , his comedic acting in series like Man Seeking Woman and 2 Broke Girls , even his recent stand-up special, Legalize Everything , in which Andre finally reveals his comedic voice outside the guise of his exhibitionist madman character–it’s all present in Bad Trip .

Teaming up with Jeff Tremaine of Jackass fame, Andre set out to hide a prank movie inside a Hollywood comedy. Centered around Andre and co-stars Lil Rel Howery and Tiffany Haddish, Bad Trip is a buddy comedy where the buddy part is fiction...and the comedy is Jackass . Somehow, if you can believe it, it works. It really, really works.

But probably not for the reasons you’d expect. If you’re a fan of The Eric Andre Show , you already know that most of Andre’s humor comes from his ability to be, well, a professional nuisance. Tormenting unsuspecting civilians on his piping hot talk show set (he keeps it hot to keep his guests on their toes), to cramped subway cars, salad bars, and in the middle of running traffic, The Eric Andre Show tends to push people to their social limits–all for a laugh, of course. In Bad Trip , it’s a little bit inverted. Andre and his co-stars, more often than not, are the ones thrown into nightmarishly compromising positions. He doesn’t die, thankfully. But he comes pretty damn close.

“This character is not the same character from The Eric Andre Show ,” he tells me, his eyes lighting up when he talks about the work. “This character has to be likable, and we realized early on, none of my actions can be intentionally destructive. So every situation I walk into, I can't just be like, ‘Fuck you, I'm breaking shit, I'm naked, woo, woo.’ Everything has to be this Chris Farley, Tommy Boy , accidental hapless boob. I have to be just a golden retriever puppy that's just knocking dishes around, you know what I mean?”

It wasn’t as easy as just letting a golden retriever loose on the Eric Andre set, though. Bad Trip required a complete reevaluation of the shtick–which took years to pull off. “ The Eric Andre Show is 11 minutes. Each episode, it's a quarter hour show. So I can be as completely psychotic and deranged and dysfunctional as any personality has ever been on television. Movies, features–for something with a 90-minute runtime or longer, it has different rules, there's different principles–the protagonist or protagonists have to be grounded, they have to be likable, you have to root for them, you have to identify with them, and it needs a narrative structure to get across that much footage or else the audience checks out and they're not invested.”

He tells me that part of the key to that code was Jackass mastermind Jeff Tremaine, who acted as kind of a godfather to the crew–not to mention fellow prank gods Nathan Fielder and Sacha Baron Cohen, both of whom pitched in during the creative process as well. “[Tremaine] had to harness the comedic style and spirit of The Eric Andre Show , but make it function as a movie. And it was a lot of work. He was molding clay, because I was fighting it a lot. I was trying to, because I really wanted my comedy to be authentic. I was almost cocky in a naive way. I thought the rules of movies don't apply.”

It’s sort of disorienting to process the irony that, for Eric Andre to really transcend in the prank artform that he has been almost single-handedly bringing into the modern day, he had to become the voice of reason, the “straight man” of his pranks. Like, in Bad Trip , when Andre hops into the gorilla pen at the zoo and gets sodomized by a dude in a gorilla suit in front of a crowd of unwitting (and totally real) zoo patrons, he’s no longer Taz–he’s Daffy Duck. He’s calling for help. And, if you can believe it, people come rushing to help. We want to help the guy.

If Andre Show is a litmus test for how quickly people will run from clear and present danger (like, a man in a cheese helmet spewing Kraft cheese), Bad Trip is the opposite, always showing the lengths at which a person will go to help a stranger. In nearly all the film’s many pranks, there’s a standout bystander, a memorable, and impossibly generous, performance from someone who has no idea they’re in a movie.

Towards the big finale, Howery and Andre crash their car and waddle out of the wreck, disoriented, fighting with each other. The car goes up in flames–and people come running to help. “Everybody ran over,” Andre recalls. “And then we start crawling out and arguing with each other, as these people are putting this fresh car accident together. They're like, ‘Oh my God, somebody call 911.’” Entering the fray is a gentleman with dreadlocks who gives one of the most convincingly sympathetic–and human–performances in recent memory. Except he’s not performing. “That guy with the dreads was probably the best mark in the movie. He's so invested and on the hook and good natured. I showed Jon Favreau a cut of the movie and he was like, ‘I thought that guy was an actor all the way to the end’...I go, ‘No, that guy was real.’ That guy was like Dr. Phil. He looked like Migos. Rel was like, ‘He looks like Migos and he acts like Dr. Phil.’”

Of course, not everybody is uncommonly kind to Andre I ask him if he’s ever actually thought he might be killed, and, though I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I’m baffled to hear him go through the multiple occasions in which his life was on the line. Two of the most recent of these close-calls (to my knowledge) can be seen in Bad Trip , making the movie qualify as somewhat of a snuff film, I guess. The second one happens briefly during a clip reel in the end credits, where we see a bar patron nearly crack Andre’s skull open with a bottle of Jim Beam after Andre projectile vomits all over the entire establishment.

The earlier one is already a fairly-well known stunt, if you can even call it that. Midway through the film, Andre and Howery wake up, to their surprise, with their penises stuck together in a finger trap. Running all over the streets (and golf courses) of Atlanta searching for help, the genitally-conjoined idiots end up at, in Andre’s words, a “hood-ass barbershop,” where the joke promptly ends. “The guy in the barbershop tried to murder us, and he was like, ‘You're lucky I didn't have my gun on me today.’ And yes we were.” Their penises may have been fake. But the knife in that barber’s hand was very, very real.

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“I would say the gnarliest was the Alex Jones RNC Trump rally,” he tells me, reminiscing about being caught in a MAGA clusterfuck back in 2016, when he took his Eric Andre crew to the Republican National Convention–and promptly had his press pass revoked. With his baggy grey suit, gigantic boom-mounted microphone, and nonsense jokes about Myspace and nihilism, he wasn’t exactly a welcome presence there. “It's an open carry state. It was literally a Bikers for Trump rally. Alex Jones was speaking, and I was surrounded by the alt-right so everyone was packing, and I was being a nuisance in a mosh pit of alt-right jabronis.”

He admits that his life was threatened there, though downplays the danger, saying “I'm from Florida, so being in a mosh pit of alt-right jabroans is like just going to any metal show...This is just like a hardcore show at a fucking shitty Fort Lauderdale venue.”

Having seen this side of America up close, Andre says he wasn’t surprised by the insurrectionist riot at the Capitol on January 6.

“I'm not surprised by any American racism or jingoism,” he tells me. “This country is very racist and violent. I'm not surprised by any of it. That's the history of the country.”

Andre mentions his anxiety off and on a few times in our conversation. When I tell him that, because of his Andre Show persona, if I saw him at a restaurant, I’d run the other way, he relates that people sometimes do seem to be afraid of Eric Andre–the real one, not just the talk show host. “I took a SoulCycle class and the woman in there actually came up to me after the class and she was like, ‘I was so fucking nervous the whole time. I was just looking at you like, fuck, I don't want to be in a prank.’ And I was like, ‘No, I'm just exercising.’”

He tells me that pranking is “very anxiety-provoking.”

“So, meditation helps with my anxiety a lot,” he says. “I always battle with anxiety. I think everybody does, though. You know what I mean?” I ask him if his comedy is a form of relief for anxiety too, and he says, “Yeah. I think so. For sure.”

Since everything about Andre is self-deprecating, it’s hard to tell if he’s ever being serious. When we spoke before, he was promoting his role as one of the evil hyenas in the upcoming Lion King remake, at that time rounding the bases toward another season of his Adult Swim show, with Bad Trip looming in the background. Listening back on that call, Andre sounds positively ecstatic. Now, like all of us, he seems, well, uncertain about his artistic future.

While he admits to me that he’s been writing, he won’t let on too much. “It’s not even just a contractual obligation, it's more like, superstitious. I don't like talking about it.” Writing or not, it seems Andre’s been devoting the bulk of his isolation time doing what everyone else is doing: just trying to keep it together. “I took Spanish lessons, I'm taking singing lessons, I took a yakitori grilling lesson. I've been making cocktails, buying all these cocktail books. Cooking, I got a Traeger. I got a sauna. I'm living a Joe Rogan life. I'm doing psychedelics, sweating bullets in a sauna, and smoking meats.”

Our conversation, which started in a lull, ends in an even stranger place. During the pandemic, Andre has been biding his time getting into cocktails and mixology. Not, like, rum and coke mixology (though he does insist there’s “nothing wrong with a Cuba Libre”). He’s immersed himself in piles of mixology literature, showing me book after book as he sits in front of his giant liquor display. Riffing on some of the sillier concoctions he’s discovered in his travels, Andre says, “The ingredients are like, ‘A hit of acid, Plan B, snoot of Adderall, and a hit of whiskey.”

I say, “I think people who don't really understand absurd comedy always think that comedians are just on drugs. Like, ‘You must get high and just goof around!’ It seems like that's not really your approach, though, is it?” And Andre responds, saying that, “maybe,” drugs affect his work in an “indirect way,” but that “typically, drugs are recreation. I'm not eating mushrooms or acid and writing. I'm like, going to Joshua Tree and eating mushrooms.”

I probably should have asked him to elaborate, but it seems like his patience for these kinds of questions has all but worn out. That’s all in the rear-view. Whereas at first I was able to keep him with me by asking about his comedy, his pranks, his new movie, now I feel like I’m getting sucked into his gravitational pull. I’m in Eric Andre World. Drifting away, my pile of questions floating behind, I wonder where he’s about to bring us.

“I really want to huff xenon,” He says, straight-faced. “That's my new frontier.”

“What is xenon?” I ask.

“Xenon is an element on the Periodic Table of Elements. But if you huff it, if you huff the gas, it's like a super nitrous. It's like the greatest champagne of whippets. Very rare, very expensive.”

“What experience does it give to you?”

“Euphoria," he says. "Heavenly bliss.”

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• Cast & crew
• User reviews

This mix of a scripted buddy comedy road movie and a real hidden camera prank show follows the outrageous misadventures of two buds stuck in a rut who embark on a cross-country road trip to ... Read all This mix of a scripted buddy comedy road movie and a real hidden camera prank show follows the outrageous misadventures of two buds stuck in a rut who embark on a cross-country road trip to NYC. The storyline sets up shocking real pranks. This mix of a scripted buddy comedy road movie and a real hidden camera prank show follows the outrageous misadventures of two buds stuck in a rut who embark on a cross-country road trip to NYC. The storyline sets up shocking real pranks.

• Kitao Sakurai
• Andrew Barchilon
• Michaela Conlin
• Lil Rel Howery
• 273 User reviews
• 57 Critic reviews
• 61 Metascore
• 1 nomination

Top cast 37

• Chris Carey

• Trina Malone

• (as Cory Demeyers)

• Maria's Father

• (as Greg Smithaldridge)

• Joseph Stalin
• Ballroom Dancer
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Sacha Baron Cohen gave advice and input after he was shown an early cut of the film.
• Goofs A cameraman is clearly visible in the crowd during the puke scene in the Electric Cowboy bar.

Chris Carey : Okay, there's no way White Chicks would work in real life, man.

Bud Malone : I'm telling you...

Chris Carey : They look like bleached Ninja Turtles.

Bud Malone : Bruh. Matter of fact, this lady right here, that could be a brother.

Chris Carey : That's ridiculous. Okay. watch this. Excuse me, miss?

Zoo Recruiter : Yes?

Chris Carey : Are you a black man?

Zoo Recruiter : No.

Chris Carey : Case in point.

• Crazy credits The end credits show moments when extras in pivotal scenes find out that they were part of a film and that absurdity of what they just witnessed was not real. Also deleted scenes and alternate takes of certain scenes are shown throughout the remainder of the credits.
• Connections Featured in Half in the Bag: 2021 Movie Catch-Up (part 1 of 2) (2022)
• Soundtracks Soul on Top Written by Boca 45 (as Scott Hendy) & Louis Baker Performed by Boca 45 Courtesy of Mass Appeal Records

User reviews 273

• Jan 24, 2022
• How long is Bad Trip? Powered by Alexa
• March 26, 2021 (United States)
• United States
• Netflix Site
• Chuyến Đi Siêu Quậy
• Georgia, USA
• Orion Pictures
• BRON Studios
• Creative Wealth Media Finance
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 26 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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A smoothie shop employee with butterflies in his stomach and a bleeding right hand sits next to an older gentleman on a bench. “Can I ask you something?” he prefaces. The worker then proceeds to babble about his crush, Maria. Should he follow her to New York City, and leave Florida behind? The older man offers advice—speaking from the heart—and it fills the younger man’s soul, so much that he leaps from the bench and bursts into song. It’s this young guy’s big romantic moment, and he dances away before almost getting hit by a car, and then sings at people inside a mall, in which one patron tries to side-kick him.  

This hilarious sequence, which overlaps cliché storytelling with the unassuming public, is just one of many endearing moments in “Bad Trip,” a hidden camera comedy gem starring Eric André , Lil Rel Howery , and Tiffany Haddish that’s finally coming out on Netflix. Directed by Kitao Sakurai , the previous director behind numerous episodes of “The Eric André Show,” it shows an evolution in the hidden camera subgenre, given its warming spirit about people. Unlike the films that previously defined the subgenre, it’s not so much about creating a freak show from unsuspecting extras, but in noting what one would do when confronted with someone as delusional as André’s character Chris. Natural human behavior can be extremely funny, and Sakurai and André know it’s possible to bring it out of people without being mean-spirited. Footage in the end credits of the real people excited to learn that they’re in a movie—a comfort for us as well—confirms the chaos is controlled physically and emotionally, and that allows it to be a party.    

“Bad Trip” is an excellent showcase for Eric André—it’s more mainstream than his talk-show-in-hell “The Eric André Show” and less watered down than his recent resume-boosting, commercial work like “The Lion King” and elsewhere. This role lets him scream, sprint, crash into things, and show off that he’s a sweetheart who wants to include you his absurdity. It’s no stretch to say that André is going to be a huge comedic force—I knew this when I caught his Legalize Everything stand-up tour in Chicago in 2019, when he had a sold-out Chicago Theater completely wrapped up in his FaceTime-ing with the parents of random audience members. He’s an affable anarchist with Robin Williams-like verve, and this project lets his burgeoning persona run wild alongside what the film advertises as “Real People. Real Pranks.”  

André’s hilarious earnest Chris is joined in the movie by Lil Rel Howery, who would have been known enough at the time of filming from his scene-stealing turn in “ Get Out ,” but is disguised as Chris’ reserved friend Bud. They have adorable chemistry as two friends in Florida who decide to drive to New York to reunite Chris with his high school crush Maria ( Michaela Conlin ) after two disastrous brief run-ins at Eric’s jobs. They support each other, like when Chris gets extremely drunk at a cowboy bar, or Bud finds himself inside a Porta Potty. Chris is the wide-eyed dreamer, and Bud is the demure rationalist. Their chemistry is as pure as the Golden Girls, so “Thank You For Being a Friend” is featured prominently in the soundtrack, in between scenes of slapstick pranks that further their road trip.  

When Bud and Chris need a car to get to New York City, they “borrow” the bright pink Crown Vic that belongs to Bud’s sister, Trina (Tiffany Haddish), who Bud fears but is relieved when she’s put in jail for breaking house arrest. And yet soon enough, Haddish crawls out from under a prison bus, having broken out and starts looking for her car. When it’s not where she stored it, she hunts Bud and Chris up the Eastern seaboard, making for some incredibly funny, abrasive scenes of her confronting people about whether they’ve seen them or her car that has “Bad Bitch” written on the window. Haddish bulldozes into every set-piece, exemplifying the film’s over-the-top spirit. When talking to progressively uncomfortable strangers, she doesn’t miss a beat and she relishes the opportunity to appear dangerous; when she steals a cop car and burns out of a donut shop parking lot, it’s one of her many triumphant moments.  

“Bad Trip” is a collision of great improvisational actors and authentically bewildered reactions from people unaware that they’re now in Chris’ story—which makes Michaela Conlin’s performance as Maria all the more an essential middle to its Venn diagram. She enters the movie also as an innocent bystander, but that’s a deceptive comic energy that plays out in very funny ways as she pushes back against Chris’ delusions. In Chris’ prank-based daydreams, Conlin matches André’s intensity; that she has to play it straight in later scenes adds to the tension she creates, like when Chris tries to profess his love to her.  

Just how funny is “Bad Trip”? After two viewings, it’s one of those comedies with a stable laughing average and high replay value, even if it doesn’t always hit you as hard. It knowingly plays a hit-and-miss game, and some scenes don’t entirely work (like a grocery store drug trip that plays out like a soft tribute to “The Eric Andre Show”), while other pranks go for discomfort more than big laughs (like when Chris gets gas springing all over a gas station). But the movie has speediness on its side, with pacing that takes the plotting from one prank to the next, often including crowds of people in the latest big dramatic confrontation that comes from Bud and Chris’ expected emotional arc. (A sudden car crash sequence is particularly well planned out, with cameras and extras ready nearby.) It’s a steady build to its ultimate destination of NYC, and every major set piece is constructed to bubble with discomfort before then skyrocketing over the top. An early scene at Chris’ smoothie shop job only begins with him making the drinks without spoons—it escalates to awkward tension with disgusted, annoyed customers, and then boom, a laugh-out-loud, gory finale that hits with impeccable, unexpected timing.  

If certain parts of “Bad Trip” aren’t as out-and-out cry-laughing as the work put into them desires, the story is still involving as it adds the dimensionality of unscripted human behavior. And it doesn’t continue the hidden camera movie’s waning intention of dunking on dummies, a factor that also makes this story more fluid than the start-and-stop traps, primed for reaction shots, in something like “Jackass”-spinoff like “Bad Grandpa.” That’s the true sweet spot, in how its pranks are engineered to get the unexpected to interact with Bud, Chris, and or Trina, and see if strangers try to help. (“You turned on us!” says Chris, after a golfer starts swinging a club at Chris and Bud while their penises are enjoined by a Chinese fingertrap.) An amazing scene comes at a tense mid-point, when Trina appears at a restaurant, spreading around fliers with Bud and Chris’ dopey faces on them, advertising her desire to kill the two. She leaves. Bud and Chris then show up at the same place minutes later, and everyone’s response, with some people trying to warn them, and others not wanting to get caught in the middle, is incredible. “Bad Trip” knows how to stir things up, and its funniest scenes often involve real people getting in the mix, tested by the brilliant skills of André, Howery, and Haddish. The ways that some people react to their pranks might shock you in some ways, and absolutely will not in others.  

Now available on Netflix.

Nick Allen is the former Senior Editor at RogerEbert.com and a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

• Eric André as Chris
• Lil Rel Howery as Bud
• Tiffany Haddish as Trina Malone
• Michaela Conlin as Maria Li

Writer (story)

• Andrew Barchilon
• Kitao Sakurai

Cinematographer

• Andrew Laboy
• Caleb Swyers
• Matthew Kosinski
• Sascha Stanton Craven
• Joseph Shirley
• Ludwig Göransson

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Is Bad Trip Scripted or Real?

Directed by Kitao Sakurai, ‘Bad Trip’ is a comedy road movie that revolves around Chris Carey (Eric André) and Bud Malone (Lil Rel Howery), two underachieving friends who are dissatisfied with their dead-end jobs and how their lives have turned out to be. After Chris has a chance encounter with his high-school crush Maria Li (Michaela Conlin), he and Bud decide to travel from their Florida hometown to New York City so that Chris can ask her out.

Unbeknownst to them, Trina (Tiffany Haddish), Bud’s sister and a convicted criminal, is pursuing them as they stole her car. In the course of the film, the two friends get involved in one bizarre situation after another. If the bystanders’ response to their antics has made you wonder whether ‘Bad Trip’ is inspired by real-life events, this is what we know.

Is Bad Trip Real or Fake?

No, ‘Bad Trip’ is not real. The film’s screenplay was written by André, Sakurai, and Dan Curry. The original story was developed by André, Sakurai, and Andrew Barchilon. André has made a career for himself with his unique brand of physical comedy and pranks. In Adult Swim’s surrealistic comedy series ‘The Eric Andre Show,’ he pranks his celebrity guests and members of the general public by putting them through embarrassing and absurd situations.

‘Bad Trip’ is an extension of that. As mentioned above, the film is scripted, so the various outrageously hilarious situations that the two protagonists keep getting involved in are pre-planned. However, the bystanders watching these situations unfold are not aware of this, and their genuine reactions are filmed with hidden cameras.

Speaking about how he acts in such tricky circumstances, André stated in an interview , “When you are interacting with real people in a hidden-camera prank scenario, it’s impossible for your performance to be stale, because you’re using every part of your brain to improvise within the situation and mine the most comedy.” According to him, it’s all about spontaneity. He continued, “It’s also like a high-wire act. It’s the highest-stakes version of comedy, because you’re putting yourself in danger.”

André and Howery inevitably encountered similar situations while filming ‘Bad Trip.’ In multiple interviews, André related an incident in which they nearly got stabbed. It was Howery’s first day of filming. In Atlanta, they were shooting a scene in which André and Howery’s characters have their penises stuck inside a Chinese finger trap.

When they entered a barbershop, the man took a look at them and immediately started chasing them with a knife. Because of the sheer fear, André forgot the pre-determined safe word, and the only thing he and Howery could do was run. Fortunately for them, the security eventually intervened. When the man was informed that they were filming a scene for a movie, he calmed down.

According to André, 80 to 90% of the footage they shot ended up on the cutting room floor. “Filming is part of the writing process in a roundabout, very expensive way, because you’re dealing with so much unknown,” he said about the process in the interview mentioned above. “You don’t know how people are going to react to each prank. You don’t know if the prank is going to fit in the body of the movie. We did each prank two or three times, and we would pick the best person or group of people at each time. Then on top of that, thinking about how much the editors are burning. A normal movie has one, two, maybe three cameras rolling max on a scene? We had like 19 cameras rolling for every scene.”

One of the scenes that didn’t make it to the final cut depicts actor and comedian Chris Rock portraying a police officer. Although they spent 12 hours filming the scene, it just didn’t work. While developing the film, André received invaluable suggestions from one of the pioneers of the genre, ‘Jackass’ co-creator Jeff Tremaine, who served as a producer on ‘Bad Trip.’

André also consulted Sacha Baron Cohen, whose pranks in films like ‘ Borat ,’ ‘The Dictator,’ and ‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm’ have transcended the genre to become the purest form of political and social satire. Evidently, ‘Bad Trip’ is not inspired by true events, but like ‘Borat,’ it uses real people as bystanders and pranks them with the main two characters’ antics. The closing credits are accompanied by the footage of the bystanders learning about the pranks and hidden cameras.

Read More: Where Was Bad Trip Filmed?

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‘Bad Trip’: Eric Andre, Tiffany Haddish and Lil Rel Howery Prank America

By David Fear

It makes a certain kind of sense that Bad Trip, Eric André’s entry into the Gonzo Comedy Hall of Fame (see: Jackass, Borat, Bad Grandpa ), starts in Florida. Not that the other 49 states of this fine U.S. of A. don’t have their share of goofballs, chowderheads, numbskulls, fuck-ups and jag-offs; it’s just that this particular Southeastern one has a reputation for American eccentricity that results in eyes bugging out, jaws dropping and shit going very wrong. Those “Florida Man” headlines are well-earned.

And the “Florida Man” energy is strong in this one, right from the get-go: No sooner has the comedian appeared onscreen, rocking a mechanic’s jumpsuit and washing a BMW in a West Grove car wash, then something genuinely WTF happens. If you’ve seen the trailer, you know it involves a vacuum hose and full frontal nudity. It also involves a customer who has no idea that he’s part of an elaborate prank that’s been set up for several rolling cameras, someone who is neither in on the joke nor the butt of it. The guy is just an innocent bystander who suddenly finds himself in the middle of a situation he hadn’t planned for or even possibly imagined, while a naked man tries desperately not to show his dick and balls to the world. “Florida Man Loses Clothes, Flashes Customers in Bizarre Car Detailing Accident.” Normally, you can’t make this stuff up. André engineers it like he’s in charge of a NASA launch.

The scene is over way, way too soon — a problem that plagues a lot of Bad Trip ‘s gotcha scenarios, but that’s the risk you take when you’re literally putting your ass out there when making variable-heavy comedy — but it still does what it needs to do, i.e. set the tone and set up the “story.” Note the scare quotes; abandon all hope, ye who want a narrative here, which is frankly missing the point. This is no more a movie than The Eric André Show is a talk show. (Though the director, Kitao Sakurai, has also worked on that Adult Swim gem.) It’s a delivery system for strung-together Situationist happenings and performance art, a fancy way of saying that everyday people get co-opted into sometime highly elaborate, often hilarious, remarkably effective smart-comics-doing-really-dumb-and-gross shit. Including, in one case, a bit that may or may not have involved being covered in actual fecal matter. We don’t know just how Jackass things got here.

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Right, sorry, the story: So when Chris (André) is cleaning the unsuspecting gent’s car, a second customer drives up. Her name is Maria (Michaela Conlin), and she was Chris’s high school crush. He was going to ask her out, but then whoosh go his clothes. Later, he finds out she lives in New York and runs an art gallery. If he’s ever town, drop by and see her. So Chris grabs his best friend Bud (Lil Rel Howery), they take the pink Crown Victoria that belongs to Bud’s sister, Trina ( Tiffany Haddish ) — she’s in prison, it’s all good — and plan a road trip to visit Chris’s soulmate. When Trina “releases” herself from the clink, she finds out that her car’s been stolen and decides to track these guys down across the Eastern seaboard.

There’s a version of Bad Trip in which you pay attention to this tender story of best friends who’ll do anything for each other, who have their ups and downs but still have each other’s backs, rednecks and psycho siblings and cops be damned. The version you’ll probably want to push to the forefront, however, is the one where these three comedians, respectively and together, stage the kind of truly outrageous shenanigans that make you wonder how the hell they got out of these scenes alive. Looking at my notes, I see nothing but a series of phrases: “Chinese Finger Trap,” “Smoothie Shop Blender,” “Cowboy Bar,” “Projectile Vomiting,” “A Priest,” “The Hamptons,” “Gorilla Selfie.” (That last one is genuinely above and beyond the call of duty.) To try and explain what they mean wouldn’t do the gags justice, though I will say that a sequence involving a a movie-musical number in a mall — which includes singing, dancing, a giant wedding cake and the threat of actual violence — is a work of genius.

In other, the sheer hilariousness of a number of individual bits here are enough to get you past slow spots and a few D.O.A. duds, and you come out of Bad Trip with a serious appreciation for this trio’s chops and ability to go with the flow. (Four, actually: Conlin can more than hold her own when she needs to.) And unlike the Jackass crew’s how-low-can-you-go competitions and Borat ‘s politicized exposés, there’s almost a sweetness to the way these folks prank the public. The everyday folks who find themselves having to deal with angry ex-cons or exchanges spiraling out of control aren’t marks; they’re more like collaborators in the movie’s “what if” set-ups. For every encounter in which you fear that André or Howery or Haddish are actually going to get the snot beat of out of them for antagonizing folks, there are a half dozen examples of people stepping in and defusing things, offering help, trying to de-escalate a blow-up. The end credits roll feature a bunch of “smile, you’re on Candid Camera” reveals that lead to smiles and yelps of “oh my god, that was crazy!” The joke’s not on them. They were just a key part of the trip.

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• AV Undercover

Eric Andre and Lil Rel Howery reveal the secrets behind Bad Trip ’s boldest pranks

Longtime fans of Eric Andre and his brand of anarchic, ranch-friendly comedy might be surprised by his new hidden-camera movie Bad Trip , which premiered on Netflix on March 26 after a year-long delay . While the semi-scripted comedy puts Andre (and his game co-stars Lil Rel Howery and Tiffany Haddish) at the center of ridiculous The Eric Andre Show -esque public stunts, it isn’t just a 90-minute onslaught of pranks; there’s a method to the madness—in the form of a loose road trip storyline—and an unexpected amount of heart. In essence, Bad Trip is a story about friendship, putting longtime pals Chris and Bud (Andre and Howery, respectively) through the ringer, testing their loyalty with gorilla attacks, high-speed car accidents, and one indestructible finger trap. Along the way, real, unsuspecting people lay witness to their antics, and Bad Trip ’s funniest moments come from bystanders’ natural reactions to what’s unfolding in front of them, whether that’s with genuine concern and sweetness, or with a knife.

“The movie shows the Good Samaritan nature in people,” Andre told The A.V. Club , commenting that Bad Trip ’s jokes are never at the expense of its unaware non-actors. But that doesn’t mean that everyone reacted to Andre and Howery with a sense of level-headedness—as it turns out, one stunt in particular almost got them killed. “That was Rel’s first day of filming… So, Rel was like, ‘I quit! You’re going to get me fucking killed. This is reckless!’” That’s just one of the surprising things The A.V. Club learned when Eric Andre and Lil Rel Howery took us behind the scenes of some of Bad Trip ’s biggest comedic set pieces. Below, the actors break down some of the movie’s boldest pranks and reveal how they (along with director Kitao Sakurai) pulled them off, all while not getting recognized by fans.

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On Bad Trip’ s approach to the hidden camera genre

Early on in Bad Trip , Andre’s Chris beaks out into a full-on musical number at a mall to profess his love for longtime crush, Maria (Michaela Conlin). The moment is meant to be disruptive and annoying, but most bystanders react with a bewildered amusement, and one particularly memorable old man goes so far as to make excuses for Chris: “He’s in love!”

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A movie is a different medium than an 11-minute Adult Swim show. In a movie, to get an audience across 90 minutes of footage, your character has to be likable. You have to empathize and sympathize with the lead. —Eric Andre

On the “dick trap” prank that almost got them killed

Near Bad Trip ’s midpoint, Chris and Bud make a drugged-out detour at a grocery store, only to wake up the next morning with their dicks stuck in either end of a novelty finger trap. What ensues is a frenzied attempt to escape, enlisting nearby people for help, including an enraged barbershop owner who pulled a knife on the duo on their first day filming together.

The first day was when we almost got murdered. So, when that happened the first day, it was like—I remember calling my whole team. I called Tiffany [Haddish]. I was like, ‘I’m afraid for my life! I’m an actor!’ That’s the first time I ever called myself an actor. [Laughs.] —Lil Rel Howery

On what you didn’t see during the Electric Cowboy scenes

An earlier pit stop sees Chris and Bud cutting loose at a bar called Electric Cowboy. Chris eventually gets so drunk he falls off the bar, and another prank involves a steady stream of fake urine. Andre and Howery admitted that drunk non-actors only made things more unpredictable, and shared that there was a safe word to keep things from getting too out of hand—if only Andre could remember it:

So, it turns out this guy [at the bar] owned like a chain of strip clubs or something. He was dressed like a Russian mobster. We saw him come in the bar, and he sat down and was loud and talking shit. And I could just tell he was trouble in the best way. —Eric Andre

On making people believe the gorilla attack was real

One of Bad Trip ’s most ambitious stunts has Andre’s Chris sneaking into an exhibit at the zoo for a photo, only to be attacked (and then some) by an angry gorilla. For safety—and other obvious reasons—the gorilla was an actor in a costume, meaning the crew had to go the extra mile to make sure zoo-goers believed it was real. For the scene, Howery played a crucial role, helping coax reactions out of people, and getting them to buy into the absurdity.

While [Andre’s getting attacked], I had to make it real. They had to believe it, the emotion part of it. And they bought into it, man. Like that’s one of the only times I tried not to laugh. To them, it was real, it was crazy. It looked like I’m crying, but I’m really crying laughing. —Lil Rel Howery

On getting recognized by fans

No matter where they were, Andre, Howery, and Tiffany Haddish always ran the risk of being spotted by fans. After years of doing pranks for The Eric Andre Show , Andre knew the secret to going unrecognized: Know your audience.

We had it down to a science, basically, like we would make sure that we were pranking people over 40. I mean, that goes a long way. But most of my fans skew younger. But, you know, we’d get busted every once in a while. —Eric Andre

On pulling off that climactic rooftop stunt

Hot on Chris and Bud’s trail most of the movie, Tiffany Haddish’s Trina finally catches up to them at a New York art gallery. After a quick squabble inside, Trina takes Chris to the roof where she dangles him off the side—conveniently located across from people in line at a taco truck. Andre explained how a hidden rig kept him safe, and revealed how they’d often get unsuspecting bystanders to Bad Trip ’s filming locations.

As they’re all ordering tacos, I quietly snuck off the roof [in the rig] and Tiffany’s mimicking like she’s holding me. As soon as we’re in position—which only took like 10 seconds—I yelled for help. So everybody turns around and it’s like the shocking, jarring thing. —Eric Andre

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Watch Bad Trip with a subscription on Netflix.

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With ingeniously gross hidden-camera bits that often find their unsuspecting marks at their best, Bad Trip turns out to be a surprisingly uplifting ride.

Critics Reviews

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Kitao Sakurai

Chris Carey

Lil Rel Howery

Tiffany Haddish

Trina Malone

Michaela Conlin

Charles Green

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Eric Andre's Bad Trip Was Filmed Back When Road Trips Were Still A Thing

In case you were wondering about the lack of masks and social distancing.

• The new movie Bad Trip, starring Eric Andre, Lil Rel Howery, and Tiffany Haddish has become one of the year's biggest comedy hits so far on Netflix.
• While the movie is hilarious, fans may be wondering when exactly the movie was filmed, as it appears that there are no masks and no social distancing involved in the movie's many real-world pranks and situations.
• Andre told Men's Health in an interview about when the movie was filmed, and why it took a few years to go from execution to release.

Eric Andre's new hidden camera/prank-based comedy Bad Trip is a lot of things at once. First off, well, it's just funny. The movie follows a Borat or Bad Grandpa format of mixing real-world hidden camera pranks—and unsuspecting marks—with an actual narrative storyline that remains consistent from start to finish. It's also set in a world that's undoubtedly, decidedly, not the world that any of us have been familiar with since March 2020; people aren't wearing masks, social distancing, or otherwise concerned about Covid-19. And that's because the movie was filmed long before its 2021 release date.

The movie, which stars Andre alongside Lil Rel Howery ( Get Out ) and Tiffany Haddish ( Girls Trip ), puts its stars right into the world with real people doing real things looking for real reactions. It's a plan that involves a closeness with strangers that likely looks foreign for most watching the movie, as a year of quarantine, social distancing, and health protocols has naturally shifted what we all think of as a "new normal."

But since MH spoke with Andre about the making of the movie , he also let us know about when the movie was actually filmed, and the road it took to make it to your living room on Netflix.

When was Bad Trip actually filmed?

Andre tells Men's Health that filming for Bad Trip actually took place between October 2017 and December 2018. That's a longer than usual gap between filming and release, but the movie ended up shifting its release a few times due to extenuating circumstances, and, eventually, Covid-19, before landing at Netflix.

"We finished editing in April 2019, and then we were going to come out in the fall of 2019, and there was a conflicting movie, so we pushed to 2020," Andre explained. "And then we got into SXSW , a killer timeslot at SXSW, one of the headliners. And then we were going to premiere worldwide in theaters everywhere in April, and have SXSW be like the sneak peak kickoff. And then the world went to shit and collapsed."

Andre is glad the movie landed on Netflix eventually, though, as he notes the streaming giant's massive reach. Netflix has 200 million subscribers worldwide, and the movie is now available with subtitles and dubs in 60 languages.

"Hundreds of millions of people will have access to the movie in a way that we wouldn’t have been able to do in the studio system," he says. "So we lucked out in that way."

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Review: It’s only a ‘Bad Trip’ if it doesn’t make you laugh

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The thing about critiquing almost any comedian is that you will inevitably find yourself coming up against avid (if not rabid) fans insistent that you just don’t “get” the work. Eric Andre in particular, with his trademark Dadaist impulses and penchant for all things uncomfortably nude, is undoubtedly one of those figures. Those who enjoy his surreal and animated style of laughs will be quick to defend the comedian, citing his ability to deconstruct staid notions of late-night television and bland stand-up with his long-running Adult Swim series “The Eric Andre Show.”

On the other hand, his detractors would rightfully point to Andre’s history of transphobic, fatphobic, and myriad other jokes which serve only to punch down at certain individuals who, one might argue, have already been punched down on enough.

Which is why “Bad Trip,” the long-awaited hidden-camera comedy flick helmed by long-time “Eric Andre Show” director Kitao Sakurai , is such a curious film. Ostensibly a buddy road movie following Chris Carey (Andre, also a co-writer) and best friend Bud Malone (Lil Rel Howery) as they travel cross-country to New York, “Bad Trip” seems to be aware of these criticisms of Andre and the way in which they would be further visible in a wide-release movie (now launching on Netflix ). The jump from Adult Swim to feature film has been accompanied by a watering down of Andre’s unpredictable absurdities and instead offers a much more conventional approach to its prankster schematics.

The laughs are certainly there, but Andre’s almost trademark sense of intentional derangement is missing and in many ways, this is one of his strengths as a performer. Sure, there are the juvenile gags that form many of the film’s comedic centerpieces — a scene involving boisterous gorilla sex comes to mind as one of several moments that attempts to tap into Andre’s chaotic energy but fizzles out, leaving instead the bad taste of an obvious, if not adolescent, bit. While for some this style of failure might only deepen their appreciation for Andre and the ways in which they view him as a sort of anti-comedian, it’s also imperative to remember that the phrase anti-comedy should not act as a synonym for shallow, empty or thoughtless.

The film loosely entwines its real-world pranks with an overarching story that knows itself to be a farce, but can’t help but be burdened by its halfhearted tries at sincerity. Andre is not a strong enough actor to pull this particular positioning off but then again, that is anything but the point here. Even within that, the slack nature of “Bad Trip’s” premise is enough to put in higher relief both the successes and failures of the comedy’s gags. The former has a sharp ability to see the innately comedic textures of humanity (further seen in the film’s delightful post-credits sequence), while the latter is too staged and likewise rigidly edited (particularly toward the film’s front end which too often takes on the tonality of a warm-up).

For a cornier, more establishment type of comedian, the kind of story environment emblematic of these failures might be par for the course but for an iconoclast like Andre, the misses here can be glaring — I doubt even his most stringent detractors would honestly be able to call Andre a mediocre or average performer. Which is why it is so disappointing that “Bad Trip” falls just as easily into humdrum ordinariness as much as it does its most simple and effective bits.

Andre’s influences have always been clear, from Sacha Baron Cohen to Tom Green to the “Jackass” bunch, but they struggle in the present when faced with Andre’s move from surrealism to literalism. Unlike oft-cited inspiration and Borat star Cohen, Andre’s previous world-making has been exactly out of this world, if not a complete undoing and deflation of it. While he is able to elevate the everyday to the level of the comedic through a more even-keeled yet effective style of absurdity here, there is a certain degree of impact missing that will will be expected given the star. While Howery provides the perfect foil to Andre’s Chris and Tiffany Haddish (here playing Bud’s prison-breaking sister, Trina Malone) is, as always, nothing but an expert improviser (and arguably the reason to see “Bad Trip”), it is Andre’s strange turn to reality which will leave audiences searching for more.

All of this said and done, if it makes you laugh (and I mean really makes you laugh) as it often did me, that can be salve enough.

'Bad Trip'

Rated: R, for crude sexual content, pervasive language, some graphic nudity and drug use Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes Playing: Available March 26 on Netflix

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Netflix’s Bad Trip Might Help You Feel Better About Our Broken Nation

It might not be entirely accurate to call the new Eric Andre film Bad Trip a prank comedy, since prank comedies often turn on making unsuspecting people look like idiots. Punk’d , for example, was all about putting unaware celebrities into situations where they would (hopefully) act like dolts or hypocrites for all the world to see. Da Ali G Show often did the same with politicians, and the Borat movies, of course, do it with the entire United States of America. Even the uncontrollably nutty prank segments on The Eric Andre Show generally require more activity on the part of the ordinary citizens that have wandered in front of its hidden cameras. They are, for all intents and purposes, still the subjects of the gags in question.

Bad Trip , however, doesn’t really take aim at its unwitting bystanders. More often than not, the movie is a closed circuit of idiocy, whereby the actual actors act like buffoons with each other, leaving everyone else — all the real people, as it were — to just observe and react (or, in some cases, not). And weirdly, it’s refreshingly free of cynicism. Most of the bystanders in the film seem to be helpful, tolerant, sensible — which seems downright shocking at a moment in time when we’ve all been told that we hate each other’s guts. Bad Trip might be a dumb, gross candid-camera comedy, but don’t be surprised if it makes you feel a little better about your world.

It’s also absurdly funny, though it’s not quite absurd ist , unlike the genuinely bizarre, did-I-dream-that heights of Andre’s ruthlessly inventive Adult Swim show, with which it shares a creative team, including director Kitao Sakurai. (This film was produced by Jackass ’ Jeff Tremaine, who admittedly did something similar with the surprisingly heartwarming Johnny Knoxville stunt-comedy Bad Grandpa eight years ago.) Bad Trip ’s brand of comedy accelerates between standard slow-burn humiliation and outright gross-out shock, but the fact that it’s all happening out in public, in front of all to see, lends the proceedings an electric unpredictability.

You can see this very early on, as Chris (Andre), working at a carwash, awkwardly takes a customer into his confidence about how another customer who just arrived, Maria (Michaela Conlin), was the girl he had a crush on in high school. He tells the man he’s still desperately in love with Maria and determined to finally ask her out. Then, suddenly, all of Chris’s clothes are sucked off his body by an overzealous vacuum cleaner, and the poor customer is forced to ask Maria for her phone number, all while an extremely naked Chris hides in one of the cars and eggs him on. The cringe comedy tenderizes us for the bigger, broader gags, and vice versa. It’s not sophisticated stuff (especially compared to the gonzo hidden camera gags on The Eric Andre Show , with its surreal, delirious, complex pranks built within other pranks), but there’s a method to it.

The story, such as it is, is so thin it’s practically translucent. Still dreaming about Maria, who curates a gallery in New York, Chris convinces his best friend Bud (Lil Rel Howery) to go on a road trip from Florida to New York. To do so, they take Bud’s sister Trina’s car, since she’s behind bars. Of course, Trina (Tiffany Haddish) escapes (with the conflicted aid of an unsuspecting mensch, whom she enlists in helping her get out from under the prison bus where she’s been hiding) and goes after our heroes with a vengeance. Along the way, everyone gets in a variety of scrapes: Chris has an unspeakable encounter with a gorilla at a zoo, while Trina hijacks a cop car by ripping off its door, all while everyone around them looks on in befuddled shock.

Sometimes, they’re more than shocked. At a bar where Chris gets blitzed and falls off a wall, an off-duty nurse in the crowd rushes to his aid. (He promptly projectile vomits all over her — but to her credit, she continues trying to assist him.) After Chris and Bud get in a seemingly horrific car wreck and then bicker with one another, eyewitnesses intervene and try to de-escalate the situation. When a distraught Chris goes to an Army recruiting stand and tells the soldier he wants to enlist because he wants to die, the man actually tries to talk him down. Late in the film, as Trina hangs Chris off the roof of a building and threatens to throw him over, a group of people at street-level try to negotiate with her. In contrast to Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat Sagdiyev, who tends to lead with his contempt (with admittedly often glorious and surprising results ), wherever Chris, Bud, and Trina go, they find their fellow Americans not just willing to help them out, but often knowing how to do so. (An unspoken but poignant thread running through the picture is the suggestion that these anonymous bystanders might have found themselves in similarly extreme situations before, for far less entertaining reasons.)

Though Bad Trip is a loose, often shapeless movie, its focus on the common humanity of those caught by its lenses is certainly a choice on the part of the filmmakers. It wouldn’t have been hard to accelerate these situations to the point where everyone began to act like jerks, and one presumes plenty of stuff has been cut out. (We do see some outtakes over the end credits, along with footage of people learning that they’ve been on camera all this time.) I don’t want to oversell Bad Trip — if it doesn’t make you laugh, chances are it will annoy the shit out of you — but its generosity toward our fellow humans can, at times, be genuinely moving.

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Common Sense Media Review

Funny but crass hidden-camera prank comedy; drugs, violence.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Bad Trip , a hidden-camera road trip comedy starring Eric Andre, Lil Rel Howery, and Tiffany Haddish, has language, nudity, sexual references, and violence that make it appropriate only for older teens. The film combines a scripted story involving an impromptu road trip with hidden…

Why Age 17+?

Chris and Bud suffer all kinds of "accidents" played as real to shock bystanders

"F--k," the "N" word, versions of "s--t" and "ass," as well as "bitch," "damn,"

Discussion about sexual acts and nudity includes a man's bare bottom and two pen

Adults smoke cigarettes and vape, and Chris and Bud drink shots at a bar until C

The movie White Chicks, BMW, VW, Chevrolet, Pepto Bismol, Hennessy, Jack Daniels

Any Positive Content?

Friends stick by each other through thick and thin. You can learn from unrequite

Trina bullies her brother, steals, escapes from prison, and threatens and intimi

Violence & Scariness

Chris and Bud suffer all kinds of "accidents" played as real to shock bystanders. These include getting a hand stuck in a blender, falling from heights, flipping a car, crashing through a glass door, and being raped by a gorilla, threatened with a knife, doused with gasoline, hit with a golf club, and electrocuted by car jacks. They get sprayed with gorilla semen, Porta Potty poop, and chunky vomit. In one scene, Chris suggests he wants to kill himself and offers to sign up for the military and go to the front lines of Iraq or Afghanistan. Trina threatens to kill Bud and Chris for stealing her car. She threatens multiple other people for snitching on her as she commits crimes like escaping prison and stealing a cop car. She hangs Chris off a tall building and steals money from Bud. Chris daydreams about an outing with Maria where they beat a blind man and steal his wallet.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

"F--k," the "N" word, versions of "s--t" and "ass," as well as "bitch," "damn," "hell," "suck," "crap," "c--ksucker," "d--k," "poop," "retard," "p--sy," "cum," "hell," "idiot," "nuts," "booty-hole," "pee," "piss," "fart," "Jesus," and a poster of a hand giving the middle finger.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Discussion about sexual acts and nudity includes a man's bare bottom and two penises stuck together and stretched out with a toy, and language like "make love," "condom," "cum," "jizz," "suck your d--k," "hairy p--sy," and having sex with different "genders and genres." Chris sees his high school crush and falls in love with her all over again. In a daydream, a priest makes out with the bride and groom after marrying them. Trina tells a cop he's "beautiful" and asks if she can kiss him.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Adults smoke cigarettes and vape, and Chris and Bud drink shots at a bar until Chris gets so drunk he vomits all over the place and other people. They take pills they find in Trina's car thinking they are mints and end up on a hallucinogenic drug trip, waking up in a compromising position without knowing how they got there.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

The movie White Chicks , BMW, VW, Chevrolet, Pepto Bismol, Hennessy, Jack Daniels, Google Maps, Electric Cowboy, South of the Border, JR Crickets, Times Square, Kroger, and other stores seen in background.

Positive Messages

Friends stick by each other through thick and thin. You can learn from unrequited love. Sometimes it's important to follow your dreams.

Positive Role Models

Trina bullies her brother, steals, escapes from prison, and threatens and intimidates people, but she also cares about her brother and wants him to be strong. Chris and Bud steal Trina's car and get into all kinds of trouble on a misguided road trip. They "accidentally" destroy property and scare innocent people, but they're devoted to each other and their friendship. They often behave like impulsive kids, but they generally seem to mean well and treat people kindly. Bystanders involved in this film also often act with genuine kindness. The film is mostly set in Black communities, and the characters are cognizant when they're the "only Black people" in a place. When they dress up as White people, they tell each other to "think White thoughts."

Parents need to know that Bad Trip , a hidden-camera road trip comedy starring Eric Andre , Lil Rel Howery , and Tiffany Haddish , has language, nudity, sexual references, and violence that make it appropriate only for older teens. The film combines a scripted story involving an impromptu road trip with hidden-camera pranks and scenes involving unsuspecting real-life people. Some of these pranks get violent or destructive: The point is to shock with "accidents" (only Howery and mostly Andre get "hurt") involving blood, semen, poop, accidental drug trips, drunken vomiting, and nudity (male behinds and parts of penises are shown). Sexual references include some explicit language. Characters swear profusely, including the "f--k," the "N" word, versions of "s--t," "ass," and more ("bitch," "damn," "hell," "suck," "crap," "c--ksucker," "d--k," "retard," "p--sy," "cum," and "hell," for example). The film is a buddy movie and the main characters learn how much they love and appreciate each other over the course of the action, and Howery's character comes to a new understanding of his relationship with his tough-as-nails sister (Haddish) as well. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (4)
• Kids say (7)

Based on 4 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Buddies Chris ( Eric Andre ) and Bud ( il Rel Howery ) are stuck in dead-end jobs living in the same Florida town where they went to high school at the start of BAD TRIP. When Chris runs into his high school crush, Maria Li ( Michaela Conlin ), he convinces Bud to drop everything and drive to New York City, where Maria lives, so he can declare his love for her. Lacking their own wheels, they decide to borrow Bud's sister Trina's ( Tiffany Haddish ) car. She's serving time in prison and won't miss it anyway -- or so they think. Soon after they take off on their road trip, Trina escapes from prison. When she discovers the boys have taken her car, she vows to hunt them down and get her car, or kill them in the process. Meanwhile, Bud and Chris will get into all kinds of trouble as they drive north from Florida.

Is It Any Good?

This film has several laugh-out-loud moments, many meant-to-shock sequences, and even some tender scenes of friendship between its two male leads. But like the Borat and Jackass films before it, Bad Trip will turn many audiences off with its over-the-top vulgarity, violence, and gross-out scenes, mostly involving bodily fluids (go ahead and imagine the worst because it's all here). The actors are all convincing in their roles: Howery as the sweet underdog Bud, Andre as the misguided but well-intentioned Chris, Conlin as love interest Maria, and especially Haddish as the hilariously unhinged bully Trina. A perennial comic tool, the male characters seem stuck in a prolonged adolescence. You can tell the cast and crew had a blast making this movie, but even if it's sometimes a fun ride, it definitely won't be for everyone.

The hidden-camera genre always offers some insights into human behavior. It's eye-opening to see how regular people react in completely abnormal circumstances, like a man getting raped by a gorilla, a woman escaping prison or threatening to throw a man off a building, and two men emerging from a spectacular car crash. Some speak out, others ignore what's going on, and some offer advice or assistance -- even in committing a crime. Most pull out their phones and begin filming. This movie is set primarily in Black neighborhoods and businesses up the Southeast corridor between Florida and New York except for some notable exceptions, like an all-White cowboy bar. A final, racially-tinged sequence is reminiscent of Borat at the Conservative Political Action Conference and pays homage to the Wayans brothers' 2004 movie White Chicks . Stick around for the end credits to see how some of the unsuspecting bystanders react when they're told they've been pranked.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the ethics behind films like Bad Trip , which involve unsuspecting bystanders in pranks and unscripted scenes. Do you think the people involved gave their consent to be included in the film? How do you know?

Do you think the film goes too far at any point in its vulgarity or antics? If so, when and why?

A man appears to help Trina escape from prison, and another suggests Bud not tell the police that the car he has just crashed is stolen. Do these men seem to be willing to aide in crimes? What do you make of this?

How does this film compare to other similar movies, like the Borat films or Jackass ?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : March 26, 2021
• Cast : Eric Andre , Tiffany Haddish , Lil Rel Howery
• Director : Kitao Sakurai
• Inclusion Information : Black actors, Female actors
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Comedy
• Topics : Friendship
• Run time : 84 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : crude sexual content, pervasive language, some graphic nudity and drug use
• Last updated : February 18, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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State official shares what to do in case of bad gasoline sale

NACOGDOCHES, Texas (KTRE) - For many of us, a trip to the gas station doesn’t take much thought. But, if you happen to get bad gas, it can become a complicated problem.

You pay your money, pump your gas and leave. You can’t tell if the gas is good, but best believe before you make it home, you’ll know if it’s bad.

For Nacogdoches resident Kristy Holbrook, a routine fuel up turned into a game of “guess what’s wrong with my car.”

“Cut off the car, turned back on the car -- it did start,” said Holbrook.

It’s what happened after that has Holbrook out of more than $200.

After filling up at a gas station in Nacogdoches, Holbrook’s car lost steam until it stopped. Her first instinct was to get to an auto parts store for a diagnostics test.

“It said it was a spark plug misfire, slash coil,” said Holbrook.

After a new coil and spark plug, Holbrook’s car still stalled. It wasn’t until she siphoned the gas out of her car and found it was mostly water that all four wheels rolled with no issues.

“So, it turns out, yeah, it was a half a tank of bad gas,” said Holbrook.

If you end up in Holbrook’s shoes, Tela Mange with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation says you can file a complaint with TDLR.

If you do, do it fast.

Mange says reports of bad gas are among the most common issues submitted to TDLR.

“If you wait too long, when we go to collect the sample, all that fuel may be gone,” said Mange.

TDLR comes out and tests the station’s gas. If it has water in it or is just the wrong grade, they can put the owner on notice, something you should do too if you want your money back for damages.

“They’re going to want to try and get stuff resolved,” said Mange.

TDLR says they can revoke the station’s license to sell gas if they don’t, and reimbursement can take several weeks or months.

They also say to make sure you have your receipt and take your car to a certified mechanic. It’s the only way to confirm the repairs and what you paid for them, to get reimbursed.

Mange says you’ll want to report the incident to your car insurance provider, too.

You can file a report at tdlr.texas.gov .

Copyright 2024 KTRE. All rights reserved.

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Man allegedly drugged wife's dinner then invited more than 50 other men over to rape her

Some 51 men are accused of raping Gisèle Pélicot, a mother of three, after she was allegedly drugged by her husband at the family home in Mazan, a commune in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

• 16:23, 2 Sep 2024
• Updated 16:37, 2 Sep 2024

A mum who was allegedly raped by multiple strangers after being drugged by her own husband today faced them all in a packed court room .

Gisèle Pélicot, a 72-year-old French woman, waived her legal right to anonymity on Monday at the opening of the trial of Dominique Pélicot, 71, and 51 other men.

All are accused of aggravated rape in a trial at the Vaucluse Criminal Court, in Avignon, which is due to last for four months. Twenty of them, including Pélicot, are in custody, while the others remain on bail.

Asked to confirm his name and address at the start of proceedings, Pélicot said: "My home is prison, you know it". Ms Pélicot, a mother-of-three, was supported by her adult children as she stood in the public gallery, listening to evidence.

The family home, in nearby Mazan, allegedly became a crime scene over almost a decade, when streams of men were invited to attack Ms Pélicot. Her husband is said to have used an online platform called coco.fr to contact them between 2011 and 2020.

Detectives have listed a total of 92 rapes committed by 72 men, 51 of whom have been identified.They are all being tried alongside Mr Pélicot , a former employee at French utility company, EDF.

In evidence from previous hearings, he said all the men who slept with his wife ‘knew she was drugged’ without her knowledge. Pélicot said ‘all had free will’ and ‘could have left the premises’ at any time.

Presiding Judge Roger Arata announced first thing on Monday morning that Ms Pélicot would be granted her wish for ‘full publicity’ until the end of the trial.

"Proceedings will be public," said the judge, who is president of a bench composed of five professional magistrates. Ms Pélicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus, said: "She could have opted for a closed trial, but that’s what her attackers would have wanted."

Despite this, it would be a ‘horrible ordeal,’ said Mr Camus, adding: ‘For the first time, she will have to live through the rapes that she endured over ten years.

The Pélicots shared a large family house and – outwardly – were highly respectable pensioners with family members who visited regularly. Neighbours spoke about them as ‘lovely people’ who held parties around their swimming pool, in a well-kept garden, according to court evidence.

In fact, Pélicot was allegedly a serial rapist who moved his family from greater Paris in 1991, and later allegedly set up the sex ring. It involved advertising on a site for ‘partners’ on an online forum called ‘Without Her Knowing’.

Participants would discuss performing acts on unwitting partners, and then film their depravity, before storing the videos on a USB drive dubbed ‘Abuses’. In Pélicot’s case, the data eventually fell into the hand of police, who confirmed it enabled them to identify the 92 cases of rape. Of the 83 men involved, 51 aged between 26 and 73 were identified and arrested by the police.

Pélicot is said to have sedated his wife by putting tablets of a powerful anxiolytic drug into her evening dinner. He then invited strangers from the online forum into the couple's bedroom, so that his wife could be raped while unconscious. All were told to wash their hands, and not to wear aftershave, so she would not sense they were strangers.

Investigators only learned about the horror in 2020, when Pélicot was arrested in a supermarket in Carpentras for filming up the skirts of other customers.

When police searched his camera phone, and equipment kept at his home, they found all of the abuse images. Alleged rapists involved in the case include civil servants, ambulance workers, soldiers, prison guards, nurses, a journalist, a municipal councillor, and truck drivers.

A fireman accused of raping Ms Pélicot wore his uniform during the attack, one video shows. The fireman's computer contained 728 images of children being sexually abused, say prosecutors.

Some of his accomplices claimed they had no idea the sex was not consensual while one denied it was rape, saying: "It's his wife, he does what he likes with her." The trial continues, and is due to last until December 21.

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France Confronts Horror of Rape and Drugging Case as 51 Men Go on Trial

A man is accused of drugging his wife and then inviting dozens of men to rape her over almost a decade. The questions raised by the case have unsettled the country.

By Catherine Porter and Ségolène Le Stradic

Reporting from Paris

For years, she had been losing hair and weight. She had started forgetting whole days, and sometimes appeared to be in dreamlike trances. Her children and friends worried she had Alzheimer’s.

But in late 2020, after she was summoned to a police station in southern France, she learned a far more shattering story.

Her husband of 50 years, Dominique Pelicot, had been crushing sleeping pills into her food and drink to put her into a deep sleep, the police said, and then raping her. He had ushered dozens of men into her home to film them raping her, too, they said, in abuse that lasted nearly a decade.

Using the man’s photographs, videos and online messages, the police spent the next two years identifying and charging those other suspects.

On Monday, 51 men, including Mr. Pelicot, went on trial in Avignon, in a case that has shocked France and cast a spotlight on the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse and the broader culture in which such crimes could occur.

The accused men represent a kaleidoscope of working-class and middle-class French society: truck drivers, soldiers, carpenters and trade workers, a prison guard, a nurse, an I.T. expert working for a bank, a local journalist. They range in age from 26 to 74. Many have children and are in relationships.

Most are charged with raping the woman once. A handful are accused of returning as many as six times to rape her.

The victim, Gisèle, who has divorced her husband and changed her surname since his arrest, is now in her 70s.

Since his arrest, Mr. Pelicot, 71, has “always declared himself guilty,” said Béatrice Zavarro, his lawyer. “He is not at all contesting his role.”

Other defendants have denied the rape charges, with some arguing that they had the husband’s permission and thought that was sufficient, while others claimed they believed the victim had agreed to be drugged.

When the police showed Gisèle some of the photographs they say her husband had carefully classified and stored, she expressed deep shock. She and her husband had been together since they were 18. She had described him to the police as caring and considerate.

She had no memory of being raped, by him or the other men, only one of whom she recognized, she told the police, as a neighbor in town.

The first time she will consciously witness the rapes, her lawyer Antoine Camus says, will be in the courtroom when the video recordings are played as evidence.

The trial comes at a moment of heightened scrutiny of the handling of sexual crimes in the country. Rape is defined in French law as an “act of sexual penetration” committed “by violence, coercion, threat or surprise.” A number of feminist lawmakers want to amend that wording to say explicitly that sex without consent is rape, that consent can be withdrawn at any time, and that consent cannot exist if sexual assault is committed “by abusing a state impairing the judgment of another.”

“There is a kind of naïveté on the topic of predators in France, a kind of denial,” said Sandrine Josso, a lawmaker who led a parliamentary commission into what is known in France as “chemical submission” — drugging someone with malicious intent. She started the commission after she says she became the victim of a drugging last year. A senator is being investigated on accusations that he slipped Ecstasy into her Champagne .

Ms. Josso hopes that the Avignon trial will draw attention to the use of drugs to prey on women, and also shed light on the wide profile of predators. “They could be your neighbors, without falling into paranoia,” she said.

Mr. Pelicot seemed like a classic man next door. He was a trained electrician, an entrepreneur and an avid cyclist. His middle child and only daughter, Caroline Darian, her pen name, described him as a warm and present father in a book published in 2022 about the case, “And I Stopped Calling You Papa.” She tried to turn her family trauma into action, forming a nonprofit association, “Don’t Put Me to Sleep,” to publicize the dangers of drug-facilitated crimes.

Her father, she wrote, was the one who drove her to school, picked her up late from parties, encouraged her and consoled her. Her mother was the stable breadwinner, working as a manager in a Paris-area company for 20 years.

When Gisèle retired, they moved to a house with a big garden and pool in Mazan, a small town northeast of Avignon. The couple regularly hosted their three children and grandchildren for summer vacations peppered with late dinners on the terrace, where the family debated, held dance competitions and played Trivial Pursuit.

“I think of us as happy,” his daughter wrote. “I thought my parents were.”

None of them harbored any suspicions. Then, in 2020, three women reported Mr. Pelicot to the police for trying to use his camera to film up their skirts in a grocery store, and he was arrested.

The police seized his two cellphones, two cameras and his electronic devices, including his laptop, before releasing him on bail.

On the devices, the police say they found 300 photographs and a video of an unconscious woman being sexually assaulted by many people. They said they also found Skype messages in which the man boasted of drugging his wife and invited men to join him in having sex with her while she was unconscious.

Over the course of their investigation, the police found more than 20,000 videos and photographs, many of them dated and labeled, in an electronic folder titled “abuse.” The timeline they built began in 2011. The list of suspects grew to 83.

Two months after his initial arrest, Mr. Pelicot was arrested again and charged with aggravated rape, drugging and a list of sexual abuse charges. He is also accused of violating the privacy of his wife, daughter and two daughters-in-law on suspicion of illegally recording, and at times distributing, intimate photos of them.

If he is found guilty, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

During interviews with the police, the details of which were included in an overview of the case by the investigative judge, Mr. Pelicot said he began drugging his wife so he could do things to her, and dress her in things, that she normally refused. Then he started inviting others to participate. He said he never asked for or accepted money.

He met most of the men, the investigating judge’s report stated, in a chat room on a notorious, unmoderated French website implicated in more than 23,000 police cases in France alone from 2021 to 2024. It was finally shut down, and its owner arrested, in June after an 18-month investigation stretching across Europe.

The chat room where most of the men met Mr. Pelicot was called “a son insu,” which means “without their knowledge.”

Over the years, Mr. Pelicot told the police, he developed rules for the visitors to ensure that his wife did not wake: no smoking or cologne; undress in the kitchen; warm hands under hot water or on a radiator, so their cold touch would not jolt her. At the end of each night, according to the investigating judge’s report, he cleaned his wife’s body.

Of the 83 suspects, the police identified and charged 50.

Only one of the men is not charged with rape, assault or attempted rape of Mr. Pelicot’s wife. Instead, that man is accused of following the same model, and drugging his own wife to rape her. Mr. Pelicot is also charged with raping the man’s wife while she was drugged.

Five of the men also face charges for possessing child sexual abuse imagery.

Mr. Pelicot is also being investigated in the rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in 1991 and the attempted rape of a 19-year-old in 1999. He admitted to the attempted rape, according to Florence Rault, the lawyer representing the victims in both cases, but denies any involvement in the 1991 homicide.

The story has prompted some soul-searching among doctors, since Gisèle had visited gynecologists and neurologists over a series of mystifying symptoms, but had received no diagnosis, according to her daughter.

“What I found disturbing for us doctors was that no doctor considered this hypothesis,” said Dr. Ghada Hatem-Gantzer, a well known obstetrician-gynecologist and expert in violence against women. She and a pharmacist, Leila Chaouachi, have now developed training for doctors and nurses on the symptoms that victims of drug-facilitated assault can experience.

Contrary to popular belief, most cases occur at home, not at bars, said Ms. Chaouachi, who runs annual surveys on such offenses in France. Most victims are women, the surveys show, and around half of the victims do not remember the attack, because of blackouts, she said.

In the case going to court in Avignon, some of the accused admitted guilt to the police. According to the investigating judge’s report, many claimed that they were tricked into having sex with a drugged woman — lured by a husband for a three-way encounter and told she was pretending to sleep, because she was shy.

Several said they believed that she had consented to being drugged and raped as part of a sex fantasy. Some said they did not believe it was rape, because her husband was there and they believed he could consent for both of them.

“It sends shivers down the spine regarding the state of affairs in French society,” said Mr. Camus, who is also representing Ms. Darian and many other members of the family. “If that’s the conception of consent in sexual matters in 2024, then we have a lot, a lot, a lot of work to do.”

Catherine Porter is an international reporter for The Times, covering France. She is based in Paris. More about Catherine Porter