Egyptian TV Show Pranks Celebrities with Fake Kidnappings in Punk’D-Style Program

"RamZ The Desert's Fox" (photo from show Facebook page via Al Arabiya)

Edgy television or just really bad taste?  Either way, we have a feeling Ashton Kutcher isn’t going to be jumping on this idea anytime soon.

Apparently, the Muslim month of Ramadan is a sweeps-like period, with television stations vying for a captive audience hungry for entertainment after breaking the day-long fast. So one Egyptian channel had the unusual idea of pranking its unsuspecting guests in a manner characteristic of the most radical groups in the region: that is, a terrorist kidnapping.

Al Arabiya explains how the prank went down:

The show, “Ramz, the desert’s fox” aired on Al-Hayat TV channel at the start of Ramadan, begins at Cairo’s Terminal 2 airport where a tourist bus arrives to take the celebrity who is the target of the prank.

The unsuspecting celebrity believes that he or she is being transported on bus to participate in a program to be filmed at the tourist center, the Red Sea city of Ghardaka, to boost the country’s dwindling tourism sector.

The soon-to-be pranked celebrity is told that the program will be hosted by the famous Egyptian actor, Izzat Abu Auf ─ but that’s not the case.

They are met by an Egyptian comedian, Ramz Jalal, known for a similar show during Ramadan last year where celebrities were stuck in an elevator with a lion:

In “Ramz, the desert’s fox,” however, Jalal plays as “terrorist” along with his crew. The bus holds all the players of the prank, including some foreigners to lend it the feel of a tourist bus.

Meanwhile, Jalal and his “terrorist” crew ─ their faces covered with the traditional checkered-head-cloth “shmagh” with only their eyes only showing ─ ride in a minivan, with their weapons all ready for the prank.

They start chasing the bus, banging on the bus’s windows demanding the bus driver stop, but the actors in the plot, continues driving.

Soon after the bus comes into a complete stop, the “terrorist” crew heads to the bus, grabs the celebrity cum victim and blindfolds him/her.

Fake gunfire sound ensues to make the celebrity believe that he or she is being abducted.

As seen in the video below, producers were able to stage some pretty impressive faux explosions, including from an apparent RPG that blows out a window of the bus. The blindfold is then removed and the tortured celebrity sees that he or she was the victim of a prank.

What makes the stunt so terrifying is that – as TheBlaze has reported – tourists have been kidnapped in the Sinai Peninsula. Most recently, in mid-July an American pastor was kidnapped along with another American and their Egyptian tour guide and released after four days. The celebrity pranked in the episode you can watch below appears to be so distraught he at first can’t even get up off the ground.

Not surprisingly, the show hasn’t been met with wholehearted enthusiasm by the traumatized victims, with some trying to the beat up the host.

Al Arabiya reports reaction has been mixed. One viewer posted this comment on YouTube:

“This is like U.S. version of Punk.d, this would have been a serious lawsuit in America. That being said I was have freaked out like any one would…”

Al Arabiya translated criticism from one radical Islamist politician, Hazim Abu Ismail who was a Salafi presidential candidate. He released a statement saying: “it is prohibited for one Muslim to scare another Muslim.”

Other viewers believe the show itself was staged, with celebrities in on the gag.

Just last week, an Egyptian candid camera show gained attention when celebrities physically assaulted a female host for pretending the show was being taped for Israeli TV.

Watch an episode of “RamZ The Desert’s Fox” courtesy of Times of Israel, via YouTube: