Pauly Shore’s Punch: Hit Or Hoax?

LOS ANGELES (December 18, 2006) — Thanks to sites like YouTube and Google video and the power of viral video, millions of people saw the clips of Pauly Shore decked by an angry heckler right after it was caught oncell phone cameras.

But what were they really seeing?

Pauly Shore has come to Access Hollywood with the story of the shot heard ‘round the Internet.

“Pauly, you have been a very naughty boy,” Access’ Shaun Robinson joked with Shore.

“You know what, I just had a sense of humor,” the comedian said of the incident.

Pauly’s ultimate punch-out line spawned from a video, which spread online like wildfire. In the clip, you see Pauly at a gig in Odessa, Texas getting heckled by a fan.

Pauly fires back. The fan comes on stage. And Pauly gets punched. At least, that’s what it looks like. But as Shaun found out, looks can be deceiving.

While Internet reports immediately picked up that the attack was real, it was actually all a hoax involving all 300 people in the audience.

“I told them we were going to stage a thing where I get punched,” Pauly revealed.

“What was the audience’s response?” Shaun asked.

“They all laughed,” he said. “They thought it was funny.”

As the fan went on stage for the supposed attack, the camera picked up several audience members cheering him on, yelling “Hit him!”. But it was all part of the ruse.

Pauly explained why he wanted to do it.

“It’s almost like the audience is like the paparazzi now, so I wanted to make fun of the whole situation,” he said.

In Pauly’s own video from the night (different from the ones released online), you can clearly see him directing the audience before the staged fight? and it’s also quite clear no contact is made when the fan swings at him.

“After I get hit, you gotta wait for awhile,” he instructed the crowd. “You guys rolling your cameras?”

And thanks to the advent of cell phones being able to record video, his paparazzi-like audience was able to distribute the punch.

“Did you leak the video?” Shaun asked Pauly.

“No, I told them to leak it,” he admitted.

But in light of the Michael Richards racist rant released online just a few weeks ago, which was also captured on a camera-phone, was Pauly’s joke played out too soon?

“A lot of people are saying this is totally irresponsible on your part. What do you say to them?” Shaun asked.

“I think it’s more irresponsible to the people that picked up on it [after it was leaked]. Shows like ‘Access Hollywood’ and the bigger publications wouldn’t air this because it wasn’t real. I think you have to check your P’s and Q’s, so it’s almost me making fun of the paparazzi and getting back at them,” Shore contends.

But when it’s all said and done, Pauly said he hopes his gag doesn’t backfire – as in the comic who cried wolf.

“I just hope that at some point I don’t get punched for real and then like?,” he explained.

“We think it’s fake?” Shaun asked.

“Yeah, you are going to think it’s fake,” he said.