While the quality of trickery on "Da Ali G Show" is beyond question, the antics are nothing new. You can't swing a fake dead cat without hitting a prankster on TV these days, from the self-destructive lunatics of "Jackass" (and their offspring) to Andy Dick's "Apprentice" parody, "The Assistant." While the first season of "The Daily Show" pushed its stunts far past the "Candid Camera" level of good, clean, family fun -- and made more than a few viewers uncomfortable in the process -- by now audiences are so familiar with manipulative shows like "Big Brother," "My Big Fat Fiancé," and "Scare Tactics" that simply toying with people doesn't raise an eyebrow.

Still, most reality shows manipulate their contestants' emotions so clumsily, the results are hardly watchable. On ABC's "The Ultimate Love Test" (Wednesdays at 10 p.m.), a couple is split apart, with one partner flown to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, while the other watches images of his or her mate drinking fruity drinks with attractive strangers and ex-lovers on a video screen at home. When did the filthy fun of Fox's "Temptation Island" give way to a show that amounts to undiluted emotional torture? It's frankly a miracle that more sketchy behavior and violent crimes, like the 1995 murder of a talk show guest after he admitted he had a secret crush on another man on an episode of "The Jenny Jones Show," aren't the natural fallout of messing with people's lives so heedlessly.

Even the craftiest of the elaborate prank shows, "The Joe Schmo Show" (Spike TV), left viewers with mixed feelings when the prank was revealed. Matt Kennedy Gould thought he was appearing on a reality show, only to discover that the entire thing was fake. When he found out, he appeared thrilled, but also fairly upset, and heartbreakingly ended up shouting at his best friend on the show, "Tell me you're not an actor!" (Of course, he was.) This season, the producers made the mistake of picking a very intelligent woman, Ingrid, to fill one of two dupe roles. She quickly figured out the show was fake, but didn't seem all that pleased about it when they let her in on the secret, aside from expressing relief that she wasn't "going crazy."

Ashton Kutcher's second season of "Punk'd" has also taken on a more dangerous flavor as it tries to re-create its buzz. Instead of mildly teasing stars with impudent valets or aggressive strip searches by security guards, Kutcher has begun to throw more threatening situations into the mix. On a recent episode, Jennifer Love Hewitt was meeting with a producer who supposedly wanted her to star in a movie with Brad Pitt. As if that cruelly unrealistic scenario weren't enough, the producer mentioned that he was in financial trouble, before two thugs showed up, looking ready to bust some kneecaps, and refused to let Hewitt leave. She promptly broke down, looking scared for her life, and the usual miffed "reaction shot" after the "Punk'd" team rushes in to reveal their prank was clearly pasted in after she had a few minutes to compose herself. Once the tears were dried, she gamely asked if this meant she wasn't going to be in a cool movie after all. We still know what you did last summer, honey.

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