Why did Sal leave Impractical Jokers? One viral clip has him preaching in an Ohio church
A TikTok has been circulating with a caption along the lines of: Sal Vulcano walked away from Impractical Jokers to become a pastor at an Ohio church, offering rest to people with nowhere else to go. The clip does show a bearded, dark-haired preacher who could pass for him at a glance.
It is not him. Sal Vulcano has never left Impractical Jokers, and as of August 2026 he is still on truTV alongside Brian "Q" Quinn and James "Murr" Murray. The Joker who actually left was Joe Gatto, who announced his exit in December 2021 after nine seasons, citing issues in his personal life and a focus on co-parenting.
The Ohio church in those captions
The details in the viral captions line up with a real and heavily covered story that has nothing to do with Staten Island comedy. Chris Avell founded Dad's Place, a non-denominational church in Bryan, Ohio, in 2018, and in March 2023 began keeping it open around the clock so unhoused people could stay overnight. What followed:
- January 2024 — Avell pleads not guilty to 18 zoning code violations brought by the city of Bryan.
- January 2024 — the church files a federal lawsuit against the city and its officials.
- January 2025 — he is convicted of a fire code violation, fined $200, and given a 60-day suspended jail sentence.
- February 2025 — Ohio's Sixth District Court of Appeals grants a stay on the sentence.
Local and national news footage of Avell preaching and defending the shelter is all over TikTok. Somewhere along the way, someone slapped Vulcano's name on it.
Why the mix-up has legs
Vulcano is an ordained minister, which gives the rumor just enough surface plausibility to survive a fact-check. He officiated Joe Gatto's 2013 wedding, and he married two fans on an episode of Impractical Jokers: After Party.
That combination — an ordained comedian, a lookalike pastor, and a nine-year-old memory of one Joker actually quitting — is enough to keep the search query alive.
What did happen to Sal in 2026
In January 2026, Vulcano's TikTok account posted a graphic for his Everything's Fine Tour with no audio selected. TikTok auto-assigned a trending sound, and the sound turned out to be racially charged. He posted a video addressing it:
"Obviously, I would never post anything like that."
His response passed 12 million views. His social team had not chosen the audio, and the platform's default selection did. That episode is the other reason people have been typing his name into search bars this year — and the reason "Sal Vulcano cancelled" and "Sal Vulcano leaving" started autocompleting together.
Is he still on the show?
Yes. Impractical Jokers has continued as a three-man show since Gatto's exit, with rotating guest comedians filling the fourth slot. Vulcano tours stand-up, co-hosts the podcasts Hey Babe with Chris DiStefano and Taste Buds with Joe DeRosa, and holds the franchise record for punishments taken.
For the record: the "Prince Herb" bit that convinced a generation of viewers Sal was a different person entirely was also Sal. That one at least was on purpose.