Comedian Guy Branum shares story of actor who was his ‘worst Hollywood boss’

Comedian Guy Branum is looking back on his “worst Hollywood boss.”

Though he provided some pretty specific details, he stopped short of naming his manager in a TikTok he posted Wednesday.

Branum said he “probably should not be telling this story,” but he forged ahead anyway.

“So he is an actor whom I had costarred with in a movie, and he also created a noteworthy prank show,” Branum said before noting again that he shouldn’t be saying what he was saying. “But! I had just lost the best job I had ever had in the industry. I was desperate for money, and a friend of a friend recommended me to write for this prank show. And the guy who created it already kind of didn’t like me. But he was scared of me, and I valued that. He was one of the dumbest human beings that I’ve ever experienced.”

He gave an example of one of the boss’ ideas for “an amazing prank.” The plan, Branum said, was to have a chalk artist draw a “big chasm on the ground.”

He joked that the boss “probably didn’t know the word chasm.”

People would go indoors and pretend they felt an earthquake and then walk outside where the target of the prank would see the chalk.

“And, ladies and gentlemen, there’s nothing harder than having to not laugh in your boss’ face, understanding if you laugh in their face, you will not be able to pay your rent,” Branum said. “But they are saying the stupidest things imaginable.”

Several commenters guessed that it was Ashton Kutcher he spoke about. He and Branum worked together on both Kutcher’s 2011 movie No Strings Attached and, the next year, Punk’d. Branum was a producer on 12 episodes of the series. The prank series was co-created by Kutcher and Jason Goldberg, who has often collaborated with the That ’70s Show actor.

The show originally aired from 2003 to 2007 on MTV, but it was later revived more than once. By 2012, Kutcher was still an executive producer on the series, but he had handed over hosting duties to a rotating list of celebrities, including actors.

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EW has reached out to a representative for Kutcher.

Branum’s more recent gigs include producing the Max comedy series The Other Two and writing and appearing on a season 3 episode of the network’s Emmy-winning show Hacks.