- by Susan Cole
- – on
- in Lists
As one of the most popular reality shows of the past ten years, the History Channel's Pawn Stars is still chugging along after more than 500 episodes. The show's basic formula-- which combines the best of Antique Roadshow with slightly sleazy Vegas hucksterism-- is a bit shopworn, but it's still a winner with the fans.
The good folks at the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop (which is the actual name of the Pawn Stars shop) always seem to be willing to do almost anything for attention.
They shoot off cannons, play with dangerous antique weapons, dress up in ridiculous holiday costumes, and buy worthless junk that nobody else would touch.
It's all in a day's work for Rick "The Spotter" Harrison, the shop's chief honcho, and his dad, Richard Benjamin "The Old Man" Harrison, who founded the shop more than two decades ago.
Meanwhile, the always entertaining Corey "Big Hoss" Harrison (Rick's son) and Corey's childhood friend Austin "Chumlee" Russell can be counted on to provide heaping chunks of hilarious comic relief, a lot of which is not intentional.
We've collected a few of the strangest photos of the Pawn Stars crew— or the most alarming ones, depending on your point of view.
Frankly, photos of Chumlee looking and/or acting weird could make up every entry on this list. However, we've tried to keep the Chum weirdness factor somewhat in check.
Now it's time to roll those fuzzy Vegas dice and check out the 20 Crazy Photos Of The Cast Of Pawn Stars.
20 Elf on a pawn shop shelf
Never let it be said that the cast of Pawn Stars doesn't do holidays.
They are willing to dress up in festive costumes that look both insanely stupid and uncomfortable. Take the case of Rick's bizarre elf costume, for example, which is shown in the still above and from the Christmas episode for 2013.
At the end of the show, The Old Man threw a costume party for the whole shop in the parking lot, where everyone dressed as Santa Claus-- except for Rick, who didn't get the memo.
He ended up having to wear the elf costume, which Chumlee brought for him.
Featuring polka-dot sleeves and red-and-white striped knee-socks, the costume made Rick look like a self-described "fool."
He clearly hated it, but he was game enough to wear it around the shop later, while talking to customers. Anything for a sale.
The show also featured a shop Christmas card art contest. The winner was the card that Chumlee designed. Chum's carded featured a photo he had taken of himself, standing next to a very realistic-looking dummy of Britney Spears from the local wax museum.
Everybody claimed to be baffled by Chumlee's feat in getting a picture with his arm around Britney. As if anybody would believe in real life that it was actually Britney Spears.
19 Corey's Dangerous Crossbow
One of the scariest things about Pawn Stars is how often Corey and Chum play around with dangerous weapons— while often skipping common-sense safety precautions.
In the episode "Peaches and Pinups", Corey bought a vintage Barnett crossbow made in the 1970s.
The bow hadn't been used in decades, and the seller wasn't sure it even worked anymore. Corey— being Corey— bought it anyway. That's Corey brandishing the Barnett in the still photo above.
Corey and Chum then decided to test the Barnett bow at a local archery shooting range. The range's archery specialist, however, explained in graphic detail that firing an out-of-repair crossbow could be really, really dangerous-- lost fingers and eyes featured prominently in his scary spiel.
The specialist even declined to test the Barnett bow himself, for fear of losing a finger— or worse. This, however, didn't deter the boys at all from wanting to fire the bow.
They competed, paper-scissors-rock style, to determine who would have the "honor of shooting the crossbow first and possibly losing a limb or digit.
Chum was the one who ended up on the hot seat. Embarrassingly, he was so out of shape that he couldn't even cock the bow-- and neither could Corey.
With the help of the specialist, they eventually got the thing cocked, and then Chum managed to shoot it at the target without losing any part of his body.
18 Santa's little helper
This screencap of Chumlee dressed like an elf is from another of the Christmas episodes. He originally showed up as Santa Claus, but that didn't sit well with The Old Man.
The Old Man also showed up to work as Santa that day and didn't want to share the spotlight. So Chum went home and changed into this Kelly green elf costume
Most people think that elves are tiny creatures who are so petite, that they are able to live underneath toadstools in the garden.
Unfortunately, "petite" is not a word that any sane person would associate with our Chum in this picture. It was clearly taken before he went on that drastic diet-and-exercise-routine that dropped a truckload of Happy Meals off of his well-padded caboose.
We love Chum like everybody else, but let's face it, in this photo he looks like a giant, jolly green olive, that's been stuffed with cream-cheese-and-pimento dip.
Which elf wore it better? Rick's elf costume had patterns and gold braid, whereas Chum's costume was just a plain old green elf costume you'd see on an average shelf-elf.
We're calling the win for Rick, mainly because he's the boss and can't afford to be out-elfed by a lowly plebe like Chum.
17 Mrs. Obama's Valuable Saliva
We think this photo is from a guest appearance that Rick, Hoss, and Chum made on an episode of the Nickelodeon kids' show, iCarly, in 2012. They played themselves.
Now, there was nothing particularly "crazy" about the guest appearance or the episode. Ironically speaking, however, the plot involved springing a jailbird from the Big House-- something that Chumlee learned all about a few years later.
In the show, Carly (Miranda Cosgrove), Sam (Jeannette McCurdy), and their friends drove all night to Las Vegas to bail Sam's mother, Pam, out of jail.
They had no money for the bail, so they planned to pawn their most valuable possessions. Of course, they chose the Pawn Stars shop for their transactions.
After a lot of haggling, Rick bought Carly's half-filled bottle of Wahoo Punch, which Michelle Obama drank out of and then autographed. (Mrs. Obama actually did appear on iCarly once, playing herself.)
Rick was willing to pay $2500 to drink out of the bottle so that he could experience the former First Lady's, umm, saliva. No disrespect meant to Mrs. Obama, but we think that's kind of… gross.
Of course, this show parodied the kind of off-beat stuff that Rick often likes to buy for his shop, but still, it's not that much of a parody.
16 Shooting Bowling Balls
The Pawn Stars episodes that feature cannons are always popular with the fans. They include the show that showcased an antique Civil War-era cannon, as well as another one that focused on an old cannon that was used in the '80s series Magnum PI.
Of course, whenever a cannon comes into the shop, Rick and the boys have to make sure that it works. They always fire it off with childish glee, hooting and hollering at the explosive noises the cannon makes.
By far, the most famous and best-remembered cannon featured on Pawn Stars was a really strange artifact. It was a home-made, mortar-style cannon that shot out bowling balls. Yes, bowling balls. That's what the boys are firing in the above photo.
The bowling ball mortar was featured in a season two episode entitled "Strike. Spare. Boom." That sounds really odd, but a quick perusal of YouTube videos shows that bowling ball cannons are actually a thing among some hobbyists these days.
The one that Rick and the boys shot off worked only too well-- it not only shot out the bowling ball with a fearsome force, it also made an enormous blast.
Rick, of course had to buy it after that. We're not sure what he did with it, but we think it would make a nice conversation piece at the local bowling alley.
15 Rick's Jousting Helmet
A jousting we will go. Rick tries on a 16th Century jousting helmet in a still from the season one episode called "Knights in Fake Armor".
However, when he actually put the helmet on his head, the heavy hunk of junk made him feel like The Man in the Iron Mask, instead of like Sir Lancelot. The things the Pawn Stars cast members are willing to do for ratings...
Nevertheless, he thought he had made a real find, and was ready to buy for the right price.
Unfortunately the helmet, when examined by antique arms expert Jim, turned out to be a 19th Century Victorian copy-- a very good copy, but a copy all the same.
Stubborn Rick wanted the real thing, so the customer went away in a disappointed huff without selling his helmet.
We think it would have been really entertaining to see the helmet used in a jousting match between Rick and Corey or Chumlee, but that's probably not going to happen now. We'll have to settle for their frequent jousts of the verbal nature, also known as "fights."
14 Too Much Green Beer
Is it just us or does The Old Man look like he's had a little too much green beer in this St. Pat's Day photo? True, no green beer can be seen in the episode (season 9, "Shamrocked"), but we're not fooled— we know it was there somewhere.
The guys had a little St. Pat's Day party at the end of the episode and The Old Man wore this green velvet leprechaun hat. He ended up looking like a magically delicious zombie, and the cheerful, jaunty hat was an absurd contrast.
However, his hat was at least better than Chumlee's St. Patrick's Day attire. He appeared in bright green skinny pants (pre-crash-diet), which were not particularly flattering to his rotund form-- not that Chum would care in the least how he looked.
According to their family bio, the Harrisons originally hailed from Ireland. They also claim to be distantly related to Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States. (The Old Man's middle name is Benjamin.)
Strangely though, at least according to their bio, they don't claim to be related to William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the United States, who was Benjamin Harrison's grandfather.
We're not sure how that works out, logically speaking, but we know that Rick loves to collect presidential memorabilia, and the Benjamin Harrison connection is probably why.
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13 Olivia's Strange Fashion Sense
Cute and funny, former night shift clerk Olivia Black was a fan favorite on the show a few seasons back. (She almost even made The Old Man smile, which is no small feat.)
However, all of that changed when a lot of naughty photos appeared on the Internet of Olivia in various stages of undress.
According to a suit filed by Olivia, someone at Leftfield Pictures, the show's production company, deemed these photos inconsistent with a family-friendly atmosphere. This seems a bit hypocritical when you consider the bleeped out f-bombs that are regularly dropped on-camera.
Someone then made the decision to fire her from the show, but nobody seems willing to own up to the dastardly deed. Rick denied that he had anything to do with Olivia's departure and she continued working at the shop for some time after getting sacked from the show.
One of the things that everybody loved Olivia so much were her awesome tattoos, combined with her unconventional approach to fashion.
The red-and-black leather Harley Quinn-themed ensemble in this photo is one of her most ladylike and proper outfits. She would have been a total stand-out if she had worn it to the recent royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
Meghan, Kate Middleton, and Amal Clooney can rest assured, however, that Olivia will never challenge any of them for a spot on the list of the world's ten best-dressed women.
However, we think she's got the cover shot for the fall fashion edition of Biker Chicks Quarterly all locked up.
12 Chum's Mug Shot
Let's just say this straight up: what this photo represents is not really one of the better chapters in the history of Pawn Stars. In fact, it's Chumlee's police mug shot from a couple of years ago.
The normally easy-going Chum looks like a real desperado in the shot, maybe even like a made guy from The Sopranos.
On March 9, 2016, Chum's house was raided by police in the process of investigating an alleged assault charge. The assault charge was later dropped, but Chum was busted anyway for illegal substance possession and for possessing an illegal gun, which police found during the search.
Fortunately, for both Pawn Stars and Chum, he obtained a plea bargain deal that brought him three years of probation, but no jail time.
This embarrassing incident didn't really hurt Chumlee that much with his fans. They mostly wrote it off as just another one of his moron-like screw-ups, which are well-documented on the show.
Chum has said little publicly about the incident except to thank his fans for standing by him during a difficult time.
There were rumors at the time that Chumlee would be fired from the show, but it didn't happen, mainly because he is the show in many ways.
11 The Old Man's Halloween Costume
Longtime fans know that The Old Man— like Clint Eastwood— only has two facial expressions for the camera. One, stony face with good hair and two, stony face with bad hair.
In these photos, however, we can't really tell if his expression fits one or two because The Old Man is wearing a cowboy hat that covers up his hair.
He donned the cowboy hat, the eyepatch, and the red bandana for a Halloween-themed episode, in which he tried to look like the character of Rooster Cogburn in the Western movie True Grit.
The stony face went well with the costume and The Old Man was definitely in the running for best outfit of the episode.
In the same show, Rick showed up as Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers movies, and Chum came as tweeny-girl idol Justin Bieber. (Or at least what Justin Bieber would have looked like after consuming several Happy Meals a day for six months in a row.)
Those these costumes were popular with fans, they had one main competitor.
These costumes were dull as dishwater, however, compared with the real costume winner for the day, Antwan the security guard.
10 Big Baby Antwan
Antwan Austin, the beloved security guard for the Gold and Silver Pawn shop, is a big guy. He claims to be 6-foot-5 inches tall, and also claims to weigh in at an astounding 430 pounds.
Yes, Antwan is big-- like Mack-Truck-sized big. No one's gonna be stealing any of the shop's shiny bling while Antwan's on the job, that's for sure.
Antwan also has a great sense of humor, which is fully on display in this charming cap from a Halloween-themed episode.
When the call came to dress up for a Halloween costume contest at the shop, Antwan showed up as "the world's biggest baby."
Somehow, he managed to squeeze his truck-sized bulk into a jumbo onesie (where on Earth did he get it?) and a ruffled, Baby-Huey-style hat. He also sported a binky, otherwise known as a pacifier.
Everyone laughed at lovable Antwan cavorting around for the cameras in his baby suit. That is, except for The Old Man, who hasn't cracked a smile since 1975 (or so the rumor goes.)
Big Baby Antwan easily won the costume contest and the "lavish" $100 prize that skinflint Rick offered to the winner.
He beat out Chumlee, who was dressed in a Justin Bieber wig, for this great honor. He also beat out The Old Man, who was fixed up to look like Rooster Cogburn from the film True Grit.
9 Johnny Jimenez's Mug Shot
Long before Chumlee entered his brief life of crime, there was Johnny Jimenez, Jr., the show's expert on vintage toys.
Jimenez consulted on the show for at least two-dozen episodes, including one episode where he was asked to value an enormous collection of pristine Transformers from the '80s— some of his favorite toys.
In late 2015, shockingly, Jimenez was arrested for domestic violence after he allegedly pushed his girlfriend to the ground during an altercation outside of a popular Vegas restaurant.
The photo above was Jimenez's unflattering mug shot from the Las Vegas Police Department, which hit the media shortly afterward.
As reported by TMZ at the time, Jimenez claimed that he was just trying to help the allegedly inebriated woman get back into the restaurant when she fell down. He told police that he was confident that video footage from the incident would exonerate him.
We're not sure what happened with the charges after that, but today Jimenez is still actively running his well-known vintage toy shop, Vegas Toy Shack.
He posts regularly on the store's Facebook page and engages with fans. Also, he's apparently still making super-cheesy television commercials promoting his shop, which can be found on the Facebook page.
8 Dressing Like "Goodfellas"
We think that Chum, Corey, Rick, and The Old Man look pretty cool as Vegas "goodfellas" in this promo shot for a new season.
Rick's shiny suit is great, and a big improvement over his usual dumpy black polo shirt. He almost looks like he's about to make someone an offer they can't refuse.
This photo kind of makes us wonder how many real goodfellas have made their way into the shop. However, Rick's probably not telling how many violin cases or sets of brass knuckles he's received as pawn collateral over the years.
Speaking of goodfellas, let's not forget that embarrassing episode where Rick offered a customer $500 for an original script from the greatest mob movie of all time, The Godfather, which was reportedly signed by star Al Pacino.
At least that's what his hired autograph expert, John Reznikoff, claimed on-camera.
The customer declined Rick's offer for the script and later sold the historic document at auction for $12,000. However, it turned out that John Reznikoff was wrong, and it was a pretty big mistake.
The signature was actually from Al Ruddy, the producer of the movie, not from the great Al Pacino, as reported by the Las Vegas Sun. Oops.
7 The Saddest Santa
Why so serious? That's what Heath Ledger's Joker might have asked when shown this photo from a Christmas episode of the show.
We think The Old Man looks like the saddest, grumpiest Santa ever here. Frankly, we worry about the emotional health of any kid who dared to ask him for a Christmas puppy.
Santas are supposed to be round, jolly, and fun, which are adjectives that simply don't apply to The Old Man. However, by gum, he wanted to be Santa for this Yuletide episode, and who would dare tell him differently? He'd be sure to leave worse things than mere lumps of coal for the hapless person who tried.
As far as we know, the mystery of why The Old Man always looks so grim-- even while wearing a Santa hat-- has never been solved.
Maybe it's his age? Born in 1941, he grew up in an era during which "the strong, silent type" was considered the manly ideal. He served 20 years in the U.S. Navy and lived through five wars by his own count, and that probably wasn't always a barrel of laughs.
Sadly, The Old Man and his wife Joanne also lost one of their children at only six years of age.
Whatever it is that's making The Old Man look so grumpy all the time, we maintain the secret hope that he cracks a smile-- or even laughs out loud-- every once in a while, probably in secret behind locked doors.
6 Chum's Pawn Shop Pinot
After Rick and The Old Man bought an antique wine-making kit, Chumlee decided to make what he called "Pawn Shop Pinot." THis meant crushing grapes with his feet, like Lucille Ball in that legendary episode of I Love Lucy.
If you have a weak stomach, we recommend not watching the full YouTube clip of Chum squishing grapes with his toes and then— apparently— eating one of the toe-crushed grapes he picked up off the floor. (Ew.)
Once finished with crushing the grapes, Chum added cheap box wine to the mess "for color."
The mess then went into the large bottle from the kit, and Chumlee stowed the bottle in the shop's back room for several months to ferment. It's a wonder nobody noticed the smell.
After Chum decided that the Pawn Shop Pinot was "done," he produced a set of wine glasses and forced Rick, The Old Man, and Corey to drink it. (Why?)
Of course, the "wine" they drank was terrible and everyone grimaced painfully, except Corey, who spit his wine back into the cup in addition to grimacing painfully.
To be fair, it may all have been simply drama. Given the show's reputation for staging scenes, the red liquid they drank could have actually been Hawaiian Punch or strawberry soda, instead of Chumlee's disgusting Pawn Shop Pinot.
5 "Cutting-Edge" Halberd Spears
We've seen repeatedly how Corey and Chum love playing around with dangerous weapons and here's yet another example.
In this still from a season two episode called "Rick's Bad Day", they were caught carelessly brandishing two Halberd spears.
A Halberd spear is a weapon that combines a spear and a razor-sharp battle-axe. Invented in the 16th Century, the Halberd spears are still carried today by the Vatican's world-famous Swiss Guard.
A Halberd is capable of slicing off an arm with one stroke. However, Corey and Chum lumbered around with them as if they were cardboard swords at a kid's birthday party.
At one point, they joked about fighting with them, but who knows if it was really just a joke? It's Corey and Chum, for Pete's sake.
Corey originally bought the Halberds for $250 for the pair, thinking that they were inexpensive replicas from a Renaissance Fair. However, later, the Old Man intervened and demanded they consult antique arms expert Sean.
Sean determined that the Halberds were actually high-quality Victorian-made reproductions worth a thousand dollars apiece.
Oops. Despite the increased valuation of the two spears, the boys continued to treat them with carelessness-- because they are still Corey and Chum.
4 Hot Air
At first glance, we had no idea what was happening in this photo. We thought it might be a still of Corey and Chum peering into an oversized picnic basket in the parking lot.
Obviously, we assumed that they were looking for giant-sized ham sandwiches, tubs of potato salad, and cherry-flavored juice boxes to have for lunch. Because if there's one thing that Corey and Chum really know a lot about, it's lunch.
Further research, however, found that this is actually a still photo from an episode called "Hot Air Balloon". The structure in the photo is the basket of a hot air balloon that Corey bought from a customer for almost $40,000. That's because Corey usually buys everything, and then sorts it all out later.
At the end of the episode, Chum "accidentally" flew away in the now-assembled balloon, leaving Corey behind.
As is often the case with the Pawn Stars staff, they never explained exactly what they planned to do with their new purchase. Corey claimed he could make a lot of money off of the huge balloon, but he never explained how.
This appears to be one of those transactions that was done for the show's drama value only, and which would never have been concluded at the shop in real life.
3 Chum's Lecture Mode
This photo makes us laugh because it looks like Chumlee is trying to convince a customer that he's got a lot of diplomas and "edumacation" and stuff. (We don't really know what he's saying here, though.)
In reality, most of Chum's online bios don't state anything about his educational background. He's achieved fame and riches for acting like the village idiot on Pawn Stars. He's also been the butt of everyone's jokes for more than 500 episodes, but always comes across as sweet-natured and amicable nevertheless.
In fact, Chumlee's boss Rick Harrison once told Parade magazine that he shows "sparks of genius," along with, unfortunately, "moments of ridiculousness."
He started working at the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop at age 21, and he's certainly made his mark since then. He owns his own company, a Rolls Royce, and hundreds of pairs of sneakers.
He also owns a recently opened candy store, Chumlee's Candy on the Boulevard, which is located very close to Gold and Silver Pawn. The store specializes in nostalgia candy, such as Pez dispensers and vintage brands.
Those aren't the achievements of a dumb guy, but maybe he could work on his impulsiveness, hygiene, and attention span.
2 The Steve McQueen Obsession
The Pawn Stars guys, especially Rick, seem to be obsessed with the late actor Steve McQueen, who starred in classic movies like Papillion and Bullit. (Not to be confused with the Oscar-winning director/producer of the movie 12 Years A Slave, who has the same name.)
Items related to the legendary star, who was known as the '60s King of Cool, often find their way onto the show. Past finds include an autographed original movie poster from Bullit— McQueen's most famous movie— and a rare 1940 Indian motorcycle that was once owned by the iconic actor.
In this weird still from the episode entitled "New Old Man", The Old Man grimly poses with a large McQueen photo.
It's almost as if he's hoping some of that vintage cool will magically rub off on him. (Actually, we think that The Old Man is pretty cool already.)
However, the best McQueen item that Rick bought was probably the 1951 Chevrolet that the actor drove in his last film, 1980's The Hunter. McQueen later purchased the car for his vast collection of vehicles.
Fanboy Rick drove the canary-yellow, Styleline convertible around for several years. According to JustCollecting, though, he later sold it at an auction for a very cool $84,000.
1 Chum's Famous Ancient Helmet Picture
No one would ever mistake Chumlee for a Roman Legionnaire, but here he is, brandishing a sword and wearing what looks like a Roman-style helmet called a galea.
The galea was known for its long face guards that protect the face. In Chum's case, the guards gives his round face a more mature and— dare we say it?— a more intelligent look.
We like this photo because it shows Chum bulging his eyes out and acting all fierce and determined. This is an image that may have kept the Barbarians at bay and possibly even reversed the Fall of Rome.
By the way, this helmet pic is one of the most popular photos of Chum that comes up in image search. Not surprisingly, it's been memed all over the place, including a hilarious one that compares the photo to historical depictions of Attila the Hun (there is a strong resemblance.)
However, we were unable to determine the Pawn Stars episode that the photo came from (admittedly, we haven't seen them all), so we don't know that much about the context that produced it.
It's just a funny, crazy image that sticks in peoples' minds and makes them laugh-- well, maybe not The Old Man.
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Do you know of any other crazy photos of the cast of Pawn Stars? If so, let us know in the comments!
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