OK. You go into an ice cream shop. You buy lime sherbert ice cream. Or at least, you THINK you do. They neglected to tell you it was spiked with antifreeze. But you have no right to complain, because you were WILLINGLY buying ice cream and you neglected to ask about used automotive fluids, so it's your fault?
Yes thats exactly what its like.
You were invited to be on a show and you accepted. Turns out you got pranked because it wasnt exactly what you thought it would be. The bottom line is when you flip your ???? and go sue crazy everyone who hears about it goes "Wow, that guy is a lunatic". So this show is in no way harming your reputation. This freakout over getting pranked is though.
Had you laughed it off and accepted it people would see the show and laugh at the comedians. But now they get to read about you going nuts and getting into a war with this show and everyone is going to be lauging at you. So the bottom line is in this whole thing YOU are harming your reputation far more than Viacom ever could.
Besides, how can they possibly hurt your reputation anyway? Did this guy out fox you in an argument? Did he prove you wrong in some way? Did the editors make it look like you are for gun control or represent something you dont? No. Because thats not the point of the show. The point is just to see if you get pissed off. Everything else is your ego over not wanting to be part of a joke.
Like I've said, the bottom line is if this whole thing went down quietly and you laughed it off people would watch and go "Wow that Matt Besser is goofy!" and thats it. Now thanks to the lawsuit and you're freakout they are saying "Damn, Jim Marsh is a lunatic!" So who is hurting your reputation more?