How Long to Watch “Just for Laughs”?

The TV-series version of Just for Laughs was the logical outgrowth of the internationally popular live mixed-media presentation of the same name. Beginning in the early 1980s, the creators of the "Just for Laughs" project toured the world with hidden cameras for the express purpose of playing hilarious (but harmless) pranks on ordinary citizens. Typical gags included having an actor posing as a blind person "urinating" in a public swimming pool; a phony hospital patient, hooked up to an IV, struggling to emerge from a tiny taxicab; a man in a wheelchair having his "injured" foot smashed in an elevator door; a actress dressed as a nun nonchalantly walking down the street, dropping photos of nude men all along the way; and a guy in a gorilla suit pretending to attack a helpless zoo employee. Perhaps it goes without saying that the fun arose from the reactions of the everyday folks who witnessed these fabricated incidents. Frequently employing celebrity participants, Just for Laughs had flourished in "live" and video form in 125 countries (and as a closed-circuit-TV attraction on 95 airlines) by the time the property made its weekly television debut in Canada in the fall of 2006. Using most of the Canadian production personnel, including host Rick Miller, the United States version of Just for Laughs premiered July 17, 2007.