Just for Laughs: Gags

Just for Laughs
Genre	Comedy
Created by	Rick Miller
Directed by	Troy Miller
Presented by	Rick Miller
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	35
Production
Executive producer(s)	Troy Miller
Production location(s)	Warner Brothers Studios
Camera setup	Single
Running time	23 minutes
Release
Original network	ABC
Picture format	480i (SD)
Original release	17 July 2007 –; 12 July 2009

Just for Laughs: Gags
	Just for Laughs Gags title card used from year 2007 to 2011
Also known as	Just for Laughs
Genre	Comedy
Created by	Pierre Girard; Jacques Chevalier
Country of origin	Canada
Original language(s)	Silent; French; English ; Interjections
No. of seasons	19 (as of 2019)
No. of episodes	2,500+
Production
Producer(s)	Just for Laughs
Production location(s)	Canada (cities of Quebec, Montreal and Vancouver); Mexico
Running time	15 minutes
Release
Original network	TVA; CBC; The Comedy Network; TVOntario (Canada)
Original release	26 December 2000 –; present
Chronology
Related shows	Just for Laughs
External links
	Website

Just for Laughs: Gags (in French, Juste pour rire: Les Gags) is a Canadian silent comedy/hidden camera reality television show that is under the Just for Laughs brand.[1]

Start of the show

On 26 December 2000, JFL: Gags began airing on French Canadian network Canal D. In the following years, the show was picked up by TVA, CBC and The Comedy Network in Canada, BBC1 in the UK, TF1 in France and ABC and Telemundo in the United States; the Canadian version (unlike the ones produced for ABC) aired in the United States in first-run syndication starting in the fall of 2015. That version is distributed by PPI Partners, and is available in both weekday strip and weekend runs.[2]

Production

The series uses a hidden camera format, playing pranks on unsuspecting subjects while hidden cameras capture the subjects' responses; each episode presents multiple gags. While some segments have included brief dialogue, most do not contain any sound or dialogue; the audio is replaced with sound effects, a laugh track, and public domain music.

Most segments are filmed in Montreal, while some have been filmed in Quebec City, Vancouver and Mexico. British and Asian versions have been produced in the UK and Singapore, respectively. In 2011 the show spawned a spinoff, Just Kidding, which consists exclusively of kids playing pranks on adults.

Public reception

With its silent format and no translation required, Just for Laughs: Gags has been purchased for use in over 100 countries throughout the world as well as in airports and by airlines. Reactions to the gags range from "inane"[3] to cross-culturally funny.[4] The same distributors also distribute Surprise Sur Prise, a similar show.

A gag on 'Just for Laughs'

Expansion

In March 2011, Just for Laughs Gags entered into a partnership with Montreal-based, entertainment site, Videobash.com[5] and now have their own devoted channel there. (No video has been posted as of this writing.)

Cast

This section requires specific casting related to Just for Laughs: Gags.[6]

Dany Many
Denis Levasseur
Denise Jacques
Jacques Drolet
Jean Kohnen
Jean-Pierre Alarie
Jean Provencher
Marie-Ève Larivière
Marie-Pierre Bouchard
Nadja David
Pascal Babin
Philippe Bond
Richard Ledoux
Marie-Andrée Poulin
Kirsteen O'Sullivan
Keith Law
Sonia Butterworth
Jack Martin
Francis Gio Santiago
Claude Talbot

Pranks

In the opening of each prank, the actors introduce how the prank was done and how it will be shown as well. Here are just a few illustrative examples from the thousands of pranks filmed for the 3,000+ shows include:

Alien in the bushes: as people pass by a street, bushes shake uttering a strange language. As they try to check it, an alien pops out and chases them away;
Hand out of the coffin: a coffin is abandoned in a park and when people pass by, a hand pops out;
Stolen tires: an elderly lady asks bystanders to help her carry two tires to her car. But as they do so, they pass a police vehicle which is missing them. They tell the officer that they were the lady's and they were helping her take it to her car but as they look back, she was nowhere to be found;
Dead bird in a race: people passing are asked to fire a starting pistol to help start a race. Once they give a shot in the air, a pigeon falls down;
Honking at Hookers: a traffic police officer stops drivers and checks their license. Two hot prostitutes walk by and the officer honks a horn and the women appear to believe the drivers honked at them.
Instant Accomplice: stranger's friend or loved ones take part on a prank.

At the end of every prank, the hidden cameras are revealed. During the pranks, actors would also participate as victims for uninvolved bystanders or crowds.

List of pranks

To see the following list of pranks and its season of Just for Laughs Gags based in Canada, see List of pranks and its seasons on Just for Laughs Gags.

International versions

Country	Name	Network	Aired
Finland	Pilanpäiten	MTV3	2001 – present
United Kingdom	Just for Laughs	BBC One	31 May 2003 – 21 July 2007
Sri Lanka	Matama Hina	Siyatha TV	14 April 2017 – present
United States	Just for Laughs	ABC and Telemundo First-run syndication	17 July 2007 – 12 July 2009 September 2015 – present
Singapore	Just for Laughs Gags Asia and Just for Laughs Gags	MediaCorp Channel 5 and DIVA Asia	12 January 2010 – present
Japan	Just for Laughs	Fox	2011 – present
Philippines	Just for Laughs Gags	GMA Network,	5 November 2011 – August 2012
Russia	Radi Smeha (in Russian, Ради Смеха)	Ren TV	2012 – present
Kazakhstan	Tek Kúlki úshin (in Kazakh, Тек Күлкі Үшін)	NTK TV	2008 – present
Turkey	Komikler (Just for Laughs Gags)	Kanal D	2012 – present
Azerbaijan	Just for Laughs Gags	Lider TV	2005 – 2016
Morocco	Just for Laughs Gags	2M TV	2010s – present
Brazil	Só Risos (Only Laughs) Vídeos incríveis (Incredible Videos)	Rede Bandeirantes de Televisão (terrestrial TV)	15 July 2013 – present
Brazil	Pegadinhas (Pranks)	Viva (pay TV)	5 January 2013 – present
Kazakhstan	Тек Күлкі Үшін	HTK	2012 – present
Hong Kong	笑笑大搞作	ATV	2007
Taiwan	歡樂夏夏叫	Videoland Television Network
Kenya	Just for Laughs Gags	KTN
Kosovo	Kamera e Fshehur	RTK	20?? – present
Croatia	Skrivena kamera Žuta minuta	RTL Television	2010 – present
India	Just for Laughs Gags	Zee Cafe, Zee Trendz, Zee Studio and Pogo	1 January 2004 – present
Pakistan	Just for Laughs Gags	Cartoon Network Filmax	2008 – 2010 2014 – present
Serbia	Skrivena kamera-Скривена Камера	Prva Srpska Televizija Radio Television of Serbia	2010 – present 2017 – present
Malaysia	Just for Laughs Gags and Just for Laughs Gags Asia	TV3, NTV7, Disney Channel Asia, DIVA Asia, Astro Ceria & Comedy Central	1 January 2005 – present
Poland	Ale numer!	TV Puls	2007 – present
South Africa	Just for Laughs Gags	Comedy Central Africa	2012 – present
Portugal	Não há crise! (There's no crisis!)	SIC	2008 – present
Greece	Just for Laughs	Makedonia TV	2009 – 2016
Mexico	Sólo para Reir (Just for Laughs)	Canal 5 (Mexico)	2011 – present
Peru
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Just for Laughs Gags Skrivena kamera	Face TV FTV	2015 – present 12 July 2017 – 30 September 2017
Vietnam	Just for Laughs Gags Đùa chút thôi or Cười lên nào	VTC7,VTC11	2011 – 2012
Lithuania	Just for Laughs Gags Pričiupom!	BTV Info TV	2019 – present

Just for Laughs (U.S. TV series)

Just for Laughs is an American sketch comedy show hosted by Rick Miller produced by Dakota Pictures that shows clips from the Canadian version of the show. Good ratings during the summer airings in 2007 and a writer's union strike resulted in ABC adding the show to the network lineup as a mid-season replacement for 2007-2008. It returned to the schedule on 1 January 2008, before being canceled on 12 May 2008. However, on 4 June 2009, it was announced that a third season would begin airing on 21 June 2009.[7] Program Partners brought the show back to the United States for a fourth season beginning in fall 2015; this season aired in first-run syndication.[8]

Seasonal Nielsen ratings

Seasonal ratings based on average total viewers per episode of Just for Laughs on ABC:

Season	Episodes	Timeslot (EDT)	Season Premiere	Season Finale	TV Season	Rank	Viewers (in millions)
1	17	Tuesday 8:00 PM	17 July 2007	6 November 2007	2006-2007	#111	7.06
2	14	Tuesday 8:00 PM	1 January 2008	1 April 2008	2007-2008	#156	4.93
3	4	Sunday 7:30 PM	21 June 2009	12 July 2009	2008-2009	#150	3.90

Season 1 (2007)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Original Airdate
1	1	"Episode 1"	17 July 2007
2	2	"Episode 2"	24 July 2007
3	3	"Episode 3"	31 July 2007
4	4	"Episode 4"	7 August 2007
5	5	"Episode 5"	14 August 2007
6	6	"Episode 6"	21 August 2007
7	7	"Episode 7"	28 August 2007
8	8	"Episode 8"	4 September 2007
9	9	"Episode 9"	11 September 2007
10	10	"Episode 10"	18 September 2007
11	11	"Episode 11"	25 September 2007
12	12	"Episode 12"	2 October 2007
13	13	"Episode 13"	9 October 2007
14	14	"Episode 14"	16 October 2007
15	15	"Episode 15"	23 October 2007
16	16	"Episode 16"	30 October 2007
17	17	"Episode 17"	6 November 2007

Season 2 (2008)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Original Airdate
1	1	"Episode 1"	1 January 2008
2	2	"Episode 2"	8 January 2008
3	3	"Episode 3"	15 January 2008
4	4	"Episode 4"	22 January 2008
5	5	"Episode 5"	29 January 2008
6	6	"Episode 6"	5 February 2008
7	7	"Episode 7"	12 February 2008
8	8	"Episode 8"	19 February 2008
9	9	"Episode 9"	26 February 2008
10	10	"Episode 10"	4 March 2008
11	11	"Episode 11"	11 March 2008
12	12	"Episode 12"	18 March 2008
13	13	"Episode 13"	25 March 2008
14	14	"Episode 14"	1 April 2008

Season 3 (2009)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Original Airdate
1	1	"Episode 1"	21 June 2009
2	2	"Episode 2"	28 June 2009
3	3	"Episode 3"	5 July 2009
4	4	"Episode 4"	12 July 2009

Home media

Just for Laughs Gags 1
Just for Laughs Gags 2

gollark: I'll counterrotate it.

gollark: Just harvest the icon and rotate it backward.

gollark: @everyone Go Fast Fourier Transform yourself.

gollark: They seemed mostly fine with them. Not a huge amount of them actually *changed* anyway.

gollark: I think it's in `infocontext.txt`: they believed people were misled into thinking the other staff were not happy with rule changes.

References

Just for Laughs: Gags "This crazy Quebec-based troupe uses the city as its stage, and its inhabitants, or victims, as characters! People are caught in a twisted yet funny web of comedic deception. This updated Candid Camera is a tad more risque and a little kookier with its practical jokes. The little snippets last only a few minutes, and some look more painful than others."
"THE WHOLE WORLD'S LAUGHING WITH PPI. JUST FOR LAUGHS GAGS CLEARS 75% FOR SEPTEMBER 2015" from PPI (March 2015)
Keyan Tomaselli Cultural Tourism and Identity: Rethinking Indigeneity 2012 – Page 29 "The inane Just for Laughs candid camera on the drop-down video screen is interspersed with silent movies on the … Mick Francis … responded to this note: "as a Canadian I must apologize for the Just for Laughs show as it a strange Canadian export filmed in the late 1980s and mysteriously shown around the world" (Francis, personal communication, October 2008).."
Ray Wiss A Line in the Sand: Canadians at War in Kandahar 2010 Page 249 "It was an episode of Gags from the Just for Laughs organization in Montreal. For those who have not seen this, it is reminiscent of Candid Camera: the comedians set up an outlandish situation on a city street or in a mall and capture people's reactions. The Afghans got the jokes and laughed as hard as I did."
"Videobash JFL Channel". Videobash. Archived from the original on 29 June 2013. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
"Just for Laughs Gags Cast and Crew" IMDb.
"ABC Revives "Just for Laughs"". The Futon Critic. 4 June 2009. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
"NATPE 2015: Fall 2015 Syndication; Buzzr TV: New Game Show Multicast Network Launches This Summer" from Sitcoms Online (22 January 2015)

External links

also at:

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[1] Just for Laughs: Gags "This crazy Quebec-based troupe uses the city as its stage, and its inhabitants, or victims, as characters! People are caught in a twisted yet funny web of comedic deception. This updated Candid Camera is a tad more risque and a little kookier with its practical jokes. The little snippets last only a few minutes, and some look more painful than others."

[2] "THE WHOLE WORLD'S LAUGHING WITH PPI. JUST FOR LAUGHS GAGS CLEARS 75% FOR SEPTEMBER 2015" from PPI (March 2015)

[3] Keyan Tomaselli Cultural Tourism and Identity: Rethinking Indigeneity 2012 – Page 29 "The inane Just for Laughs candid camera on the drop-down video screen is interspersed with silent movies on the … Mick Francis … responded to this note: "as a Canadian I must apologize for the Just for Laughs show as it a strange Canadian export filmed in the late 1980s and mysteriously shown around the world" (Francis, personal communication, October 2008).."

[4] Ray Wiss A Line in the Sand: Canadians at War in Kandahar 2010 Page 249 "It was an episode of Gags from the Just for Laughs organization in Montreal. For those who have not seen this, it is reminiscent of Candid Camera: the comedians set up an outlandish situation on a city street or in a mall and capture people's reactions. The Afghans got the jokes and laughed as hard as I did."

[5] "Videobash JFL Channel". Videobash. Archived from the original on 29 June 2013. Retrieved 18 June 2013.

[6] "Just for Laughs Gags Cast and Crew" IMDb.

[7] "ABC Revives "Just for Laughs"". The Futon Critic. 4 June 2009. Retrieved 14 December 2018.

[blog.sitcomsonline.com-8] "NATPE 2015: Fall 2015 Syndication; Buzzr TV: New Game Show Multicast Network Launches This Summer" from Sitcoms Online (22 January 2015)