‘Just For Laughs: Gags‘, is celebrating a milestone. The 30-minute TV show is shot in the Montreal region in the mild spring and summer months. It features silent scenarios or pranks, played on unsuspecting Montrealers, 80 per cent of whom sign release forms.
Most-exported, most-watched series in Canadian history
COO of the company Bruce Hills told the CBC’s Morgan Dunlop, “It was largely developed because TV buyers around the world were looking for something that they could acquire that didn’t have language.” But while the jokes may be universal, some of the racier or sexier elements will not air in places such as Saudi Arabia or Singapore.
It is the most-exported, most-watched series in Canadian history, now running in 134 countries and on 75 airlines.
Here in Canada, the collection of silent comedy capers is the television export that a lot of Canadians love to hate. In the National Post newspaper, writer David Berry described the show as, “Canada’s most heinous cultural creation.”
Bruce Hills acknowledges the bias. “It’s broad, it’s easy, it’s tacky” he says. “I have snobby comedy friends that say ‘Oh my God, the gags!’ And then they admit to me they were on a flight, and they laughed.”
While the pranks can indeed be ridiculous, it’s hard not to laugh at people’s reactions. It’s contagious. And as long as they can keep coming up with the gags, we’re likely to see a twentieth anniversary.
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