Just For Laughs, Indeed

If someone told you the American network ABC had just announced one of its upcoming midseason series (what replaces the crap in the fall) would be the original version of a Canadian series (a pretty historic thing), could you guess that Canadian series?

Degrassi? Already a big hit on digital - which does kinda mean something there.

Trailer Park Boys? Dude, ABC is a major US network - no swearing and drinking in your car. The closest they'll get to that is My Name Is Earl while the Boys romp around on BBC America for some reason.

Maybe King of Kensington? Oops, already remade unofficially as King of Queens, though admittedly both are part of the Honeymooners tradition.

Cold Squad? Oh, yeah, they already remade that...unofficially again.

Got your liberal fingers crossed for Little Mosque on the Prairie? Sorry, though we can content ourselves on France's Canal+ picking it up.

Canadian Idol? Just kidding.

No, ABC will be airing Just For Laughs Gags.

Yes, that show the CBC runs when they don't have anything else and feel like having big ratings once in a while. That show you see sometimes after your in-flight movie. I'm guessing an ABC exec saw it there.

Okay, so Gags is hardly an original concept. The hidden (ahem, "candid") camera prank show has been around for longer than most of us have been alive. But the Just For Laughs kids in Montreal refined this idea to its most simple, almost elegant (!) form, and this is partially why it's been wildly successful around the world. Nobody talks, there are no smarmy hosts saying "we took our cameras to such-and-such a place, and you wouldn't belieeeeve what happened! Let's take a look!" No, they just show the setup and let 'er rip. Comedy gold. (Well, for some, at least.) And somehow it doesn't seem as mean-spirited as many of these kind of shows. Ordinary people react to extraordinary situations and that's it, sometimes with shots of the folks laughing at the end. That said, I'm not a big fan of the show. Is anyone, really? It's hard to either love it or hate it. It's just there.

Another series that you could neither love nor hate? That was just there? Whose Line Is It Anyway. The US version of that British show (of course with two Canadian stars, Colin Mochrie and Ryan Stiles) was a massive hit for ABC that made them tons of money and ran for ages. But it didn't just do that because it was generally funny (sometimes very funny) and fairly likable, but because it was CHEAP! Improv people, bare stage, studio audience, done. With Gags, they don't even need the audience or stage or improv-trained union talent! You couldn't make a cheaper show with cardboard and bailing twine! I think that's the main reason ABC is taking a run at this show. Since they finally canceled Whose Line, they soon missed having a little-show-that-could to get them huge ratings value for a tiny budget, and Gags just might fill that slot - and the time slots of those expensive but ill-conceived and stupid shows that will be dead by maybe October.

So bonne chance, Juste Pour Rire! And you guys at APTN who came up with Bingo and a Movie? How closely are you watching what ABC comes up with for their National Bingo Night tomorrow?