Just For Laughs: Gags = Best Comedy Show EVER, PERIOD

[Navaros]

i've been watching a lot of the Canadian television show "Just for Laughs: Gags" lately and have now come to the epiphany that it is bar none the best comedy show ever.

how it works is, a very talented comedy troupe ambushes real citizens and plays hilarious jokes on them. the comedy troupe dresses up as real cops with real cop cars even, paramedics, Priests, pall bearers, construction workers...of whatever the joke requires. the audience hears almost no talking as the show plays out. just vintage 50's-ish type music playing along with the visual recording of the ambushes. very rarely, they do indeed talk...but only to deliver a quick line that is sheer comedy gold and necessary to plot of the scene.

what is so great about this show is it is universal. the jokes are not subjective based on what particular words someone finds funny, or how one intones his voice (ie: many people find that sort of thing to be "funny" on shows like Seinfeld)

rather, this show is funny on a much more basic human level. the funniness comes from seeing the expressions on the faces of normal people who think that the situation they are in is 100% real.

here are some examples of the types of stuff i've seen on this show:

1. the comedy troupe dressed one guy up as a cop and another member of the troupe plays the old lady following him around a park with a huge cane in her hands. she walks closely behind him. then when real people get close, the old lady whacks the fake cop really hard with her cane. then the fake cop turns around and accuses the real people of having done it. this alone was hilarious...but sometimes unexpected reactions occur from the real people. like in this scene, one of the real people was a young man who turned and started to run away from the fake cop as soon as the cop turned his head for a moment while confronting him. the real person thought he was really about to be arrested, so he bolted! LOL

2. the comedy troupe dresses up one guy as an old Priest in a grocery store. as the groceries of the person ahead of him in line are being scanned into the cash register, the fake Priest puts more groceries into the pile of the real person; making the real person either have to remove them from her pile or buy the groceries that she didn't want. the expressions of seeing the real people's faces as they notice a Priest doing this to them is simply priceless! and then the funniest moment of all came...an old lady, maybe 65 or more, was buying groceries in front of the fake Priest...and he put a box of condoms in with her groceries! she looked at the condoms, then at the fake Priest, and had such a disgusted look on her face. like she wanted to sock him one!

3. the comedy troupe dresses up a couple of guys as paramedics and another one lays on a stretcher with a bag of water attached to him (like you see with IV's and stuff like that in hospitals). they get a real person to hold the water bag and then go back into the ambulance and just leave the real person alone there for several minutes. during this time, the guy on the stretcher starts acting like he's having seizures. eventually the real person gets fed up, and freaks out until the fake paramedics come back. after the fake paramedic comes back, he tells the real person to hold the bag for just another moment as he goes to the ambulance one more time. this time the fake paramedic brings back a baseball bat and starts beating the guy on the stretcher in the chest with it! after he does that for a while, he gets up onto the stomach of the guy on the stretcher and starts jumping up and down on his stomach with both feet - literally! all the time the real person is looking on in horror! LOL

4. the comedy troupe dresses up one of their cutest, totally innocent-looking young girls as an ice cream vendor. when real people come to buy what they think is ice cream, then the girl serves them up a big old scoop of margarine! which the real people don't realize until they bite into it!

5. the comedy troupe dresses up a male and female as fake cops with a real cop car. they pull over a real person. then they walk up to the car of the real person hand in hand, all lovey-dovey. they continue acting this way as they talk to the real person...then eventually they start making out right outside the car window of the real person! then when the real person eventually calls at them for a long time, they stop and go back to talking to him. then the fake male cop whispers some things in the fake female cop's ear and she turns to him and slaps him across the face really hard. and the real people watching this thought that was totally real....they were laughing it up in a shocked way as if it were a real situation.

6. the comedy troupe dresses up as a bunch of pall bearers holding a large wooden coffin in the air. one of the women from the troupe is nearby, also dressed in funeral clothes, starts to cry and sob uncontrollably. then a real person walks by and one of the fake pall bearers and he asks her to hold the coffin in his place for a moment. when she does that, he goes to console the crying woman. then they gradually start embracing and making out right in front of the real person holding the coffin along with 5 or so other fake pall bearers who all are looking straight ahead and not at the two making out. eventually the male who was making out with the female lays her down across the coffin and starts making out with her on top of it whilst they are all still holding it in the air.

7. the comedy troupe dresses up the young innocent-looking girl as a convenience store cashier. they dress another guy up with a huge bubbly winter jacket. the guy with the huge jacket walks around the store and stuffs almost everything in the store under his jacket. when the real people in the store look at him in disgust, he just puts a finger to his lips and makes the "Shhhhh!" sign at them. then eventually the fake shoplifter goes to the fake cashier and asks her for cigarettes or something. the fake cashier turns around for a very extended period of time as she rummages around the lower shelves behind the counter. as she is doing this, the fake shoplifter starts stuffing even more things into his jacket and under his hat - while a real person is watching the whole thing right next to him. then the fake cashier finally turns around again and the fake shoplifter buys one small thing and walks out the door. then just as he's halfway out the door the fake cashier says: "Exscuse me sir?" and he comes back to the cash register. then she says "you forgot your change ,sir" and smiles at him. then he walks out the door again. the whole while the real person is still there witnessing all of this as if it was real.

8. the comedy troupe has the innocent-looking young girl ask a real person on the street to hold her purse for a moment. as he does that, she wanders around the corner and leaves the real person hanging. eventually the real person comes around the corner and sees the girl from behind, facing a wall. so he taps her on the shoulder to give her her purse back. except when she turns around, it's not a she at all! it's actually a rocker guy with really long hair who was wearing very similar clothing to the girl. he gives them a "what the heck are you doing?!" kind of look as soon as he turns around. of course this totally freaks out the real people.

9. the comedy troupe dresses up one guy as a fake cop, and another guy as a fake construction worker. the fake cop pulls over a real person. as he is talking to the real person at the side of his car window, the fake contruction worker walks by with a huge piece of wood, and appears to conk the cop on his head really hard - without even noticing - as he passes by. the fake cop then staggers to his knees and appears totally dazed as he continues talking to the real person. eventually the fake cop falls the pavement and lays on the ground as if he got knocked out.


these are just some examples off the top of my head. but this show consistently produces triple A gags like this in every single episode. i am amazed at the quality of this show. i've never ever seen anything that is so consistently funny time after time.

keep in mind that my words here are grossly inadequate to depict just how funny this show is. it really needs to be seen to be appreciated.

i'm amazed that some of the things they do on this show are legal. no one has their faces blurred-out like would usually be the case in shows of this type. as far as i can tell, they have somehow got government permission to impersonate real cops which, one would expect to be unallowed. however they managed to get permission, the results of their use of that permission will amaze you!

this is the ultimate reality show. all reality shows should be held up the the standard of this one.

this show airs in Canada on CBC and the Comedy Network.

i know a lot of you don't live in Canada hence might not have seen this show. but apparently it's a huge international success and airs in over 75 countries and on many airplanes. which is understandable, because the show does not have any language barriers holding it back. even a person who does not speak any English at all would be able to understand the show.

if you can't get this show on the air in your country, you're being deprived of a masterpiece. i recommend anyone in this situation lobbies their TV stations to buy the rights to this immediately. to never experience such comedy perfection is to miss out terribly.

have any of you seen this show? if so...do you agree it's the best comedy show ever? if not...how do you figure that it's not?

[Duke Malcolm]

There was a programme called Just for Laughs on on BBC Scotland. It sounds the same, but the series have finished now.

There was one when 2 priest were in the park, and they got random people to take pictures of them together on a polaroid camera. When the picturse camn out, the priests were only in their underwear.

[Navaros]

i've seen that scene too, locally...i think what you saw is from the exact same show what i'm talking about in this thread

that was another really funny scene

[lars573]

I hate JFL: gags, the people and pranks are annoying.

[Taohn]

It's an absolutely brilliant show. They did a fun variation on your #8, where a young, attractive blond woman "accidently" drops a thong out of her shopping bag as she passes a pedestrian. The pedestrian is obviously hesitant, but, seeing the woman round the corner of a building, picks up the thong and hurries after her. The woman, however, hides herself in a carboard box just around the corner, where a man who is dressed exactly like her (tight pants, tight shirt, everything) waits. The pedestrian rounds the corner to find the "girl" facing a wall, rummaging in her bag as if she's lost something. When approached, the girl suddenly turns around, revealing her true identity as a moustached, very manly man.

Another good one went like this: a young girl approches a stranger in a video store with the name of a video on a card, and asks the stranger to enter into the XXX section to retrieve it. Surprisigly, most oblige the young girl. When they exit the section (which is set off from the rest of the stor by a longish hall), everyone in the immediate vicinity (all troupe members) begin to applaude, whistle, and make catcalls (the young girl is, of course, long gone).

My two all time favorites, though:

1) An old lady with a suitcase runs by a couple of pedestrians. Shortly after she passes them, the suticase unlatches itself dumping out its contents onto the ground in front of the pedestrians. They are left staring at a huge magnum and several fat wads of cash, as the old lady runs off undeterred. The way people get all distressed is priceless.

2) Outside a convenience store, where the is a cold locker stocked with bags of ice. Having paid, customers exit the store and open the locker where they a greeted with a girl's frozen corpse, staring lifelessly at the from the depths of the locker. Suddenly, the girl shakes violently and makes as if to grab the customer. Again, priceless reactions.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 5:30 on CBC.

Edit
Forgot the best one. Outside a shop there is a platform over the sidewalk (similar to the ones set up at construction sites to protect pedestrians), atop of which are two construction workers pretending to repair the storefront. As the pedestrains exit from under the platform, one of the workers squirts them with a small water pistol. They turn around, puzzled, only to see the worker straddling the platform, slowly doing up his fly with a look of utter contentment on his face. Some pedestrians curl their upper lips in disgust as the fact of the matter slowly dawns on them, wrinkle their noses and sniff themselves as if sampling perfume.

[Navaros]

It's an absolutely brilliant show. They did a fun variation on your #8, where a young, attractive blond woman "accidently" drops a thong out of her shopping bag as she passes a pedestrian. The pedestrian is obviously hesitant, but, seeing the woman round the corner of a building, picks up the thong and hurries after her. The woman, however, hides herself in a carboard box just around the corner, where a man who is dressed exactly like her (tight pants, tight shirt, everything) waits. The pedestrian rounds the corner to find the "girl" facing a wall, rummaging in her bag as if she's lost something. When approached, the girl suddenly turns around, revealing her true identity as a moustached, very manly man.

Another good one went like this: a young girl approches a stranger in a video store with the name of a video on a card, and asks the stranger to enter into the XXX section to retrieve it. Surprisigly, most oblige the young girl. When they exit the section (which is set off from the rest of the stor by a longish hall), everyone in the immediate vicinity (all troupe members) begin to applaude, whistle, and make catcalls (the young girl is, of course, long gone).

ha ha i think your thong explanation is what i meant to say in my original example. it had been too long since i seen that one so i didn't remember the exact situation for that one. thx for the clarification and in-depth explanation LOL

i saw the XXX episode today. that was hilarious also! and one guy had a black umbrella he opened in the store after they were applauding; he was using it to hide his face! ROFL

but that was not even my favorite scene from that same episode. i like the scene a bit before the XXX one. the scene where they had two "men in black" (like all the conspiracy stereotype men in black, that is...shades and all) carrying a dead man in a rolled up carpet. and then they put the body in a pickup truck or something as another troupe actor tells a civilian to watch his truck. then yet another troupe actor dressed as a cop comes on the scene and accuses the civilian of having killed the guy in the carpet! oh my goodness! sheer genius!

and they also had another complicated one again in that same episode where a troupe cyclist asked a civilian to hold his dog for a moment. then another troupe actor comes by and asks the civilian for directions on a map. while he's doing that, yet another troupe actor plants some fake dog crap next to the dog as the civilian is looking at the map. then finally, a troupe actor dressed as a cop on the scene comes and blames the civilian for not picking up the dog crap, and tells him to pick it up with his bare hands!

they also had two more hilarious scenes in that same one episode from today!

first they had a real live dog with some sort of speaker hidden in it's fur. they had the dog sit at the edge of a park bench while a troupe actor hid behind a tree and made sounds of other animals into his microphone. it made the civilians sitting next to the dog totally freak out. it seemed like the dog was making pig sounds and bahhhing like a sheep and all sorts of things.

this episode also had a scene where some civilians were sitting in a lobby and on the television screen was a news report mugshot of a wanted criminal. the guy in the mugshot was sitting next to the civilians as the troupe actor pointed it out to them discreetly.

oh yeah they also had a scene with a troupe guy asking civilians what shade of yellow paint they preferred before they went into a hardware store. then once they were inside, he would take a roller and start painting yellow paint all over their cars! one civilian almost kicked the troupe actor's butt in real life over that one. he came storming after him in a furious rage!

then they had another innocent young girl ask some civilians to watch her car in an alleyway. only to have what appeared to be a crazed guy in a bulldozer literally demolish all 3 cars! it was so funny to watch the one civilian as that happened...he had a look on his face like "oh well, that's life!" while the other two civilians from that scene were totally freaked-out

ah yes, the same episode also had a scene where the troupe actors making a fake hairspray commerical in which they had a huge fan blow all kinds of debris into the faces of civilians!

there was even one more in this same episode. a fake construction worker told a civilian to guide a fake blind man away from a live wire on the ground. as the civilian is doing that, a whole whackload of other fake blind people come on the scene and the civilian is scrambling to keep all of them away from the live wire! every so often it lets out "zapping" noises like they were being shocked.

all that from just one single episode. my goodness. i hope they release this whole series on DVD soon. every minute is hilarious. this show should win the Nobel Prize of Comedy. if such a thing does not exist, it should be invented just for this show!

[Betito]

Oh, come on!! El güiri güiri is the very best in comedy!! everyone knows it (of course, i mean in my colony )

But, seriously, it must be because it's in spanish, but i really think Andrés Bustamante is one of the very best.

[Navaros]

here are some of my other favorite scenes i've seen recently on Gags:

they have a pretty young girl dress up like a trashy street girl and ask passerbys for a light. when they pull out their lighter, she suddenly shoves a stick of dynamite in their face. a lot of them freak out and just walk away. but some of them actually light it for her - and after they do she gets all scared and drops it and runs away. then the person who lit it does the same thing.

and one of my all-time favorites:

as citizens are taking drinks from a public water fountain in a park, a construction worker comes by and nails a big sign into the ground near the fountain. just as they stand up again, they see the sign. on the sign it has a fountain symbol with the big red circle with a line crossed over it. and just under that is a big huge skull poison symbol. so the citizen starts thinking that he or she was just drinking poison. the reactions on their faces were truly classic.

[Craterus]

here are some of my other favorite scenes i've seen recently on Gags:

they have a pretty young girl dress up like a trashy street girl and ask passerbys for a light. when they pull out their lighter, she suddenly shoves a stick of dynamite in their face. a lot of them freak out and just walk away. but some of them actually light it for her - and after they do she gets all scared and drops it and runs away. then the person who lit it does the same thing.

and one of my all-time favorites:

as citizens are taking drinks from a public water fountain in a park, a construction worker comes by and nails a big sign into the ground near the fountain. just as they stand up again, they see the sign. on the sign it has a fountain symbol with the big red circle with a line crossed over it. and just under that is a big huge skull poison symbol. so the citizen starts thinking that he or she was just drinking poison. the reactions on their faces were truly classic.

I'll watch out for those lol

[Beirut]

The best one I saw was when they left a football on the sidewalk downtown. As soon as someone picked it up, a dozen guys in full football gear appeared from nowhere and attacked the person.

Just priceless.

[Gawain of Orkeny]

Sounds like a rip off of Candid Camera. One of the first virtual if not the first virtual reality show.

[Navaros]

Sounds like a rip off of Candid Camera. One of the first virtual if not the first virtual reality show.

this show is 10 billion times funnier than Candid Camera ever was

[Tachikaze]

Best English language comedy show ever: Monty Python's Flying Circus

Best US comedy shows ever: All In the Family Get Smart, and The Simpsons