V I D E O • A G E AP R I L 2 0 1 1 22 “Comedy doesn’t travel,” is the traditional television mantra. But, this could be true for every part of the world, except for funny television shows made in Quebec, Canada, that require no dubbing, subtitles or voiceovers. Candid Camera was the first hidden camera reality show and the first format to be sold to various countries, where it became popular with local versions. It reigned sovereignly worldwide until 1983, when a few creative people from Quebec decided to take seriously the derisive attitude that the French in Europe and English-speaking people in Canada were showing towards French Canada, and reacted in kind, making everyone laugh with them. In 1983, Gilbert Rozon, then a 29-yearold possibly not having much fun as a lawyer, founded “Juste pour rire,” a twoday laugh-a-thon festival in Montreal, Quebec, which in 1985 became a monthlong event every July, making it the largest festival of its kind in the world. At the same time, another Québécoise company, Groupe Multimedia, began distributing Just Kidding, a video prank TV show imported from Australia. Unrelated, but still in the realm of funny entertainment, in 1984 Guy Laliberté founded “Cirque du Soleil,” also in Montreal. At the time, creativity in Quebec was under competitive pressure from neighboring Ontario, where in 1975, Lorne Michaels from Toronto created for NBC Saturday Night Live, one of America’s funny shows, and in 1976, Andrew Alexander developed Second City Television for Toronto’s Global TV network, which quickly became Canada’s funniest TV show. In that period, the pressure was so high that les Québécoise even started to consider secession from the Canadian federation to become an indie country. Ontario seconded the motion, hoping to put an end to bi-lingual street signs. But, as soon as people in Quebec realized that the move would have pleased Ontario, they stopped seeking secession, thus proving that humor solves all problems. Subsequently, Rozon was able to unify the country by sharing some of his Festival’s stand-up specials with the nation, showing them in prime-time on CBC’s national English network, and TVA in French Canada. In the year 2000, on the strength of the laugh festival, which in English translates to “Just For Laughs” or JFL (possibly because the French JPR sounds too close to a GPR stabilizer), Rozon started to produce a television version, called Just For Laughs Gags (JFLG), incorporating 13 “gags” into 22-minute episodes. Today, the company has amassed 224 episodes, churned out at a rate of 13 new episodes per year, minimum. That means that the creative team at JFL has had to come up with over 2,000 different gags. The process of producing gags isn’t as easy as it looks. JFL starts with 500 scripts (called “bibles”) created by up to eight seasoned writers. Out of those, 250 go into production each year utilizing a “bank” of 25 actors — 18 adults and seven children. However, 25 percent of those gags are discarded, because on tape they are not as funny as they were on paper. To film one gag, more than five hours of raw footage is shot, often involving up to 30 “victims.” Postproduction takes an average of nine hours per gag, including adding original music (by three in-house composers), which brings the total cost for each gag to C$10,000: A sum which is nothing to just laugh at. The secret for the worldwide success of JFLG can be attributed to the fact that there is no dialogue, just background music and canned laughter to gags that appeal to all age groups and cross boundaries. “We don’t laugh at people, we laugh with them,” JFL’s executive and creative producer Pierre Girard said, “When you watch the show, you want to be in the place of the ‘victim’ — that’s our success.” In addition, the whole company is geared for laughter, with a website (and corresponding e-mail addresses for executives) called www.hahaha.com. According to an informal survey, and in the usual “Blame Canada” theme (from the South Park animated show), JFLG is blamed for tardiness at MIPTV. This is because the big screen found outside the Cannes’ Palais that continuously shows JFL’s gags, is considered one of the causes for people being late for meetings, since they are stopped in their tracks — no matter how fast they’re walking — by the funny gags on display. MIP participants seem to reserve particular attention to those gags that show nude or partially clad girls, but Sari Buksner, JFL’s director, Sales and Development, was quick to point out that “those clips called Naked & Funny, are not produced by us, though we distribute them.” Currently, according to Buksner, JFLG is sold to practically every place on land and in the air, which, as officially reported, numbers 135 territories and 95 airlines. “In fact,” she explained, “In some countries, the show is airing on three networks simultaneously: One network gets the first run and others the reruns.” JFL, which has 200 staff employees, generates about C$100 million in annual gross revenue. To executives, selling at JFL is just like monetizing cows or pigs: No parts go to waste. So, in 1996, after showing highlights from the Festival on Canada’s CBC, The Comedy Network and TVA, they started to market and export the Festival’s stand up comedy acts outside Canada. This, Buksner pointed out, was a “Challenge. But the company has found profitable and creative ways to export their stand up comedy brand internationally.” As far as JFLG is concerned, the show is sold in several forms: As finished product (by selling full episodes rather than individual gags), custom packaging the show per territory, and selling through a “production license.” In the case of “custom packaging” the shows per territory, Buksner gave the example of Five TV network in the U.K. for which JFL packaged eight shows that showcased British comics who have performed at the Festival. Through a “production license” JFL has also worked with RTE (Ireland), Network Ten (Australia), WDR (Germany), BBC (U.K.) and NHK ( Japan). The British version was produced by JFL North Ireland’s partner, Wild Rover Productions and was broadcast on BBC One on Saturdays for five seasons until 2006. In addition, JFL has been successful in Finland, Holland, India and Singapore. Producing gags in Singapore has proved a real challenge, considering the city-state’s seemingly reserved, stern and shy nature, where it’s impossible to even walk in public streets and chew gum at the same time. However, Pierre Girard leveraged the discomfort that Singaporeans have towards being touched, to create hilarious gags. What he couldn’t do was utilize policemen for the gags because people were scared of them. So what’s next for JFL? “Our objective this year is to produce a new gags show for a younger demographic, and we hope to go into production as soon as this summer,” commented Michelle Raymond, VP International Distribution, adding: “Co-viewing [TV viewing as a family] is the buzz word, and broadcasters understand that [JFLG] is the perfect family show to bring kids and parents sharing a good time together.” Canadian Masters Muster Laughable Art That Travels J u s t F o r L a u g h s Gilbert Rozon is the founding chairman of JFL Group. He started working at 14 as a gravedigger, and later became a lawyer JFL’s straight guys. The sales team with, L.to r.: Sari Buksner, Shawn Rosengarten, Michelle Raymond, Daniel Galve Pierre Girard is JFL’s executive and creative producer. His motto is: “Just because we laugh, it doesn’t mean it is funny.” Andy Nulman is back at JFL after a 12-year hiatus, as president, Festivals and Television. He introduced JFL’s Anglophone events back in 1985. He’s now working on a solution in order not to have just one life to live.
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