There are times when the new series, “Who Gets the Last Laugh?,” is at least a little amusing. But I became ever more skeptical the more the show insisted on its own hilarity.
Premiering at 10 p.m. Tuesday on TBS, the show is the latest in TV’s very long line of hidden-camera shows.
The gimmick here is that in each episode, three funny celebrities plan and oversee the pranks being played on regular people.
The studio audience decides which of the three celebs came up with the best prank, and the winner’s favorite charity gets $10,000.
In the premiere, the three comics are Kunal Nayyar of “The Big Bang Theory,” Bill Bellamy and Jeff Dye.
As for the pranks performed by a recurring cast of players, they include people’s cars getting “accidentally” sprayed with human waste, vehicles disappearing from a car wash, people getting pulled over and subjected to increasingly absurd interrogation (yes, there are a lot of car-related stunts), men thinking a woman is coming on to them only to have her husband show up, and an envelope full of cash going missing.
In each case, the prank is performed on several different people, with their various reactions intercut for the short comedy segments.
As I said, the show is occasionally funny as the prank victims’ exasperation or embarrassment increases.
But my problem with the show is the relentlessness of the on-camera amusement. Crowd laughter, presumably from the studio audience, is loud and frequent.
The celebrities also are shown laughing at their own cleverness, both while in hiding and on the show’s set as the videos play; the video playing also gives host Donald Faison and other celebs a chance to show their amusement.
The ha-ha overkill becomes numbing, and what might pass for genuinely funny stuff gets lost.
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