Traxan

With so many gameshow revivals going on, I wouldn't mind seeing a revival of Make Me Laugh.

Make Me Laugh was an early 80s game show in which contestants picked from the audience sat before three stand-up comedians performing their acts, one at a time, with each comic running for one minute each. The contestant earned one dollar for every second that they could make it through without laughing, paltry even by those days. If a contestant succeeding in not laughing the full 3 minutes, their $180 winnings were doubled to $360. A number of then-unknown comics appeared on the show, including Bob Saget, Howie Mandel, Gallagher, Gary Mule Deer, Yakov Smirnoff, Bruce 'Babyman' Baum and Garry Shandling.



But I wonder what comedy would even be allowed with this fanatical cancel culture. Comics are already refusing to do the college circuit. Would the show work today?

Count Dooku

I used to watch Make Me Laugh. Bill Daily from the Bob Newhart Show was on, and he did one of the stupidest jokes ever that (for some reason) I have always thought was hilarious.

Can't explain it. It was visual.

DWilson

I watched the show off-and-on back in the day, and it was shocking to see some of these guys, -in particular Bruce Baum, -on Showtime's recent "Comedy Store" documentary, -and how they've aged. I, of course, have not aged a day.

bluetoast

I didn’t know it started in the early 80s. I remember the version on Comedy Central though.

d2cheer

Doubtful no one has a sense of humor anymore.

bralph

If this show were made today, it would spend the bulk of the time on the contestants' sob stories, with at most two bits of comedy per episode.

Bill Needle

In it's day this show could be pretty decent, but obviously depended a lot on the comics in the episode. But...
True.
Double true.

Plus all the comics would need to do is make any stupid joke about some approved target and the contestant would be forced to laugh like an idiot or face being taken apart by goons from whatever imbecilic social media community is favored that day.

mhg83

It absolutely would and does work today. There's a whole series on YouTube "Try not to laugh" videos. It's the same concept only with funny YouTube videos and minus the money.