Last week it arrived on the Amazon Prime Video streaming service LOL: Who laughs is out and it was immediately a tremendous success. Thanks to the holiday weekend, a good communication strategy and a number of other factors that worked well, he won a huge audience. The social networks have been flooded for days with content that captures the best moments and the wait for the new episodes (published today) of LOL: Who laughs is out is skyrocketing. But what is the reason for this boom? Let's try to investigate, going back up up to the very origins of the program.
LOL: Who Laughs Is Out, Amazon's newest streaming hit
Before leaving for our journey (which will take us to the other side of the world), a mandatory premise to explain what are we talking about. LOL: Who Laughs Is Out is a comedy show based on a relatively simple but impactful format. Ten comedians are locked in a room for six hours with the task of never laugh.
A presenter acts as judge, observing them from another room and intervening for move the game, forcing competitors to take particular actions when necessary. In addition, he is in charge of warnings and subsequent expulsions whenever a participant laughs or even just smiles. A challenge that promises to be difficult, especially if you consider the names involved in the cast.
This first edition of LOL: Who laughs is out, whose new and final episodes (remember it) are now available in streaming, is in fact accompanied by a respectable team. From their screens the master of ceremonies Fedez and the co-host Mara Maionchi can observe a potpourri of big and small names of the tricolor comedy. And from this you can already guess a key factor in the success of the show: heterogeneity.
Vary to hit the mark
Elio, Lillo, Frank Matano, Ciro and Fru of The Jackal, Luca Ravenna, Michela Giraud, Katia Follesa, Angelo Pintus and Caterina Guzzanti. The first time any of us have read this list he definitely thought two things. The first is "Wow, X is beautiful too!". The second “No, but there is also Y, I don't like it“. And a good percentage also “Z don't know him very well, who knows who he is“. The point is that X and Y (but also Z in some ways) they are not the same for everyone.
Much of the outstanding result that is reaping LOL: Who laughs is out comes from these reactions. The competitors are so varied that every spectator he has one so far from his own tastes that he cannot appreciate it. At the same time, however, it can find an element that does it conquest, of which he is particularly a fan and which pushes him to follow the show.
The construction of the cast was evidently meticulously cared for, balancing a whole series of factors. You can find young talents and veterans of comedy, artists who have cut their teeth on the web and those who have walked the stages for some time, imitators, transformers and monologues, real experts in comic technique and figures who rely more on instinct . A mix that offered each target a moment of entertainment.
But don't think it's just about mero marketing. This variety is the key to LOL's success: Whoever laughs is out because he allowed the comparison of many different styles to make people laugh. The combination of all these different approaches has resulted in a result that works great. And that somehow helps to carry on one of the project objectives, present since its birth.
Before LOL: Who laughs is out, Documental has arrived in streaming
The show format it is not original, but derives from a Japanese program, also distributed by Amazon Prime Video. From the success of that first version, the different localizations were born, including the Mexican, Australian and Italian flag. And if these have many similarities to each other, the original stands out decidedly.
First of all for the title Hitoshi Matsumoto Presents Documental. A name that combines the concept of documentary with that of mental challenge, which already gives an idea of how the tone is completely different from the foreign successors.
In fact, some differences can simply be traced back to those cultural that separate the Japanese public from that (for example Italian). And so, during the challenge you can find moments extremely out of the lines, very far from the western taste, with one more physical comedy, sometimes scatological. These are accompanied by some variations in the rules, starting with the elimination that occurs at the third call instead of the second.
However, the strongest caesura lies in the spirit of the two programs. Documental has a tone devoted to search, to the study of comedy in extreme conditions. Contrary to what happens in LOL: Who laughs is out (where as often happens in the challenges between celebrities the prize money goes to charity), in the first version to debut in streaming there was in fact a prize money for the winner. Ten million yen (approximately € 70.000,00) consisting of ten shares to be paid by each participant.
An aspect that has greatly raised the bar of the challenge, even in the eyes of the public. Exit Documental winner it is not merely symbolic, but it carries a lot of money in your pocket. And above all, it means not losing a million yen, a not indifferent figure that (as repeatedly reiterated during the episodes) several participants have struggled to collect, often making debts.
The search for the comic Zero
All these elements make the tension really palpable. It is not simply a game for the participants and there is no lack of objections to the decisions of the judge. In short, we are witnessing a sort of Stanford prison experiment, but applied to comedy, evaluating the behaviors of the artists (also here from different backgrounds) in a context that is extreme in its own way.
The goal is therefore to try, to see what happens and in some way investigate the reasons for the laugh. A way to find out what are the mechanisms that trigger it, stripping it of all trappings. And it is interesting to note (without making too many spoilers, in case you want to retrieve Documental) that the point of arrival is not conceptually so far from the Zero Comico that Aldo, Giovanni and Giacomo they found in their play The courts. The minimal unity of comedy is incredibly basic and earthly and as we approach the breaking point this comes out more and more evidently.
LOL: Whoever laughs is out obviously has refined the formula to create a product that is more aimed at the public than the creators. The possibility of influencing the progress of the challenge for the presenter, a completely different and colorful setting, the more relaxed atmosphere, make the product more enjoyable for a wider target, also opening up to those who want to laugh, without asking too much why.
However, the research aspect somehow comes out anyway. Thanks to the success of the streaming, LOL: Who laughs is out it has sparked countless discussions on social networks and among friends on the mechanisms that move it. The clash between detractors and avid supporters of Fedez's team is opening up a debate open to all on mechanisms of comedy, about what works and what doesn't and that's incredibly fascinating. In short, a bit like when you argue about the success of La casa di carta, but in a more constructive way.
LOL: Who laughs is out, when are the new episodes in streaming?
Beyond any technical evaluation that can be done (as mentioned, certainly there is no shortage of detractors) there is no doubt that LOL: Who laughs is out was a success. And on television, even when it comes to digital services, this only means one thing: renewal.
There have been no official confirmations yet, but it is obvious to wait for the announcement of one in the coming weeks, if not hours second season of the project. A relaunch that will certainly have to take note of the aspects that have worked and those that have not worked in this first act, to promote the former and resolve the latter (for the writer, the presence of a double conductor is absolutely redundant and should be reviewed).
Above all in this return there should be that element that we immediately indicated as central in the LOL Streaming Success: Who Laughs Is Out, that is the variety of its cast. And at this point we pass the ball to you: who would you like to see in the second season of the show?
The new episodes of LOL: Who laughs is out are available starting today April 8 on Amazon Prime Video.
Tagsamazon Amazon Prime Video LOL: Who laughs is out of streaming LOL: Go back to the source of laughter
