From the pratfalls that entertained immigrants in the early 1900s to the most biting satire on television today, MAKE ’EM LAUGH features the funniest moments in American entertainment and profiles the great comedic talents behind their creation – including Charlie Chaplin, Jack Benny, Abbott & Costello, The Three Stooges, Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Woody Allen, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Jon Stewart, Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld and many more.
Rather than a chronological approach, each of MAKE ’EM LAUGH’s six hour-long episodes focuses on a different style of comedy – such as knockabout physical routines, satire and lampoons, the domestic sit-com, and caustic cutting-edge stand-up – while exploring comedy’s evolving relationship to America’s ethnic, race and gender relations, its politics, mores and taboos.
As the Los Angeles Times noted: “Make ‘Em Laugh hits its mark. Even when it’s shallow, comedy is deep, because it goes to our core. Humans are the animals that know how to use a whoopee cushion. This is funny stuff, tied up in a ribbon of smart. ”
