How come the three finalists are never (and I mean never) the funniest?
My theory is that the producers choose the finalists primarily based on who they can get to show up for the show and they don’t provide much in the way of financial encouragement to get them to come.
That must be it. I just saw a “winner” consisting of a woman screaming on a roller coaster. Har!
Back when I still watched that show, I learned I could accurately predict which video would be voted the winner: it would be whichever one I found least funny, or, if they were all not funny, the one with a small child. For some reason the audience for that show is all over cute kids, even when they’re not doing anything funny, and even when they’re doing something distinctly not funny, like repeatedly falling off a bike while screaming “No more videotaping!”, or having a prolonged shrieking, wailing tantrum over eating a green bean. Both of those were “classics” that have aired repeatedly, and I can’t think airing either one is really good for the kid.
I’ll agree with “cute kids” and add “cute animals” as well. I only every watched the original (Bob Saget) version when I was a kid, but even then I could predict who would be the finalists. Doesn’t matter how funny it is - if there are cute kids or cute animals, especially dogs, they would be in the top three.
[slight hijack] When are they going to come out with an “all crotch-shot episode,” with video after video of guys getting hit in the groin with bats, bitten by dogs, kicked while playing sports, etc., along with humorous voiceovers? It could really corner the stoned 30-somethings market. [/slight hijack]
I’d buy that for a dollar!
Baby with a nail gun!
Awww…
Also, if one of the finalists contains any sort of reference to Disney, it’s a winner.
Or if the video is extremely distrubing…like the one shot on some sort of roller coaster, where a rather large child slides down in (and nearly out of) the safety harness and is screaming in terror for the duration of the ride, while the adult next to him is oblivious.
The reason the finalists are never the funniest is that the studio audience picks, and their tastes run this way:
Simple as that.
Gotta suck up to the boss somehow.
I don’t know how much of the footage is sent in by American viewers (I imagine a large amount)- there is a credit in each show that the show was inspired by a program from, and some footage is provided by, the Tokyo Broadcasting Company.
“Dog on Fire!” “Dog on Fire!” (Although that “Baby Muggles” is a catchy tune, too. Wait a minute, what were we talking about again? Oh, right, the funny videos. “Dog on Fire!”)