Make 'em Laugh: The Funny Business of America
Mondays at 10 p.m.ay, date, time ET
on WKAR-HD and WKAR-23

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Billy Crystal Hosts Look at Comedy in America

Did you hear the one about PBS airing a comedy series? It’s no joke, but it is funny. This summer, WKAR repeats the series Make ’Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America, a six-hour comedy epic showcasing the most hilarious men, women, and moments in American entertainment and why they made us laugh. 

Hosted by America’s favorite funnyman, Billy Crystal, the documentary explores the currents of American comedy throughout a century of social and political change, illuminating how comedy has tackled and poked fun at our political system, race relations, gender issues, and the prevailing American standards and taboos in everyday life.

Melding performance, biography and history, Make ’Em Laugh features interviews with over 90 comedians, writers, producers, and historians including Judd Apatow, Roseanne Barr, Anne Beatts, the Smothers Brothers, Carol Burnett, Sid Caesar, George Carlin, Larry David, Will Ferrell, Leonard Maltin, Cheech Marin, Steve Martin, Chris Rock, Mort Sahl, Dick Van Dyke, and many, many more.

Each one-hour episode focuses on a distinct genre of American comedy – from the most ingenious physical schtick, to those fast-talking wiseguys, to the most incisive satire and parody – re-acquainting viewers with some of their favorite classics. Billy Crystal will introduce each episode and Amy Sedaris will narrate throughout.

The series begins with Would Ya Hit a Guy with Glasses?: Nerds, Jerks, & Oddballs

While America, a country of immigrants, has always championed the idea of inclusiveness, the outsider has been a source of constant amusement.  Perhaps best epitomized today by characters in such blockbuster Judd Apatow comedies as The 40 Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Superbad, this episode also looks back at the bespectacled wannabe (Harold Lloyd) and the vain coward (Bob Hope) as the outsiders of their day.  Along with pioneering women in comedy like Phyllis Diller and truly zany characters who seem to have arrived from another planet (Jonathan Winters, Andy Kaufman and Robin Williams), the great social upheaval of the 60s and 70s introduced counter-culture favorites Cheech & Chong, as well as superstar nerds like Woody Allen and “jerks” like Steve Martin – who ultimately became so popular that the idea of the outsider had to be re-cast.

Later programs focus on sitcoms, slapstick, satire, topical comedy, and parody.