A ring! A roaring crowd! Two competitors!…But nary a punch thrown? What WAS this?
It was the first televised laughing competition!
During October 2010, Canal D broadcast an event of combative hilarity. In front of spectators and viewers at home, the laugh-off pit pairs of guffawers to spar. Awards were given to the longest and most contagious chuckler. The international community soon caught the giggles. Tokyo, California, the Czech Republic, and Austria (ach!) fell in with Ha Ha Ha! The competition moved swiftly from country to country. Who was behind it all? Canadian filmmaker Albert Nerenberg created the event, the broadcast, and a movie.
The brutality of sports like ultimate fighting dismayed Nerenburg. Yet he was fascinated by how the nearness and eye contact at the beginning of a fight could take a completely different direction. His look into the impact of laughter had changed his life, and Nerenburg's thought inspired a dream. Canadian channel Canal D humored his proposal for a laughing competition. One silly scheme come to fruition, Nerenberg next hopes for an international laughter competition.
This story was reported by the Toronto Sun, Wednesday July 27, 2010.
http://www.torontosun.com/2011/07/23/canadian-laughing-competitions-go-global