REVIEW LOL: Last One Laughing Italy (episodes 1-4)
Amazon Prime Video’s latest contest of comedians is an unexpectedly hilarious dissection of the art of laughter.
First of all, apologies for the late review, but between Easter and the fact that I’m moving from one part of the country to another there’s been a lot on my plate. In the event that the regular Friday slot doesn’t work out for reviews on occasion, Saturday or Sunday will serve as backup.
Now, onto the review. I decided to try something a little different, since this is technically “reality television”: ten contestants, a set of rules, and two hosts observing everything that goes on in the house. It’s part of the LOL: Last One Laughing franchise, a concept that originated in Japan and has generated multiple international variations, which you can also find on Amazon Prime Video.
The basic concept remains the same for the Italian version: ten comedians are stuck in a room together, and each one has six hours to make everyone else laugh, until only one remains. The first smile or chuckle gets a yellow card, the second a red card. Contestants can also be punished for not actively partaking in the game. Various props are available to help with the task at hand.
Having done my fair share of stage acting, especially at university where we usually performed Shakespeare’s comedies, I was drawn to the show because making people laugh is hard, especially when the additional constraint is added: no one is supposed to so much as crack a smile in this case. It was also a good opportunity to catch up with the evolution of Italian comedy, as I was only familiar with roughly half of the contestants (but I have it on good authority the others are big names as well).
At the time of writing, four out of six episodes have been uploaded, with the remaining two scheduled for April 8, and I can’t wait to see how this ends: while there is definitely a slightly staged quality to the whole endeavor (especially the host segments, which are insufferable as the duo laughs at everything as though it were the funniest thing in the world), the interactions between the comedians are intriguing, as different styles clash in an attempt to bring the house down.
The stakes are laid out clearly from the get-go, and the contestants are charmingly self-effacing (Frank Matano, the first to enter the house, says he will most likely be the first to leave, as he’s endowed with the loudest laugh in Italian show business). And the varying tactics they use, from surreal humor to straightforward poop and dick jokes, show the different nuances of the comedian’s world, with the cruder material being a desperate last resort when all else fails (one is reminded of the great Bill Hicks, who would reassure his audience there were dick jokes on the way when his act got too uncomfortable).
Granted, some of the humor might not translate well for those unfamiliar with Italian culture (although I did occasionally check the subtitles, and they do a fairly decent job), but for comedy enthusiasts and scholars, this is a must-see, filled with tension and commentary. It’s a surprisingly addictive show, each 30-minute episode making it impossible to leave the next for later. The jokes themselves might not be that funny, but the whole structure surrounding them is absolutely hilarious.
LOL: Last One Laughing Italy (Italy, 2021, 6 episodes, 4 watched for review)
Hosts: Fedez, Mara Maionchi
Contestants: Elio, Lillo, Caterina Guzzanti, Ciro Priello, Gianluca Fru, Katia Follesa, Michela Giraud, Luca Ravenna, Frank Matano, Angelo Pintus
Distributor: Amazon Prime Video (streaming)