Last One Laughing is the latest reality show with its own Pinoy version, and we are so here for it. The premise is pretty simple: 10 comedians enter one house together, with only one goal – to make each other laugh. Unfortunately, there’s also only one rule in general that gets in the way of this – laughing (or even just smiling or smirking) leads to disqualification. On the line is a cool million bucks to the last person who manages to keep their poker face on.

The comedians showcased are a veritable who’s who of the local comedy scene right now, with names such as Pepe Herrera, Empoy, Tuesday Vargas, Jerald Napoles, and Ruffa Mae Quinto, just to name a few. Vice Ganda hosts the proceedings, keeping a watchful eye on all the comics as they spend the next 6 hours in a house jampacked with cameras to ensure anyone who breaks gets caught immediately.

So why is this show worth watching (assuming you have Amazon Prime)? We have a few reasons, and we’re only in the middle of the season so far!

8. It gives you a good idea of what comedians find funny

So what makes comedians, who make other people laugh for a living, laugh themselves? Does it require sophisticated setups and punchlines, or elaborate and dead-on impressions? Well, watching the show would give you an obvious insight: that they laugh at the same things we do.

7. It makes us realize how hard it really is to make people laugh

We can already anticipate what most detractors of this show have to say: for a show about making people laugh, the show isn’t really that funny. And to an extent, we could agree. But that’s only because the rule of no laughing applies to all the comedians, even when they’re trying to make their contemporaries laugh.

This means that you aren’t performing at full strength if you’re not a deadpan comedian (and very few of the ten actually are). So, how do these people manage to make each other laugh? Well…

6. It makes us realize how easy it really is to make people laugh

Without spoiling anything, the vast majority of eliminations on this show and even its international counterparts come when the comedian’s guard is down. Not a few of the comics even eliminate themselves while trying their hardest to make someone else laugh.

When you realize that a lot of staring contests end because one of the competitors can’t help but laugh even if there’s nothing actually funny going on, you realize that what makes laughter so tricky is you never really know what people might find funny, making it both the easiest and hardest thing ever at the same time.

5. Episode 3

Again, without any spoilers, just watch out for what Jerald Napoles tries to do during this episode, because it’s drop-dead hilarious, yet also explains what we meant in #7 and #6. How will you know what we mean? Oh, you will. Just watch Episode 3.

4. It’s a showcase of the different styles of comedy at work

We have Clownz comedians, UP Samaskom comedians, prop comedians, slapstick comics, observational-style standup comics, theater people, and maybe even some comics with a background in improv. These styles and more come together, and you get to see how different and how similar they all are, and it’s all great fun.

You can even look at this version of the show and compare how it’s different from the other versions from other countries. You might be surprised to see those differences at work when you look at each version as “Philippine comedy vs. Canadian comedy” collectively, instead of looking at the comics individually.

3. It’s a challenge you could put together with your own group of friends

Even if your barkada isn’t made up of professional comedians, just get together for a few hours and make it a rule nobody can laugh. See how far you can go, and what all of you will be willing to do to win. You might be surprised, and you’ll discover why something that might not amuse you while watching the show works when it’s happening to you in the here and now. This proves why “you just had to be there” is truly a thing when it comes to comedy.

2. You actually can’t tell who will win

Because really – who are you rooting for? It doesn’t matter who your favorite comedian among the ten are, because it’s not just a competition of who can make the most of them laugh. It’s doing that while keeping a straight face the whole time as well.

But if you had to ask us, our money’s on either Empoy or Pepe Herrera, just because they’re the closest thing to deadpan comedians in that entire lineup. Even then, there’s no guarantee of who will win, especially since there’s sure to be some twists to the formula that could throw a monkey wrench into all of that.

1. Because we need to remember how to laugh right now, more than ever

Have you even seen the news lately? Yeah, we may as well just laugh along with a bunch of comedians than remind ourselves how laughable real life is in contrast – and how depressing that actually is. Woohoo.