Amazon’s James Farrell & Yoshimoto’s Akihiko Okamoto on Collaboration

James Farrell, head of international originals at Amazon MGM Studios, and Akihiko Okamoto, president and representative director of Japanese content powerhouse Yoshimoto Kogyo, discussed their long-standing partnership that resulted in the global hit LOL—Last One Laughing in a MIPCOM keynote today.

LOL—Last One Laughing started life as Documental a decade ago, when Farrell was heading up original content in Japan. It has since been remade in some 20 markets.

“I was hired by Amazon in April 2015, and we really wanted to get going fast in Japan,” Farrell said. “I very quickly went to Yoshimoto and other top producers and broadcasters around the country, seeing what ideas that they had. When we went to Yoshimoto, we were looking for a big comedy variety format because variety is so popular in Japan.”

The concept was pitched over dinner, and a deal was signed the next day, Farrell explained. “They said, We have an idea that’s too crazy for broadcast television. It’s going to be a documentary of comedy—a documentary, gone mental. We want to call it Documental. It’s going to be ten comedians in a room. No rules, just trying to make each other laugh. I pictured ten of my favorite comedians going to battle, trying to make each other laugh. I said, That’s going to be a hit.”

For Okamoto, speaking via translator Matthew Ireton, noted, “When I heard that Amazon was launching in Japan, we thought it was a great opportunity to make something for the world. With that in mind, [we] created this show.”

He continued, “We didn’t know how it was going to be at the beginning, but we made sure that we found a common language, a common denominator of what we think is funny and what we find interesting.”

Okamoto went on to note, “The creator of the show, Hitoshi Matsumoto, really pushed the boundaries. Working with Amazon was such a great opportunity for us because of this. We have all of our other 6,000 talents in our roster who want to make something for the world.”

The format is “heavily” adapted for each market, Farrell explained. The French and Italian editions, for example, play to a four-quadrant audience, while the upcoming U.K. edition “is more potty humor,” he said, while “in Mexico and Columbia, it skews more edgy. But it’s the number one show in pretty much all those places because it does adapt itself to the local sense of humor.”

The show was a game-changer in Japan, Okamoto said. “It gave inspiration to a lot of our talents to come up with show ideas that would translate all over the world. Moreover, we’ve been making a lot of shows with our partners in Japan, especially the terrestrial networks. We hope that we’ll be creating shows like that with them as well. It definitely changed the landscape.”

Farrell added that Amazon is “flying all of our unscripted teams from around the world to Tokyo in a few weeks to meet with the Yoshimoto team at their headquarters. We really do think that they’re a comedy goldmine, and we want to make sure we find that next hit.”

The panelists were then joined on stage by Nicole Morganti, who heads up originals for Amazon in Italy, and Thomas Dubois, head of France, who weighed in on their versions of the LOL format. Both stressed the importance of getting the casting right. “If you gather the wrong team of people, the magic is not going to be there,” Dubois said.

The conversation then moved to LOL spin-offs, such as a Halloween edition in France. Next up will be LOL—IRL, set in a public place and featuring celebrities as well as everyday people.