A ghost scares unsuspecting elevator riders. A machine starts cloning someone while confused bystanders look on. And, in an age-old classic, someone gets a pie to the face.

These kinds of humorous hidden-camera gags and surprises are at the root of a burgeoning programming trend. According to London-based research firm Ampere Analysis, 22 prank shows were commissioned globally in 2022, compared to just 12 in 2021. And even though last year yielded a smaller crop of 15 new commissions, this content category is definitely still on an upward trajectory overall.

Buyers outside of the US are driving much of this demand, says Ampere co-founder and executive director Guy Bisson, and Japanese linear channels are especially interested (they’ve commissioned 38% of all new prank series since the start of 2022). But some SVOD platforms are driving market growth, too especially Amazon, which has greenlit eight first-run concepts to stream in five European markets (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Finland) in that same timeframe.

The trend is less pronounced in the US, but Stateside broadcasters ordered three prank series last year, up from just one in both 2021 and 2022. And Netflix has already commissioned The Magic Prank Show with Justin Willman this year.

Prank shows are starting to gain traction internationally—even in the US, where Netflix commissioned The Magic Prank Show earlier this year.

Global buyers are recognizing the appeal of showcasing funny, high-quality pranks that can compete with similar clips on YouTube, TikTok and other social media platforms, says François-Xavier Poirier, founder and CEO of Paris-based producer/distributor Novocomedy. The company has a library of more than 120,000 home video, prank and blooper clips (mostly non-dialogue) that it has successfully placed on channels with kids & family appeal, such as Cartoon Network, the BBC and Discovery Channel.

“If the quality is good, then [pranks] are durable and evergreen content that kids will rewatch and want to share with their families,” says Poirier.

MIPTV 2024 was the company’s busiest market ever—a sign that demand is growing. It secured an agreement there with New Delhi-based Ayanaa Cinematics (Prince Jai aur Dumdaar Viru for Sony YAY!) to establish a Novocomedy office in India that will produce 104 episodes of an as-yet-untitled kids & family series starting next year. Hosted by an Indian celebrity, the show will feature hidden-camera gags, bloopers and magic pranks.

“From our experience, there is a noticeable trend and a vibrant market for prank videos in India,” says Pinku Biswas, founder and director of Ayanaa. “Audiences—and especially the kids & youth demographic—show a strong interest in light-hearted, entertaining content that includes pranks.”

Ayanaa is already in talks with several channels and streamers (both domestic and international) that are interested in picking up the series.

It’s no secret why these types of shows are popular with producers and commissioners—they are generally a lot less expensive to make. The budgets can obviously vary depending on the pranks, but an average 12-episode prank show costs between US$500,000 and US$1.7 million, which is easily half the cost of a 12-episode animated series, says Poirier.

In addition to this compelling financing advantage, pranks have built-in humor, their visual nature means they travel well (especially the non-dialogue ones), and they’re popular online. Perhaps for these reasons, some of the biggest kids broadcasters in the world have tried their hand at prank shows over the years. Canadian studio Apartment 11 Productions’ Rank the Prank (13 x 30 minutes) aired for a season in 2016 on CBBC and Nickelodeon. The prodco’s first prank show Prank Patrol (100 x 30 minutes) ran for four seasons (2005 to 2010) on YTV in Canada and secured format deals for versions on ABC Australia and the BBC. And DisneyXD had its own success with Walk the Prank (60 episodes), which ran for three seasons from 2016 to 2018. Its first season averaged more than a million viewers per episode.

Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão (SBT) in Brazil, one of the country’s biggest broadcasters, has become well-known for its prank videos, says content acquisitions and sales manager Goyo Garcia. They’re so valuable to its business that SBT is stocking up its new streamer with several of Novocomedy’s kids shows. (+SBT launched in beta for 30,000 users in July. At press time for this issue, a wider rollout was set for August.)

SBT produces its own pranks every week for a Sunday evening slot, and some of them are aimed specifically at kids. These pranks are also shared on the broadcaster’s Câmeras Escondidas Programa Silvio Santos (Hidden Cameras Silvio Santos Program) YouTube channel, which currently has more than nine million subscribers.

On YouTube, its videos have collectively racked up hundreds of millions of views. “Panoramic Lift Prank,” which was released in 2018, is currently sitting at 28 million. And a new hidden-camera video called “Máquina de Clones” that dropped in June generated more than 700,000 views in its first week.

The broadcaster has also staged pranks based on family films, including one in April for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, and another based on The Addams Family in 2019. And last year, SBT adapted the well-known Brazilian children’s fantasy book series Sítio do Picapau Amarelo by Monteiro Lobato into a prank in which two actors play the same character, and kids have to figure out who the impostor is. Adapting the books into a prank gives children a funnier, cuter and more personal way to interact with characters from the iconic property, says Garcia.

The value of pranks is that they appeal to kids, but they also provide a strong draw for families, he adds. “Prank shows are an excellent co-viewing opportunity for the whole family [to] sit down and watch together, and this is very valuable for us.”

SBT is looking to acquire more younger-skewing prank content, says Garcia, and the broadcaster’s formula for success is to respect kids, tap into their imagination and understand their behavior. “If shows can hit this jackpot to get a result that is a mix of entertainment, humor and the ‘naive’ approach of children, it will surely ring a bell—not just for kids, but for every kind of audience, regardless of age group.”

It’s early days for the kids prank trend, but France’s TF1 is one broadcaster that’s beginning to invest in the genre. The network is looking to explore acquiring “fail” content aimed at families (including blooper videos that feature people flopping at whatever they’re doing in funny ways). Production companies such as Apartment 11 (Prank Patrol) in Canada and pocket.watch in the US are also in the early stages of getting into prank content. Pocket.watch is exploring an original concept in this vein, while Apartment 11 is in talks with a digital-first creator about developing a new prank-focused series.

Raja Masilamani, creative director of London-based Creative Media Partners (Sinbad & the 7 Galaxies), is tapping into pranks to add humor to his new 2D-animated series Mrs. Pea’s Lab (26 x 11 minutes). This bridge concept revolves around a group of young students who play practical jokes on their clueless but well-intentioned science teacher, whose perseverance and determination help her stay one step ahead of the rambunctious kids. Initial designs for the series are done, and Masilamani is working on a bible and sourcing comedy writers. The overall mission of Mrs. Pea’s Lab is simple: “We want to deliver non-stop gags and fun,” says Masilamani, who plans to approach a distributor once he has a first broadcaster on board.

Thinking up creative gags and staying ahead of getting pranked themselves help kids see that creativity, ingenuity and determination are powerful tools worth developing, Masilamani adds.

This story originally appeared in Kidscreen‘s Q3 2024 magazine issue.