Then he looked at a big TBS "Just for Laughs" sign on the wall and added, "Ooh sponsor!"

WSJ: Conan O'Brien and Sarah Silverman at the Chicago Comedy Festival

Chicago was "the most obvious city that did not have a comedy festival, " says Bruce Hills, chief operating officer at Just for Laughs.

WSJ: Conan O'Brien and Sarah Silverman at the Chicago Comedy Festival

Just for Laughs is in its fourth year in Chicago, as the first U.S. spinoff of Just for Laughs Montreal, a multiweek, bilingual event in July.

WSJ: Conan O'Brien and Sarah Silverman at the Chicago Comedy Festival

The International Jazz Festival, Just For Laughs, and FrancoFolies de Montreal -- three of the largest -- draw more than five million visitors every year, according to the Partnership.

BBC: The Quartier des Spectacles, Montreal's Broadway

And maybe, just for laughs, Whitesnake's Greatest Hits.

WSJ: Joe Queenan on the Sound of One Neighbor Misbehaving | Moving Targets

Played for laughs, the idea just seems an odd way of launching a multitude of bugs, dinosaurs, and apes into houses and shopping malls.

NEWYORKER: Evolution

One thing Mr Faye's family folklore taught him was that there was no such thing as a new joke in showbiz, just new ways of pushing a joke for laughs.

ECONOMIST: Joey Faye | The

"Some people said I wasn't a real scientist, that I was just a model for the movie, which I was pretty flattered by, " laughs Barton.

FORBES: Magazine Article