Word has come down the wire that Hollywood's Swiss Army knife of talent, Will Smith, will host and executive produce a standup comedy series titled THIS JOKA for Jeffrey Katzenberg and Med Whitman's Quibi streaming service. The 16-episode joke-slinging show hails from Smith's Westbrook Studios and Topgolf Entertainment Group. The series will feature on-the-rise and established comedians for a variety of stand-up sets, one-on-one conversations between and the comics as well as documentary footage from backstage and around Las Vegas.
Comedians set to be featured as a part of THIS JOKA are Baron Vaughn, Megan Gailey, Punkie Johnson, Sean Patton, Rosebud Baker, Shane Torres, Clayton English, Christi Chiello, Vanessa Gonzalez, Martin Urbano, Sam Tallent, David Gborie, Jackie Fabulous, Chris Estraded, Rell Battle and Daphnique Springs. George Wallace and Demi Adejuyigbe, with Shawn Wasabi on board to make "special appearances."
Quibi's aim is to release 175 original shows and 8,500 quick bites of content in the first year alone. All will be on offer by way of three categories of content:
Movies in Chapters: Big stories told in chapters that are 7 to 10 minutes in length.
Unscripted and Docs: This episodic category is food, fashion, travel, animals, cars, builds, music, sports, comedy, talk, variety, documentary and more. All with episodes in 10 minutes or less.
Daily Essentials: Curated daily into 5-6 minute quick bites of news, entertainment and inspiration. Quibi’s Daily Essentials will quickly give viewers everything they need to know – and why it matters.
Quibi – which is short for “quick bites” – is built for easy, on-the-go mobile viewing with new episodes of movie-quality shows delivered daily in episodes of 10 minutes or less.
I'll be damned if I don't find Will Smith to be charismatic as all get out. And even though the stand-up comedy setup makes me uncomfortable at best, I might be willing to tune into THIS JOKA based on Smith's comedic chops alone. A major plus is that with Quibi's "quick bites" presentation, it's not too much of a sacrafice if the show turns out to not be my cup o' tea. How about you? Will you be checking out THIS JOKA when it launches on Quibi? Let us know your thoughts and intentions in the comments section below.