Comedy Planet Productions

Background: Before the name "Comedy Planet" existed, the network was owned by an outfit called "Comedy Friends" founded by none other than Yoshi, Inc. and Hesker Communications (later Day Hesker). Day Hesker's MBO unit had expanded into basic cable with a channel called "The Funny Channel". Similarly, Yoshi was operating "Laugh! TV Comedy Network". After both channels took a hit, the two compromised and created a jointly-owned company, "Comedy Friends", meriging both channels into "CTC: The Comedy Channel", but later renamed it to "Comedy Planet" in order to save confusion from Canada's CTC network. In April 2003, Day Hesker sold their half of Comedy Friends for $1.23 billion, resulting in Yoshi owning 100% of Comedy Planet and the network was made part of the Music Channel Properties.

1st Logo

(June 1, 1991-March 25, 1995)

Nicknames: "The Tires", "The Tire Junkyard"

Logo: The Comedy Planet globe of the era (which does not tilt to the side, has yellow text, and a purplish top) is posed on the background of several tires on a junkyard. The "COMEDY PLANET" marquee spins around from time to time.

Variant: There is a variation of the logo where the background consists of a tire in extreme close-up and the Comedy Planet logo appears smaller.

FX/SFX: The "COMEDY PLANET" marquee spinning around.

Cheesy Factor: On the different variant, there is a hideous white outline around the logo.

Music/Sounds/Voice-over: John Bob saying, "This has been a presentation from Comedy Planet!".

Availability: Uncommon.

Scare Factor: Low; John's loud, bombastic voice might startle some.

2nd Logo

(March 25, 1995-June 5, 1996)

Nicknames: "Comedy Planet on the Sky", "Building Magnitude"

Logo: Up against a black background, we see the normal 1995 Comedy Planet globe from the era emitting blue circles with cheesy drawings of buildings below that move around and a giant moon to the left showing a reverse version of the Comedy Planet globe spinning rapidly.

Variant: On season seven of TMS, the logo fades in and is silent.

FX/SFX: The Comedy Planet logo on the sky spinning and the Comedy Planet logo emitting blue circles.

Cheesy Factor: Alright, what is going on here? Why are the buildings moving around like mad, and is that thing behind the buildings really an sky?

Music/Sounds/Voice-over: Johnny Bob says: "This has been a presentation from Comedy Planet" along with the network's generic tune playing throughout (Some drums playing against whistling), and ending with a man shouting "YES!".

Availability: Seen on seasons one and two of Dr. Dogz, Professional Doctor on DVD and VHS, and season seven of TMS on DVD and VHS.

Scare Factor: Low to medium; the jarring appearance and the man shouting "YES!" might startle some. None for the TMS variant.

3rd Logo

(June 5, 1996-November 30, 1997)

Nicknames: "The ATM", "Comedy Planet ATM"

Logo: It begins with a shot of a credit card being inserted into what is presumably an ATM. It then switches to a shot of an ATM screen, whose text, in green, is being "drawn" down from top to bottom and in a computer-type font. The text reads "THIS HAS BEEN A PRESENTATION OF:", followed by the Comedy Planet logo (in green, and with the logo tilted to its side with the name written in a different font), and then "THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATRONAGE" appears under the logo. The last line "blinks" a few times, becoming highlighted in green with the text in black.

Variant: An interesting edit exists on the first three episodes of North City where the "credit card" animation was kept in, the screen in the ATM was cut because it was abruptly switched to the 4th logo.

FX/SFX/Cheesy Factor: The credit card being inserted, which appears to be live-action, and the ATM screen, which is CGI. The added copyright date and URL on the Internet versions poorly blend in with the rest of the logo.

Music/Sounds: The whirring of the credit card being inserted and the "beeping" sounds, like a real ATM.

Availability: Uncommon; seen on Comedy Planet shows of the period.

Scare Factor: Minimal.

4th Logo

(August 13, 1997-December 1, 1999)

Nicknames: "The Transmitter", "Yellow Rings"

Logo: On a background with wavy blue and gray lines, a slightly revamped version of the Comedy Planet logo appears at the bottom (in blue and yellow), at first distorted, but quickly sharpening up. The transmitter on the top of the logo "activates" and then many yellow "this has been a presentation of" rings begin to emerge from the transmitter. A white copyright stamp is shown below, along with the "comedyplanet.com" URL.

Trivia: Comedy Planet's logo was slightly redesigned during this period, to give it a more smoother look; most notably, the small hyphen ( - ) from the "COMEDY PLANET" marquee was removed.

Variant: Sometimes the logo has no copyright stamp; only the URL in black. North City episodes that did not have it were later added below on the northcitystudios.com versions.

FX/SFX: The "transmitter".

Music/Sounds: An "interference" sound followed by loud synth "bong" sounds as the "rings" come out from the transmitter, or the closing theme of the show.

Availability: Common; first appeared on the first episode of North City as part of the variant for the previous logo. Preserved on recent showing of early episodes of North City on Comedy Planet and the North City Studios website along with DVDs. Unfortunately, compressed credits prevent it from being seen the way it was meant to be. Preserved on DVDs and VHS tapes of season five and the first six episodes of season six of Dr. Dogz, Professional Doctor. Preserved on Comedy Planet Brings to You episodes from the era, although the first episode is plastered by the sixth logo.

Scare Factor: Low to medium; those loud synth "bong" sounds may get to some.

5th Logo

(October 27, 1999-October 2000, February 13, 2002)

Nicknames: "The Bubbles", "Comedy Planet Aura"

Logo: On a background with what looks like bubbles floating around, the Comedy Planet logo, now in white, zooms-in from the center of the screen, glowing. Above it is "THIS HAS BEEN A PRESENTATION OF...", and below it is the copyright stamp for the show (usually © [YEAR] Comedy Friends, Inc. All Rights Reserved). This logo has ten different color palettes:


 * Silver background with red and silver bubbles.
 * Blue background with dark blue bubbles.
 * Green background with green and dark green bubbles.
 * Red background with dark red bubbles.
 * Aqua background with aqua bubbles.
 * Chrome background with monochrome bubbles.
 * Yellow background with yellow bubbles.
 * Purple background with purple bubbles.
 * Brown background with brown bubbles.
 * Pink background with pink bubbles.

Variants:


 * On North City episodes on Comedy Planet with compressed credits, the "zooming-in" portion of the logo is removed.
 * In later years, the URL "www.comedyplanet.com" was seen at the bottom.
 * A copyright stamp was added on the North City episodes shown at "northcitystudios.com".

FX/SFX/Cheesy Factor: Well, the zoom-in looks lame, as does the logo.

Music/Sounds: A low "WHOOSH" as the logo zooms in, followed by a hip hop and techno drum fanfare, a techno theme, or the closing theme of the show.

Music/Sounds Variant: On Comedy Planet Brings to You, the last part of the JackFan logo's theme plays over the logo.

Availability: The silver/red/silver, blue/dark blue, green/green/dark green and red/dark red ones are common, the rest are rare.

Scare Factor: Minimal to low; the sudden appearance of the logo might startle some.

6th Logo

(October 2000-January 2004)

Logo: Over a shaded orange background, we see lots of yellow circles zooming toward the viewer. The circles have zooms-up bits of the current Comedy Planet logo (much like the original, but looking more abstract, with different buildings and a different font) and other text to be seen at the end product. When the circles are done, we are treated with the end product, the updated Comedy Planet logo in the center with "THIS HAS BEEN A PRESENTATION OF" above in black, and "comedyplanet.com" below, in white. There is a backdrop of circles zooming behind the logo.

Variant: On later seasons of North City, this logo starts with the finished product on many episodes, bypassing the circles. A copyright stamp for Comedy Friends is included. A few episodes keep the animation as usual, but still have the copyright notice plastered over all the animation. The first variant also appeared on And Now Our...

FX/SFX: Pretty inspired animation with medium accuracy; nothing cheesy, but may make the viewer a bit dizzy.

Music/Sounds: A bass sounder that loops itself, not unlike music heard on Comedy Planet's commercial tags at the time.

Availability: Common; seen on programs from the time such as North City and Comedy Planet Brings to You

Scare Factor: None; it can get a bit tiresome, but the colors are too bright to scare anyone.

7th Logo

(2004- )

Logo: Just the in-credit text "This Has Been a Presentation of Comedy Planet" with a copyright stamp below.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: The closing theme of the show.

Availability: Seen on all recent Comedy Planet originals.

Scare Factor: None.

8th Logo

(2005-December 31, 2010)

Nickname: "The Ugliest Logo of All-Time"

Logo: Up against a lime green background, we see an extreme close-up of a white grunge-like Comedy Planet logo with the circles in the letters "O" and "N" filled in, skewed to the right that flashes a bit, then it suddenly cuts to a normal version of the logo next to a green, white, and blue cloud with the text "PRODUCTIONS" in a grunge-like font with all circles filled in. A copyright stamp with the year of the North City episode next to it appears below in white.

FX/SFX: None.

Cheesy Factor: The logo looks like a cardboard cut-out, similar to North City's animation.

Music/Sounds: A bad guitar tune.

Availability: Common; plasters the Blonoff logo on syndicated reruns of North City.

Scare Factor: None; but it takes the crown from the Structure Video ugly tower for ugliest logo of all-time.

9th Logo

(January 1, 2011-)

Nicknames: "The Double P", "Rapid Zooming", "Boredom Planet"

Logo: Up against a robin's egg blue background, the camera zooms into the upper right corner of the new Comedy Planet logo that features a black letter "P" inside a bigger reverse black "P", revealing the white bold text "COMEDY PLANET" with the new logo in the upper right corner of the text. We zoom into the new logo, revealing the "COMEDY PLANET" text from before, however with the word "PLANET" backwards. The new Comedy Planet logo squeezes into the middle of the text.

Trivia: Comedy Planet introduced the new logo on December 10, 2010 and debuted it on January 1, 2011.

FX/SFX: The rapid zoom-ins.

Cheesy Factor: The logo looks more like a copyright symbol than anything else.

Music/Sounds: A cool rock tune.

Availability: Current. Seen on most new original programming by Comedy Planet such as The Weekly Show and And Now Our...

Scare Factor: Low; the rapid zoom-ins might startle some.