Every once in a while | wake up, crack open my eyelids, and decide: I need a manicure STAT. And then every three weeks or so until my brittle nails cry out for the sweet release of death* I am back to the nail salon to get them updated.
My salon of choice** has two television screens, both of which are playing an endless loop of Just For Laughs Gags. If you’re Canadian and didn’t have cable growing up, I feel I do not need to explain Just For Laughs Gags. If you are NOT Canadian and/or DID have cable growing up: just do an internet search you’ll see. Essentially: weird pranks on the public? Honestly some of them seem genuinely traumatic*** and some make me think back to my communications degree and say “surely that’s not legal in Quebec”^.
Anyways it’s filmed in Montreal. After hours of research (getting my nails done) I am ready to share with you my foolproof plan for avoiding the social pariah known as Just For Laughs Gags.
Step 1: don’t go to Montreal in the mid-2000s. I think this is when the majority of Just For Laughs Gags was filmed based solely on the fashion worn by the public. You’re telling me a hot Montreal girl is wearing THAT? In the year of our lord 2026? Don’t piss me off.
Step 2: if you get pulled over by the “police”, immediately ask for the officer’s ID and badge number etc. I mean if the cops are talking to you get their ID either way, but in this case we are only looking at JFLG. Don’t even get me started on the police-based gags.
Step 3: if you are in the mall/a park and there is a weird looking little stand that appears to sell sandwiches or something: do NOT agree to watch the counter for a second. This should be a no-brainer! They are OBVIOUSLY going to surreptitiously take your photo, print it, and put it in an Employee of the Month frame behind your back.
Step 4: if you see a flimsy looking fake wall, just avoid it. It’s not worth it! This includes an oddly out of place row of hedge plants in pots, especially if there is a person doing something odd right in front of them, or if there is some kind of mechanism poorly disguised behind the plants.
Step 5: if you’re talking to someone and they seem to be gesticulating in a very large and theatrical manner as if there is a hidden camera that needs to catch the jist of the story without recording sound DO NOT ASSUME IT IS JUST SOCIAL AWKWARDNESS. LEAVE. THEY ARE TRYING TO ENTRAP YOU IN AN UNFUNNY GAG!!!!!!!!!!!!
Step 6 :most of all, best of all: never help a stranger in Montreal^^.
I hope this helps.
*where death = giving them a break from shellac/gel. YES it is gorgeous YES it is so bad for your nails.
**EM Nails and Beauty Bar in Edmonton. Listen, this isn’t sponsored^ but they’re great.
^Lmao why would I be sponsored
***faked tense police encounters???????
^fun fact you own your image in Quebec thanks to someone suing a photographer after having their picture taken without their permission while sitting on some steps. Do NOT ask me for details I don’t remember them.
^^if all else fails: don’t sign a release form I guess.
ggllyynniiss 
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