'Traumatized' senior sues 'Just for Laughs Gags,' over dropped baby stunt
Marie-Eve Dumont, QMI Agency
Aug 1, 2014 , Last Updated: 3:06 PM ET
The Just for Laughs Gags show could face a lawsuit from a Montreal-area senior for a dropped baby stunt that she says left her traumatized.
The show recently played a trick on an 83-year-old woman at a shopping centre in Beloeil, Que., on Montreal's south shore.
A male actor, using a doll, pretended to be a father trying out a baby carrier with his infant. The actor hopped onto a trampoline and bounced into the air.
At one point the actor bounced too high and the "child" flew out of the carrier and landed heavily on the ground.
The senior says she thought the baby was real.
"I tried to stop him from jumping, but nothing worked," said the woman, who refused to give her name. "The sound of the baby is still ringing in my head. I felt guilty and was ashamed that I couldn't do anything."
The Just for Laughs TV crew quickly told the woman the scene was a stunt, but she didn't get the joke.
"We see so much horror, abused children around the world," said the woman. "I didn't find it funny at all."
Her son, Yves Bosse, a veteran police officer, told QMI Agency that the gag left his mother "as white as a sheet" and that she had the shakes as well as headaches and nausea.
"My mother has heart problems, she wears a pacemaker," said Bosse. "She told me: 'Good thing you were there or I would have died.'"
Bosse plans to sue the gag show and is even considering a class-action lawsuit.
Just for Laughs Gags apologized to the woman and said she's the first person not to get the joke.
"We have fooled more than 85,000 people over the past 15 years," spokeswoman Dominique Quinta said of the popular Montreal show that's broadcast across North America.
"This is the first time things went badly."
'Traumatized' senior sues 'Just for Laughs Gags,' over dropped baby stunt
When I first read the headline I thought "Here we go again, someone 'over reacting'", but in all honesty, once I read the "gag".....that was probably over the top. I can see myself being pissed if someone pulled that on me.
Marie-Eve Dumont, QMI Agency
Aug 1, 2014 , Last Updated: 3:06 PM ET
The Just for Laughs Gags show could face a lawsuit from a Montreal-area senior for a dropped baby stunt that she says left her traumatized.
The show recently played a trick on an 83-year-old woman at a shopping centre in Beloeil, Que., on Montreal's south shore.
A male actor, using a doll, pretended to be a father trying out a baby carrier with his infant. The actor hopped onto a trampoline and bounced into the air.
At one point the actor bounced too high and the "child" flew out of the carrier and landed heavily on the ground.
The senior says she thought the baby was real.
"I tried to stop him from jumping, but nothing worked," said the woman, who refused to give her name. "The sound of the baby is still ringing in my head. I felt guilty and was ashamed that I couldn't do anything."
The Just for Laughs TV crew quickly told the woman the scene was a stunt, but she didn't get the joke.
"We see so much horror, abused children around the world," said the woman. "I didn't find it funny at all."
Her son, Yves Bosse, a veteran police officer, told QMI Agency that the gag left his mother "as white as a sheet" and that she had the shakes as well as headaches and nausea.
"My mother has heart problems, she wears a pacemaker," said Bosse. "She told me: 'Good thing you were there or I would have died.'"
Bosse plans to sue the gag show and is even considering a class-action lawsuit.
Just for Laughs Gags apologized to the woman and said she's the first person not to get the joke.
"We have fooled more than 85,000 people over the past 15 years," spokeswoman Dominique Quinta said of the popular Montreal show that's broadcast across North America.
"This is the first time things went badly."
'Traumatized' senior sues 'Just for Laughs Gags,' over dropped baby stunt
When I first read the headline I thought "Here we go again, someone 'over reacting'", but in all honesty, once I read the "gag".....that was probably over the top. I can see myself being pissed if someone pulled that on me.
