The unrehearsed program, sponsored at one point by a papaya-flavored soft drink called Par and later by Colgate-Palmolive,[1][2] was created by veteran vaudevillian "Senator" Edward Hastings Ford, who claimed he was taking part in a joke session at a New York theatrical club when he conceived the idea.

However, the format was quite similar to a prior joke-telling radio series, Stop Me If You've Heard This One (1939–40), which featured Ford and cartoonist Harry Hershfield as panelists.

Host Peter Donald told the best of these jokes, each one centered on a different topic, while a "laugh meter" took note of the audience reaction on a scale of 0 to 1,000.

[4] Eventually, audience participants received $10, plus a $5 bonus for each panelist who failed to outscore it with his own joke, for a potential maximum prize of $25.

When Ford or Donald was unavailable, Wilson filled in on the panel or as the teller of listener jokes, so James acted as emcee.

In the show's later years, his place on the panel was filled by others, including former New Jersey Governor Harold Hoffman,[8] Fred Hillebrand, and Bert Lytell.

[citation needed] The show was briefly revived in syndication by Four Star Television on January 26, 1970, with Wink Martindale as host and featured Morey Amsterdam as Executive Producer and a regular panelist, but this incarnation lasted just eight months.