Following a format similar to America's Funniest Home Videos/The Planet's Funniest Animals, the series showcases viral internet clips of funny animal moments as well as celebrity guests, their pets, and panelists to commentate on the clips.

On May 14, 2020, The CW announced that in light of television production being suspended across the United States on account of the COVID-19 pandemic, the network would push its new season to January 2021 and would air acquired and encore programming in the fall of 2020 instead.

This gave rise to World's Funniest Animals, as the series consists mainly of a compilation of comic animal clips from various sources and thus is easy to be produced largely remotely.

Shortly after, it was announced that the series would be hosted by Elizabeth Stanton.

[73][15] On December 7, 2020, the series was renewed for a second season,[74] which premiered on October 9, 2021.