Per an announcement at Cannes this past Monday, the Chinese animated fantasy comedy One Hundred Thousand Bad Jokes 2 (十万个冷笑话2) will be getting a domestic release on August 18, 2017.
The film is a sequel to One Hundred Thousand Bad Jokes (十万个冷笑话), which came out in 2014 and is based on a popular Chinese webcomic of the same name. Known for parodying classic Chinese, Western, and Japanese stories (ex. Detective Conan, Snow White), the original webcomics have enjoyed great popularity amongst Chinese netizens, garnering 1.5 billion views since their publication in 2010 and also sparking a 2012 web video series.
Among the film’s co-producers are Wanda Media and Tencent Pictures, two of the largest film production companies in China. Executives from the two companies, along with those from co-producers Joy Pictures and U17, hosted an event at the Cannes Film Festival on May 22, 2017 where they not only announced the film’s release date, but also expressed hopes that it would reach audiences beyond China.
“[We hope that] Bad Jokes 2 can be seen by international audiences, as it has a sense of natural humor that other Chinese animations don’t have,” said Howard Chen, VP of Tencent Pictures.
One Hundred Thousand Bad Jokes 2 is directed by Lu Hengyu and Li Shujie; it is written by Han Wu, Lu Hengyu, Li Shujie, Zhao Cong, Sui Jialin, and Gao Xinying. Besides the companies at the Cannes event, the film’s co-producers also include Toonmax Media, Alpha Pictures, Chengdu Square Culture, and Tianjin Xianshan Culture.