Ha! TV Comedy Network Originals

Background:

Ha! TV Comedy Network was an early attempt at an all-comedy basic cable channel. It was created by Viacom and operated through its MTV Networks unit, and was launched on April 1, 1990 as a direct competitor to The Comedy Channel, owned by Time Warner through Home Box Office. Both Ha! and The Comedy Channel struggled to maintain viewers, and it was eventually announced the two networks would merge to form a single channel. Exactly a year later, the two channels merged to form "CTV: The Comedy Network", which was renamed two months later to "Comedy Central".

Logo (April 1, 1990-April 1, 1991)

Note: Most of the variants can be seen here.

Visuals: On a white background, there is a yellow, blue, or green box with a humorous activity (usually a prank) taking place inside it (sometimes an arm is seen below it) animated in 2D. Below the box, there's a black rectangle with the name of the prank in yellow inside. When the activity is finished, there is a close-up of the side of someone's face in the cartoon, with the 3D text "HA!" next to it, slightly tilted upwards in white, yellow, or red and sometimes affected by whatever happened in the activity, and the black rectangle below the box changes to the text "TV COMEDY NETWORK" with a trademark symbol next to it.

Variants:

Whoopee Cushion: A hand puts a whoopee cushion on a chair. A man sits on it and gets nervous as the "HA!" logo in blue appears next to his face.
Red-Hot Chewing Gum: A man with the "HA!" logo in yellow next to him is given some gum by another man. When he chews it, he starts to breathe fire and sets "HA!" aflame.
Funny Clown Nose: A man with the "HA!" logo in yellow next to his face plays with a clown nose, and looks in surprise when he pulls it away enough to reveal his normal nose.
Rolling Eyes: The logo shifted upwards and shrinks, and is placed on a black background. The man's eyes roll around. A copyright for MTV Networks is below the logo.

Technique: 2D animation produced by Noel Frankel and Lou Brooks.

Audio: A '40s like trumpet tune, and the sounds of whatever is going on in the logo. Sometimes the trumpet music is omitted.

Availability: Only seen on programs from the era such as Afterdrive and Life As We Know.

Ha! TV Comedy Network Originals

CTV: The Comedy Network

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