Known as the "Knights of the Clown Table," the program's three starring personalities all shared great joke-telling memories and abilities. Ed Ford had been given the title of "Senator" at a political gathering some years previous (Ford also produced and owned the program); Harry Hershfield was already a well-known cartoonist and after-dinner speaker; and Joe Laurie, Jr., had knocked around vaudeville and other jobs before eventually migrating to radio. Ford was said to be the hardest man to get to crack a smile. Radio program authority John Dunning reports that between the three of them, they probably knew something like 15,000 jokes. And all three (plus joke teller Peter Donald) could and did employ a variety of funny dialects and odd-ball characters.

     And indeed, the program did not thrive on originality; many of the jokes used were old. To tie the program to its listeners, the audience was encouraged to send in their best jokes (for which they received .$10 for each one used on the air) to be told on the air by joke teller Peter Donald. These were followed by the panelists telling their own jokes in the same vein. Audience applause was judged on a score of from one to a thousand by a "laugh/applause meter" displayed so the panel and studio audience could see it. The joke getting the loudest response (the most decibels on the meter) won. Listeners could win up to $25 if their joke was not successfully topped by the panel.

     The series later transferred to television, for five months on ABC (1950-51) and then as a syndicated series two decades later, hosted by Wink Martindale and later Dennis James. The radio series was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1989.