The American Century Theatre’s update of the FDR-era Broadway smash Hellzapoppin’ kicks off with a terrible joke: An announcer on the P.A. who thinks he’s there for another show throws a fit when he sees the copy he’s supposed to read. It’s forced. It’s painful. It’s not funny.

Then — Mercy! — a man in a gorilla suit shows up. Man in gorilla suit = crazy hilarious. But if you don’t agree, then perhaps one of the roughly 4,587 other sight gags, pratfalls, or ill-advised musical numbers coming at you in the next two-and-a-half hours may be more to your taste. Or make you laugh, anyway, since “taste” and this sort of comedy don’t have much to do with one another. If you loved the Zucker Bros. movies like Airplane! and its many descendants — or especially the original Muppet Show — then you won’t want to miss this opportunity to see where the no-laugh-too-easy, no-pun-too-egregious, more-is-more school of laffs aplenty had its genesis.

Ole Olsen and Chick Johnson were the vaudeville duo that starred in the original Broadway version, which ran for more than 1,400 performances between 1938 and 1941, a record at the time. Bill Karukas and Doug Krenzlin appear as Olsen and Johnson here, respectively, acting as emcees for the evening’s revels. (Krentzlin also had a hand in updating the script, along with director Jack Marshall and several of his fellow cast members.) They’re marvelous company, groaning their way through the show along with us. It overstays its welcome, to be sure, and there are a handful of recurring gags that don’t pay off nearly well enough to justify their protracted setups. But unless you’re a complete stick-in-the-mud, the production’s eagerness to please and willingness to offend will eventually win you over all the same.