Laughter Lab is on at the Cartoon Museum, London, until June 2022. Topics: behaviour / humans; Advertisement. Sign up to our weekly newsletter. Receive a weekly dose of discovery in your inbox!

Why would a cartoon shark campaign to save an underwater lab? Because Jim Toomey, the man behind the syndicated cartoon Sherman’s Lagoon, wants ocean exploration to be taken seriously.

Tartakosvky set the scene for the early days of Dexter’s Lab, which went on to achieve the rare feat of being a primetime Emmy-nominated cartoon.“Half the crew were high,” he joked. “I ...