VR Comedy Clip.

CBS Interactive is diving headfirst into virtual reality, starting with what they believe is the first virtual reality comedy short. The VR comedy short is set to debut this week at Cannes Lions, an International Festival of Creativity in Cannes, France.

Saturday Night Live’s Kenan Thompson appears in multiple roles in the scripted short, using humour to showcase the fundamentals of virtual reality. Conceived in late April and shot in New York in May, it was produced by CBS Interactive’s Studio 61 brand (led by CBSi Media Group’s Christy Tanner) in partnership with The Uprising Creative and WEVR (led by Anthony Batt), with support from Kendall Ostrow from UTA.

“We wanted to showcase for our clients how we can use virtual reality to combine creativity and tech for fresh, compelling storytelling,” explains Christy Tanner. “The results exceeded our expectations. We’ve seen people shocked, scared and excited wearing VR goggles, but we’ve never before seen them laugh like they did watching Kenan.”