Can an AI really write and animate a funnier sitcom than someone who actually does it for a living? That’s the question Hayk Manukyan, a working animator at Warner Bros. Animation, decided to put to the test in a playful but revealing experiment.
Using his original hand-drawn characters Harut and Sophik, Manukyan handed an AI the exact same setup from his latest short: a husband accusing his wife of hiding his computer while she was “cleaning.”
He even uploaded his own illustration of the scene and asked the AI to turn it into a classic husband-versus-wife sitcom gag using OpenAI’s Sora. The result was seven AI-generated clips attempting to land the joke with timing, visuals, and punchlines baked in by the machine.
Once the AI had its shot, Manukyan dropped his own version, fully hand-drawn and animated frame by frame, then tossed the decision to viewers to see which approach actually worked best.
It’s a fun watch, but it also highlights the growing conversation around AI animation, comedy writing, and whether algorithms can match human instincts for timing and character.
I also threw in an AI vs. animator face-off focused on a K-pop dance. Check out the videos below and decide for yourself who nailed it, because this man versus machine matchup is way more entertaining than it has any right to be.
