The Hilarious Posters was probably commissioned by Victor de Cottens for showing as part of the 1905 edition of the annual Folies Bergère revue. (Though the descriptions of the show do not mention Méliès, he is credited in the program, and a scene closely resembling the action of the film is described in a surviving copy of the script.)[2] The film may have been inspired by Gaston Velle's film La Valise de Barnum (Pathé, 1904), in which a man shows various posters and the figures in them come to life.[2]