Why do most TV sitcoms have a laugh-track? I don't see why it's necessary. Is it out of tradition? It seems like they are trying to point out the jokes to the audience. I never understood the use for the laugh-track!

To try and make us think the shows are funny.....truly funny shows don't need laugh tracks!

It's because the makers of the show think America is dumb and therefore must be told when to laugh.

I think it also has to do with the fact that people tend to laugh when other people are laughing. Haven't you ever laughed just because someone else was laughing hysterically...I have.

After the Nazis were defeated, the world needed something to fill the void.

das

I think people are being a little too hard on this concept. I think it harkens back to the days of live television and has become somewhat of a tradition.

Believe it or not, some shows are funnier with a laugh track. Will & Grace had an episode a while back where the opening was shot on the streets of NY without a laugh track. The timing of the scene just didn't feel right.

I don't think it's just hearing people laugh with the show as much as making the viewer feel that they are watching somthing akin to a live stage show. There is a different energy to it. Many sitcoms would not work without a laugh track.

I would guess it originated back in the day. Most tv shows had a live audience, correct? You hear the actual audience laughing.

I don't know which ones do today, but most sitcoms do. Wouldn't it be hard to edit out the audience laughing? I mean would tv stars have to go through a looping process. Who knows. Laugh tracks don't bother me.

Exactly.

If you need to be told how funny it is ... is it really that funny?

Either perform in front of an audience, or don't. This nonsense of canned laughter just doesn't cut it for me. There's nothing more annoying than listening to canned laughter for something that clearly wasn't funny.

das

But that's the whole point. Shows with a laugh track are performed in front of an audience. The laughing you hear is the sound of the audience.

Whether something was funny or not is relative. I've been to several sitcom tapings, including Friends, and they don't force the audience to laugh at a particular time. It usually comes from the performances. Of course, anything is funny when you are sitting on your ass for like six hours.

No ... shows in front of an audience are in front of an audience. Shows with a laugh track have some guy in a studio inserting canned laughter into the show. I have no problem with audience laughter. Typically a live performance is infinitely more entertaining than a recorded one, and people will laugh at any number of things that otherwise wouldn't be that funny. It's the canned laughter that sucks.

das

But they do shift the laughter around in the editing process.

I have never been to a taping, but I'm a video editor and I know it's a common practice. How many times have you heard the audience ROAR at something that wasn't really THAT funny? I never hear just a low rumble or a snicker of laughter. It's either there and loud or it isn't there at all.

Believe it or not, people do laugh loudly at tapings. Even of shows that do not deserve that kind of laughter. It's partly due to the comedian they have entertaining the audience and partly due to being bored waiting for the crew to set up the next scene. By the time they actually shoot, the audience is craving for anything entertaining.

I know that some sound work is done on the laugh tracks of some shows, but I don't believe that it's as extensive as you think.

As an example of some shows that did extensive laugh track work. After 9/11, many shows stopped allowing audiences in for tapings of sitcoms due to security concerns. Those shows were performed without audiences and a laugh track was put in later.

Either way, you can't compare a show like Friends to Undeclared. They are pretty much two different genre's of comedy. They are shot, performed, and edited differently than each other.

I find myself laughing with no problems at "The Simpsons," "Malcolm in the Middle","Buffy," "Angel," "Sportsnight" and other similar shows.

I think the laugh track is horribly outdated and I wish more shows had the guts to just do away with them altogether. I think audiences don't need it anymore. Or if you are going to use it, DON'T edit it out or "pump up" a joke that the audience didn't find very funny.

I'm all for "live" television, but keep the energy going without blatant maniuplation.

well I'm not saying that people don't laugh at shows without laugh tracks, just that sitcoms with laugh tracks are not the same genre.

Just like Reality TV is a different genre than the Drama.

To do away with the audience, many good shows just wouldn't work. Friends wouldn't work if shot the same way "Malcolm in the Middle" is shot. It's a different genre of show.

Many may say "Who cares, Friends sucks."

But to put it in a more historical perspective, I don't think "All in the Family" would have worked without the live audience reactions. It might have seemed too serious. Archie might have come off as too seriously bigoted and it might have seemed too uncomfortable to laugh at him.

It's the quality of the Sitcom you should be railing against. Sure, too many shows rely on the laugh track to boost the comedic moments. The best shows use the audience to feed into the comedic energy.

I think I got away from the point I was trying to make. This is all I meant, that the laugh track, all too often, is used to make us THINK a show is funnier than it is.

"Friends" is a good example. I always laugh at something in every episode, and I rarely feel overly manipulated (unless they stick in a big "Wooooo" moment when Ross and Rachel kiss or something.) But other shows, that don't have a funny moment, have this audience that sounds like they are having epileptic fits, it's so funny, that stuff bugs me.

The one that always confused/annoyed me the most was Scooby Doo.

Why would they add a laugh track to a cartoon? Did they really think they'd fool anyone? I think even little kids could see past this.

"Drawn before a live studio audience, by cartoonists with extremely fast hands."

I don't have a problem with audience laughter, but canned laughter where no audience is present. If the audience thinks it's funny, more power to them. If you film in an empty studio and insert canned laughter into the show, that's just lame.

das

I understand your point, but like I said, it's amazing what live studio audiences will laugh at.

I went to a taping of Full House a while back, don't ask me why. The fact is, this is not a very funny show, yet we were all laughing like crazy. I don't know why. Maybe they pump laughing gas into the crowd.

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What's with the "Filmed before a live studio audience" crap for? Isn't it a bit redundant? What's the alternative to a live studio audience? A dead one? Wouldn't "Filmed before a studio audience" be just fine?


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I agree - and the WORST offended in this department would have to be Sherwood Schwartz shows. I swear that when I watched The Brady Bunch when I was growing up that they really only had about a half dozen different "laugh" types that they used. If you listened closely, they each had very distinctive qualities that, after a while, you could say "Oh that was Big Chortle #2 or High Tittery Giggle#3". I mean if I noticed it as a kid, it MUST have been pretty awful.

As for the Scooby Doo laugh tracks - I'd totally forgotten about that! I think this mostly happened because they featured guest stars (mostly comedian personalities) like Phyllis Diller and Sonny & Cher. They probably inserted the laugh track so kids knew what of the more "adult" humor was supposed to be funny. (I know I'm grasping at straws here.)

I will admit though - there is a difference between the styles of shows shot with an audience and without (Will & Grace vs. Malcolm). However, even back when Laverne & Shirley was on, they would say "Filmed before a live studio audience". But you could STILL hear the frequently repeated "canned" laughter "augmenting" the audience response throughout just like on The Brady Bunch. It is annoying to the point of distraction once you really notice it.