Thoughts on laugh tracks in sitcoms.

Do you guys find them annoying or do they add to the humor? In my opinion they work well in some shows like Seinfeld and aren't too distracting while they are essential in other shows like Big Bang Theory that aren't funny in any way and need laugh tracks to prompt the audience to laugh along. On the other hand they can be really annoying in shows like Little Britain which really don't need them. Sitcoms like Modern Family don't use laugh tracks and do just fine without them.

 

I don't think it's a laugh track on Seinfeld, just the actual sound of the live studio audience laughing. Same with Friends and other shows of the same period.

I don't really like live studio audiences. I remember watching an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond and the laughter would go on so long for some (not very funny) jokes that it became awkward. The cast just had to stand there and wait for the laughter to die down before they could say their next line and there was no rhythm or sense of reality at all.

I prefer the more modern take on the sitcom--single-camera and no audience. Let me decide what's funny and get immersed in the world. This works in both the mockumentary style (like The Office and Modern Family) and the standard style (like New Girl). It also allows for cutaway gags, flashbacks and more creative storytelling.

How I Met Your Mother was a unique one. That show had a lot of cutaway gags and stuff, so they would actually film everything, edit it together and then play the tape for an audience to get the laughs. That feels like a transition-era decision and if the show was made today they would just skip the audience.

 

Can’t stand canned laughter of any kind.
The very idea of being “prompted” to laugh is insane; if the material is funny, you laugh; if it isn’t, you don’t. It’s not like sitting in a theatre.

 

Alan Spencer of Sledge Hammer removed them I enjoy Sledge Hammer more.

 

I don't care for laugh tracks myself. Some of the same laugh tracks would be re-used multiple times per episode, and even as a kid at 7-8 years old, this stuck out like a sore thumb to me. One of those shows that got rebroadcast all through the 1970s and 1980s -- I think it is Gilligan's Island or the early seasons of M*A*S*H -- uses the same track over and over. You can tell because this one guy (I assume it's a man anyways) has a distinctive deep raspy laugh that is noticeable every time you hear it.

 

I will automatically turn off shows where I feel like I'm being told when to laugh. NBC's old Thursday night comedies - Friends, Cheers, Mad About You, Seinfeld - didn't bother me much at the time because they were well written and it seemed as if there was actual audience participation. But most shows with the canned laughter are an automatic tune-out for me. A few shows, like Everybody Loves Raymond, actually benefit from the audience laughter.

 

I always waited to hear someone if the audience laugh so hard they farted.

 

I ignore it the best I can but I would prefer not to hear any laughter.

 

I think it's been well established that the phrase "laugh tracks" is basically a misnomer, at least in terms of modern day usage. It's fairly obvious when viewing vintage sitcoms that the laughter is truly "canned", but the way it's used these days they are capturing actual real time audience reactions. I have read however, that these responses are sometimes "sweetened" (pumped up) to emphasize certain gags. If you really want to conduct a case study on your own as to the effect of audience reaction on how a sitcom is viewed, get your hands on a DVD of any season of M.A.S.H. There is an option to turn off the laugh track-and it makes a huge difference (for the better!). I can't watch those episodes when they pop up on regular TV anymore.

 

I don't mind them- I've kind of mentally tuned them out by now.

 

If I grew up with Dick Van Dyke or Mary Tyler Moore I hardly notice. But Monty Python is so crudely executed it's tough not to notice. Without the laugh track viewers might assume that Big Bang Theory was a documentary on chronic depression.

 

It's both. A show like Seinfeld pioneered the idea of dozens of very short 30 seconds or less) scenes, almost all of them in different sets. As a result, they generally did a "pre-shoot" day the day before the audience came in, so they could shoot on special sets: street scenes, car interiors, elevators, one-time sets (parties, somebody's house, an office). Those scenes were played for the audience and their reaction was recorded, so it's sort of real laughter. Because of multiple takes and editing and so on, they have to stitch together different audio responses together, and usually canned laughter has to be employed to "smooth out" the edit and make it work in the show.

I think a show performed in front of a live audience is basically a stage play, and there, the laughs are legitimate. I can understand the criticisms for shows shot movie-style, where every single laugh is artificial and fake (like all the classic single-camera shows of the 1960s and 1970s). But trust me, the shows are weird without laughs. I think the right approach is what they started to do on M*A*S*H, which was to diminish the laugh tracks and use it sparingly.

 

Horrible. Hate them.

 

Laugh tracks are 20 century that should no longer be used..
We shouldn't be coached to laugh a certain time or joke..
I think it would be fun big bang theory without a laugh tracks
or live audience.

 

Wait, are you telling me that wasn’t a real audience at the filming of The Flintstones?

 

I attended the outdoor Colbert shows in Vancouver during the 2010 Olympics. I was really surprised how laughter was added in the final broadcasts. It's weirdly obvious whenever Colbert does the "better know a district.." type segments, even after they are shown on screens to the studio audience.

Because of the quick turnaround and shelved after 1-2 airings, I don't generally think it's used on talk shows beyond some pre-filmed bits.

 

Hate them.

 

Hate them. IIRC some of the Sports Night episodes were done without a laugh track; when I bought the series on DVD, they had a laugh track. Lame.

And who was the genius who added a laugh track to Bullwinkle? I loved that show as a kid, and only 'got' some of the jokes as I got older--but when they reissued the cartoons about a decade ago, they had polluted the cartoons with a laugh track. As DJT might say, SAD.

 

On a commentary track of The IT Crowd (UK sitcom), the writer/director said they had to actually turn down the live studio laughter in the sound mix because some people were just too much or inappropriate.

 

I imagine that's because The IT Crowd is one of the funniest shows ever.

 

I don't think any sitcom shot today is filmed in front of an audience. The laughs are entirely manufactured.

It'd be interesting to know which sitcom was the last to have a real audience in attendance while being shot.

 

This may not sound good but in all honesty I often don't even hear the "laugh track" as I'm concentrating on the show itself. Even worse, I often find myself laughing at things that there is no laugh track on the sitcom for lol. Maybe my skew on humor is just a little off ????

 

Some comedy benefits from a laugh track. For example, the TV series Are You Being Served? has a laugh track and is delightful. I can watch it for hours. On the other hand, the movie version of Are You Being Served? has no laugh track and I found it cringe-worthy and difficult to watch all the way through. The very serious mannerisms of the cast seemed less like comedy and more like very bad drama. Of course this may be to the compulsion of expectation - I may simply anticipate the laugh track that I do not hear.

 

The original “Will & Grace” had an inflated laugh track to beef up the actual audience reaction. But, upon repeated viewings, you could pick out the canned reactions, most annoying, to me, is a “waa-HA” laugh that comes up several times per episode. Sounds just like Debrah Messing and is so distracting.

The new revamp specifically states that is is “filmed before a live studio audience” a-la late 70’s early 80’s sitcoms.

 

Or the old Scooby Doo show? My childhood has been a lie.