Are laugh tracks for idiots? - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

nerdstein · 01-21-2013, 04:11 PM

It is obvious that laughter/crowd noise is either enhanced or inserted into multi-cam sitcoms (even ones that were filmed in front of a studio audience) but is it added to cue the audience when to laugh, cover up a failed joke, or to give the folks sitting on their couch the feel that they're watching it with a crowd of people?

I had read an article a while back that quoted from a study done that concluded that background noise/laughter in TV shows enhances the comfort level of older folks and children. According to the study, people in general apparently feel better when they feel like their watching television with a crowd of people.

No one in their right mind would find a knock on the door and a casual 'hello' gut busting hilarious, but yet the 'audience' in sitcoms like Friends, The Big Bang Theory, and That 70's Show evidently find it so. There is obvious manipulation going on but I don't know it is a cue for the audience to laugh or to provide feel goodery to the viewers.

Single-camera sitcoms also employ their own methods of manipulation. For example; actors who constantly mug the camera during an awkward silence to let the audience in on the joke, and the use of music to provide background noise to fill dead air.

Personally, I disagree with the notion that laugh tracks are used primarily because the average viewer is an idiot, while that maybe true, I don't think that is the sole reason for their use.

Is anyone going to actually argue that the jokes in The Office were more high brow than the ones in Newsradio?

What does everyone else think?

broadmoor · 01-21-2013, 05:16 PM

There's definately a psychology behind them, even though they sometimes seem hard to defend. I recall being in a theater watching some silent-era comedies with a large crowd. I'd seen these very comedies before, by myself, on videotape. Routine stuff, not even the best. But somehow, in a huge crowd filled with wild laughter, it becomes infectious. The material manages to seem ten times MORE funny, experiencing it in such an environment. It struck me as rather fascinating, how that worked out.

*ROGER* · 01-21-2013, 05:35 PM

I HATE laugh tracks. The main reason I love The Office is because their is no annoying laugh tracks. I also like The Mindy Project....no laugh tracks with that one either. The laugh tracks is so fake. It's just canned laughter and it is super annoying. I don't mind real laughter from the studio audience like in I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, All In the Family, The Jeffersons, etc. But shows like Friends or any show past 1990 with fake canned laughter annoys me so much that I won't watch them. It seems as if there is fake laughter after every sentence in the character dialogue. I can't take it. It's all too fake, it's like I'm being told I'm supposed to laugh.

DJM77 · 01-21-2013, 06:11 PM

Anyone else ever notice that there are certain distinctive laughs that pop up in the laugh track for multiple different sitcoms? I can think of a couple of different female laughs that seem to be in every sitcom that aired in the mid 80's that I've ever seen. I can't really describe the laugh. Next time I come across it maybe I'll try to find a clip of the scene and post it.

Regulus · 01-21-2013, 07:15 PM

I've always preferred single camera to multi camera sitcoms, and I'm not so keen to "canned" laughter. I didn't care for The Dick Van Dyke Show because it was quite obvious most if not all of laughter was "canned". Everyone has their exceptions however. There's a couple of Multi-Cam shows I like and they are I Love Lucy and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. Last year I picked up the entire series of the former when The Big River had it as a "Gold Box" Special, and it was almost half its price.

I have four seasons of the latter and as soon as the other three hit the bargain bins I'll snatch em up.

Buffyboy323 · 01-21-2013, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by *ROGER*

I HATE laugh tracks. The main reason I love The Office is because their is no annoying laugh tracks. I also like The Mindy Project....no laugh tracks with that one either. The laugh tracks is so fake. It's just canned laughter and it is super annoying. I don't mind real laughter from the studio audience like in I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, All In the Family, The Jeffersons, etc. But shows like Friends or any show past 1990 with fake canned laughter annoys me so much that I won't watch them. It seems as if there is fake laughter after every sentence in the character dialogue. I can't take it. It's all too fake, it's like I'm being told I'm supposed to laugh.

Shows produced BEFORE 1990 that used a "fake, canned, annoying" laugh track;
The Flinstones
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Addams Family
Hogan's Heroes
Gilligan's Island
Bewitched
The Bob Newhart Show
Newhart
The Munsters
M*A*S*H

Shows that were "sweetened" with a laugh track;

The Odd Couple
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Happy Days
The Bob Newhart Show
Maude
Rhoda
Laverne and Shirley
Alice
Soap
Taxi

I don't think it has anything to do with the decade the shows aired in. Most of these sitcoms would feel incomplete without laugh tracks, IMO. Some would be VERY different without them. As would Friends, Seinfeld, etc. in the 1990's.

PrettyinPink55 · 01-22-2013, 01:23 AM

The Flintstones is one of my all-time favorite cartoons, but the laughter bothers me at times. Yet, I can't imagine the show without it at the same time because I'm so used to it!!

You posed an interesting question though. I asked this same question a few years back but it was in poll form. Wish I could find that thread now.

Anyway, I never considered the whole psychological aspect of feeling like you're watching with a group of people. Interesting. I guess that when someone in the audience initiates laughter, or someone I am sitting with watching a show or movie laughs at something, I am apt to laugh too. It is contagious!!

comedyfreak · 01-22-2013, 09:45 AM

I don't mind the laugh track, Bewitched used one. I found it interesting that the same woman that seems to utter uh oh on I Love Lucy was also used in episodes of Alice during season 2 which had the same Lucy directors and writers.

dougiezerts · 01-31-2013, 04:16 PM

MASH and THE ODD COUPLE filmed a few episodes without a laugh track. I thought that was quite different. And I seem to recall that ROOM 222 had a laugh track on the early episodes, but abandonned it later.

yankeesrj12 · 01-31-2013, 05:14 PM

I don't even hear the laughter anymore. I do prefer multi-camera comedies though.

Dr. Loveless · 02-01-2013, 03:28 PM

Interestingly, even MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS had a laugh track.

dakert · 02-01-2013, 11:14 PM

I dont mind a laugh track if the scene is funny

but it is no wonder why those NBC shows dont use laugh tracks--I have never found it too be funny!!!!

visaman666 · 02-02-2013, 01:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nerdstein

Is anyone going to actually argue that the jokes in The Office were more high brow than the ones in Newsradio?

I never saw either one, so I am in no position to give an opinion.

visaman666 · 02-02-2013, 02:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by comedyfreak

I don't mind the laugh track, Bewitched used one. I found it interesting that the same woman that seems to utter uh oh on I Love Lucy was also used in episodes of Alice during season 2 which had the same Lucy directors and writers.

The "Oh Oh" woman was Lucy's mother. She was a big fan of sitcoms and got around quite a bit it seems

Gertie1999 · 02-02-2013, 12:05 PM

They don't really bother me, but they can be annoying sometimes. Especially when they come on in a scene that really isn't meant to be that funny.

01-21-2013, 04:11 PM	#1
nerdstein Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Sep 07, 2012 Posts: 23	Are laugh tracks for idiots? It is obvious that laughter/crowd noise is either enhanced or inserted into multi-cam sitcoms (even ones that were filmed in front of a studio audience) but is it added to cue the audience when to laugh, cover up a failed joke, or to give the folks sitting on their couch the feel that they're watching it with a crowd of people? I had read an article a while back that quoted from a study done that concluded that background noise/laughter in TV shows enhances the comfort level of older folks and children. According to the study, people in general apparently feel better when they feel like their watching television with a crowd of people. No one in their right mind would find a knock on the door and a casual 'hello' gut busting hilarious, but yet the 'audience' in sitcoms like Friends, The Big Bang Theory, and That 70's Show evidently find it so. There is obvious manipulation going on but I don't know it is a cue for the audience to laugh or to provide feel goodery to the viewers. Single-camera sitcoms also employ their own methods of manipulation. For example; actors who constantly mug the camera during an awkward silence to let the audience in on the joke, and the use of music to provide background noise to fill dead air. Personally, I disagree with the notion that laugh tracks are used primarily because the average viewer is an idiot, while that maybe true, I don't think that is the sole reason for their use. Is anyone going to actually argue that the jokes in The Office were more high brow than the ones in Newsradio? What does everyone else think?

01-21-2013, 06:11 PM	#4
DJM77 Member Forum Veteran Join Date: May 15, 2001 Location: Missouri Posts: 5,564	Anyone else ever notice that there are certain distinctive laughs that pop up in the laugh track for multiple different sitcoms? I can think of a couple of different female laughs that seem to be in every sitcom that aired in the mid 80's that I've ever seen. I can't really describe the laugh. Next time I come across it maybe I'll try to find a clip of the scene and post it.
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01-21-2013, 07:15 PM	#5
Regulus Member Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: Feb 07, 2011 Location: Port Orange, Florida Avatar - Poiuyt Posts: 3,374	I've always preferred single camera to multi camera sitcoms, and I'm not so keen to "canned" laughter. I didn't care for *The Dick Van Dyke Show* because it was quite obvious most if not all of laughter was "canned". Everyone has their exceptions however. There's a couple of Multi-Cam shows I like and they are *I Love Lucy* and *Sabrina, the Teenage Witch*. Last year I picked up the entire series of the former when The Big River had it as a "Gold Box" Special, and it was almost half its price. I have four seasons of the latter and as soon as the other three hit the bargain bins I'll snatch em up.
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01-22-2013, 01:23 AM	#7
PrettyinPink55 Member Forum Celebrity Join Date: Feb 11, 2005 Location: Texas Posts: 24,601	The Flintstones is one of my all-time favorite cartoons, but the laughter bothers me at times. Yet, I can't imagine the show without it at the same time because I'm so used to it!! You posed an interesting question though. I asked this same question a few years back but it was in poll form. Wish I could find that thread now. Anyway, I never considered the whole psychological aspect of feeling like you're watching with a group of people. Interesting. I guess that when someone in the audience initiates laughter, or someone I am sitting with watching a show or movie laughs at something, I am apt to laugh too. It is contagious!!
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01-22-2013, 09:45 AM	#8
comedyfreak Cheers! Forum Fanatic Join Date: Dec 14, 2005 Location: Sunny California Posts: 11,060	I don't mind the laugh track, Bewitched used one. I found it interesting that the same woman that seems to utter uh oh on I Love Lucy was also used in episodes of Alice during season 2 which had the same Lucy directors and writers.
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01-21-2013, 05:16 PM	#2
broadmoor Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Jul 10, 2010 Location: texas Posts: 489	There's definately a psychology behind them, even though they sometimes seem hard to defend. I recall being in a theater watching some silent-era comedies with a large crowd. I'd seen these very comedies before, by myself, on videotape. Routine stuff, not even the best. But somehow, in a huge crowd filled with wild laughter, it becomes infectious. The material manages to seem ten times MORE funny, experiencing it in such an environment. It struck me as rather fascinating, how that worked out.

01-21-2013, 05:35 PM	#3
ROGER Member Senior Member Join Date: Apr 05, 2007 Location: United States Posts: 2,776	I HATE laugh tracks. The main reason I love The Office is because their is no annoying laugh tracks. I also like The Mindy Project....no laugh tracks with that one either. The laugh tracks is so fake. It's just canned laughter and it is super annoying. I don't mind real laughter from the studio audience like in I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, All In the Family, The Jeffersons, etc. But shows like Friends or any show past 1990 with fake canned laughter annoys me so much that I won't watch them. It seems as if there is fake laughter after every sentence in the character dialogue. I can't take it. It's all too fake, it's like I'm being told I'm supposed to laugh.

01-31-2013, 04:16 PM	#9
dougiezerts Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Feb 20, 2012 Location: Silver Spring, MD Posts: 204	MASH and THE ODD COUPLE filmed a few episodes without a laugh track. I thought that was quite different. And I seem to recall that ROOM 222 had a laugh track on the early episodes, but abandonned it later.

01-31-2013, 05:14 PM	#10
yankeesrj12 Member Forum 4000 Club Member Join Date: Oct 09, 2008 Posts: 4,335	I don't even hear the laughter anymore. I do prefer multi-camera comedies though.

02-01-2013, 03:28 PM	#11
Dr. Loveless Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Jul 01, 2012 Location: New England Posts: 224	Interestingly, even MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS had a laugh track.

02-01-2013, 11:14 PM	#12
dakert Member Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: May 10, 2007 Location: Altoona PA Posts: 3,411	I dont mind a laugh track if the scene is funny but it is no wonder why those NBC shows dont use laugh tracks--I have never found it too be funny!!!!

02-02-2013, 12:05 PM	#15
Gertie1999 Music and TV Lover Teen Frequent Poster Join Date: Mar 17, 2012 Location: Somewhere In Neverland Posts: 121	They don't really bother me, but they can be annoying sometimes. Especially when they come on in a scene that really isn't meant to be that funny.
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