Laugh tracks

[Madame Adequate]

"Sheldon, what are you doing?"
Audience erupts into hysterics.
"I'm trying to cook the perfect waffle..."
Audience laughs uncontrollably, some suffering convulsions. Several audience members lose bladder and bowel control.
"... but these tools are far too imprecise. I'll need to use Wolowitz's lab."
Audience members are now beyond saving. Several choke to death. Many are rendered catatonic, whilst the remainder flail and spasm dangerously, causing serious injuries such as broken bones and torn muscles to themselves and others. By the time paramedics arrive over 40 people are dead; unfortunately one of the survivors has the presence of mind to relay the cause of the disaster to the EMTs, which ignites a new wave of dangerous hysterics. By the end of the day 73 people have died, with over 100 more suffering permanent disabilities due to their injuries.
---
I don't mind laugh tracks overly. But my god are they overboard sometimes. Discuss laugh tracks in this thread.

[Jessweeee♪]

Eh, they don't really bother me. If a show is funny enough for me to keep watching it I eventually tune it out and don't notice it until someone comments on how lame laugh tracks are. If it isn't funny enough, then well, I'm not watching it anyway so they can do what they want!

[Vermachtnis]

I tried watching some Disney show that came on after Phineas and Ferb and I just couldn't. First off all it was just stupid and secondly a laugh track after every line. After every stupid line HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Even the ones that had no humor at all.

[Raistlin]

After years of not watching anything that had a laugh track, they are kind of tough to bear now. If I was interested enough in a show I could probably learn to tolerate them again eventually, but they can be ridiculously abused.

[Roto13]

I shouldn't need to be told when to laugh.

[Miriel]

I feel like Big Bang Theory's laugh track is waaay overboard, more than a lot of other shows. And I don't know why they go overboard with it when the jokes are legitimately funny and the excessive laugh track just makes it sound desperate.

A lot of my favorite comedic shows don't have a laugh track. It's not really necessary.

[kotora]

it's not a laugh track when it's the audience doing the laughing

[charliepanayi]

This makes me think of the Simpsons episode with Mr Burns trying to get his teddy bear Bobo back and taking over Springfield's TV stations at one point:
'Smithers, I'm home!'
*laughter*
'What, already?
*laughter*
'Yes.'
*laughter*

It all depends, I love Frasier and Seinfeld for instance and both have laugh tracks or studio laughter, but then it's done moderately there and not to the OTT extent you get in (usually) medicore to poor comedies. A laugh track can make a poor show ten times more annoying. And more recent great comedies (Arrested Development, The Office UK and US etc) have dispensed with it.

[Marshall Banana]

YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH I HATE THEM.

[Rye]

I'm not going to lie, I kind of like laugh tracks. I just grew up with them in so many of my favorite shows of the 80s and 90s that they're a kind of warm familiarity to me.

[Bunny]

Shows with laugh tracks are typically terrible without laugh tracks. Big Bang Theory exudes this immensely.

[nik0tine]

Has there ever been a good show with a laugh track?

[Roto13]

Has there ever been a good show with a laugh track?

I'm not going to make a list, but pretty much every good sitcom before Scrubs had a laugh track.

[Marshall Banana]

Has there ever been a good show with a laugh track?
No, and I'll fight anyone who says otherwise!

Let's dance, Roto. http://berry.necronopticous.com/emotes/fistrage.gif

[Shoeberto]

After years of not watching anything that had a laugh track, they are kind of tough to bear now. If I was interested enough in a show I could probably learn to tolerate them again eventually, but they can be ridiculously abused.
Same. And as has been said, there's a lot of shows that just don't need them. After realizing how gaudy laugh tracks can be, it was painful to go back to Seinfeld - the show is legitimately funny, but I can't get my mind off of how cheesy the laugh track is.

[Depression Moon]

I'm not sure if Good Times uses a laugh track or not, but there a couple of times when I heard inappropriate laughing. The scene that comes to mind is the episode where Thelma's husband has a drinking problem and he goes to the toilet and gets out a bottle of liquor he hid behind it, it think it was. There was laughing at that time as that scene went along. I was like "What the heck is funny about that?"

[Madame Adequate]

Has there ever been a good show with a laugh track?

If you mean genuine laugh track (as in prerecorded laughter that they dub over the finished production) then Fawlty Towers is the obvious response. If you mean laughter that results from being filmed in front of an audience, then plenty; Red Dwarf, Monty Python, and Seinfeld are all good examples. (I'm not a fan of Red Dwarf myself but it's reputed for a reason.)

[Levian]

Gawd, that first post of yours is just perfectly written. xD It amazes me how you can capture things and feelings in words that I myself wouldn't even know where to begin describing.

I used to watch a lot of shows that had a laugh track before, so I wasn't too bothered by it, but now that it's been a while since I've watched a show with a laugh track I notice it much more when I see one, and sometimes it can take away from a funny moment.

[NorthernChaosGod]

I hate laugh tracks (or audience laughing) in general. I understand how comedy works, I don't need to be told when a joke has been told.

I try to ignore laugh tracks if they're used in a show I watch. :mad:

[Madame Adequate]

Gawd, that first post of yours is just perfectly written. xD It amazes me how you can capture things and feelings in words that I myself wouldn't even know where to begin describing.

Flattery will get you everywhere, my dear Lev :love:

Also, TV Tropes tells me that people were really weirdly into the design of laugh tracks (back when they were tracks rather than in front of an audience.) Here:


Although it may not seem so, laugh tracks were surprisingly sophisticated systems at the height of their use. Rather than being just simple recordings of a laughing audience, they were actually carefully generated and mixed, with such discrete components as "the guy who gets the joke early" and "housewife giggles" and "the one who didn't get the joke but is laughing anyway" all precisely blended and reblended to create the illusion of a real audience responding to the show.

Is that why laugh tracks usually have some incredibly irritating individual who you can always pick out and notice?

[Clo]

Not only do I hate laugh tracks, but I loathe sitcoms in general.

[Bunny]

You also hate babies and love and hearts.

[Mirage]

I hate laugh tracks and I think they achieve nothing but showing the script writers' insecurities and incompetence. Comments and situations that are genuinely funny shouldn't need a huge sign saying "HEY GUYS THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE FUNNY" coming with them.

[Alive-Cat]

If I don't really focus on the laugh track, I don't even really notice it's there. Like with shows like Friends and such. But if I start focusing on it, it will actually drive me crazy and I won't be able to watch anymore without getting really annoyed.
Down with laugh tracks. :nonono:

[Del Murder]

BBT's laugh track is definitely overboard, one of the worst. Most of the time I don't notice it. Like in Seinfeld I didn't even realize that show had a laugh track until after it stopped airing. It tripped me out.

Simpsons and Arrested Development are both very funny shows without a laugh track. I don't think it adds anything to the show, but I don't think it takes away either.

[Roogle]

There is a difference between a live studio audience and a laugh track. If a comedy show has a live studio audience, then I don't mind the reactions of the audience.

[Del Murder]

Have you ever been in a studio audience before? They tell you to laugh even if it isn't funny.

[charliepanayi]

Have you ever been in a studio audience before? They tell you to laugh even if it isn't funny.

You can usually spot fake laughter from real laughter though. And studio audience tracks tend to be less grating than a laughter track, whether they're telling people to laugh or not.

[Rantz]

Is it a joke specific to the letterman show or do they really also have signs that tell you to "awww" and "boo" and stuff? xD

I don't hate laugh tracks, but they can be annoying. I prefer without, but not to the point where I specifically avoid shows that have them.

[Del Murder]

Those are jokes, Rantz.

I've been in a studio audience before, and all they tell you is to laugh like it's the funniest thing you've ever heard, even if it isn't.

[Dreddz]

I think adding a laugh track shows the lack of confidence the creators have of the show. If a shows funny then we, the viewers, would provide the laugh track would we not?

[Madame Adequate]

I think adding a laugh track shows the lack of confidence the creators have of the show. If a shows funny then we, the viewers, would provide the laugh track would we not?

Apparently if the Pythons didn't get a good laugh out of a sketch, they left it on the cutting room floor. That's a pretty solid dedication to getting it right, but in general I agree with what you say.

[Miriel]

I think the laugh track influences more than just the audio aspect of a show, it influences how they shoot the show and how they edit it as well. I think it influences the acting too. Generally sitcoms with laugh tracks are also multi-camera set ups with obviously artificial sets.

Shows like Arrested Development, Modern Family, The Office, 30 Rock, all without laugh tracks, all are single camera shows. The acting on shows with laugh tracks tend to be more exaggerated and prolonged, probably because there needs to be some sort of canvas on which the laugh track has to be played over. The laugh track shows also don't have the benefit of interesting camera angles, cuts, and edits since that would disrupt the laugh track as well. It's very streamlined. Camera is facing the actors, actors say something funny, they hold their facial expressions as the laugh track plays, and then continue. And there's not much chance for subtle in humor.

One of the things I really enjoy about shows like The Office, AD, & Modern Family are the scenes where the camera is "hidden" or quietly taking in someone's reaction or juxtaposing what someone is saying with a scene that is playing out somewhere else. Laugh track shows never do this. They can't play around as much, there's not much room for fluidity or different story telling techniques. And there's not much of a chance that there will be subtlety in the humor. I love the quick as lightening play on words that happens on shows like Glee that you just might miss if you don't pay attention or the humor has depth to it where it's funny at first and then funnier even more when you think about it. On laugh track shows, there is a joke, and then there is laughter. Nothing more and nothing less.

That doesn't make the jokes any less funny, just much MUCH less subtle.

[Jessweeee♪]

Fun fact: Scooby Doo had a laugh track.

[Shiny]

I don't like laugh tracks. It's part of the reason why I don't watch many television shows. The writing, editing, and acting should be good enough to manipulate a person's emotions without the need of a laugh track.

30 Rock isn't a single camera show. They were shooting with two cameras when I was on set. One was a Steadicam and the other was some stationary camera. I doubt most shows like that are shot with just one camera due to the fact that they have shorter deadlines to meet.

[blackmage_nuke]

I dont mind laugh tracks but I dont get why the Flintstones had one. How can an animated tv show have a studio audience!?

[Jessweeee♪]

I think maybe once they were established as the norm they were worried that people wouldn't think the show was funny without them :confused:

[Shiny]

There was the idea that if other people are laughing then other people will join in. "Infectious laughter." Problem is, most people aren't that easily impressionable. It's almost insulting that big television companies actually think that's the reason why people find their shows funny. Not only do they not trust the audience, but they don't even trust their own shows.

[Bunny]

Community doesn't have a laugh track and is a lot better than most of the shows that have been listed here so far.

[Rodarian]

Honestly I'm pretty indifferent about laugh tracks... But I do find shows without laugh tracks more interesting.....Why I even laugh when something horrible has happened onscreen....What you know its absurd anyhow!!

*Laughter and claps in the background*



Ummm...What was that

*more laughter*

Omg....*giggles*.... I'm hallucinating!! ...*more loud laughters* NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO *big applauses*


:(

[Miriel]

30 Rock isn't a single camera show. They were shooting with two cameras when I was on set. One was a Steadicam and the other was some stationary camera. I doubt most shows like that are shot with just one camera due to the fact that they have shorter deadlines to meet.
Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30_Rock) says it is. :o So does this interview with the executive producer of the show: '30 Rock' Shares Details of Its Live Episode - NYTimes.com (http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/urban-fervor-30-rock-shares-details-of-its-live-episode/)

Single camera shows can sometimes use multiple cameras but primarily it's typically one camera doing the work.

[Mirage]

House MD doesn't have a laugh track, and it's not even listed as a comedy, yet I find myself laughing at it more often than with most other sitcoms.

[NorthernChaosGod]

House MD doesn't have a laugh track, and it's not even listed as a comedy, yet I find myself laughing at it more often than with most other sitcoms.
House is fucking witty.

[Crop]

Frasier, one of my favourite comedy shows ever has a laugh track. I also like Peep Show and Scrubs though, and they don't have a laugh track. I like Friends and that has a laugh track.
Basically I don't care eitherway, you can get good and bad shows with and without it.

The only time I really ever noticed a laugh track on a show is with the terrible and unfunny show Everybody Loves Raymond. The laughter on that comes at every single second and lasts for about 20 seconds each joke.

[Levian]

I can't even imagine Six Feet Under with a laugh track. It's definitely better of without

[Shiny]

Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30_Rock) says it is.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_mEgMBWpZtD8/Sgg9OlpxSEI/AAAAAAAACJ0/H18p5rJvx0g/s400/john_stewart_facepalm.jpg


So does this interview with the executive producer of the show: '30 Rock' Shares Details of Its Live Episode - NYTimes.com (http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/urban-fervor-30-rock-shares-details-of-its-live-episode/)

They may opt for one camera when they shoot inside of Silvercup Studios since it's easier to control an interior set, but that day when it was outside in NYC streets, there were two. For Ugly Betty they were also shooting the exterior scenes with multiple cameras. It would be insane to try to get everything done in an unpredictable environment such as NYC and with such tight deadlines with just one camera, but I'm sure there are some shows that do that on a daily basis.

[Miriel]

I'm not doubting that there were two cameras the day that you were there. I'm just saying that 30 Rock is defined as a single camera show.

If you think Wikipedia isn't a reliable source (and neither is the executive producer?), NPR (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130642149), The Wall Street Journal (http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/01/07/community-star-donald-glover-on-comedy-critical-acclaim-and-30-rock/), The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/magazine/23wwln-comedy-t.html), and good ol' TV Tropes (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LaughTrack) all refer to 30 Rock as a single camera show. And like I said in my previous post, a single camera show doesn't mean that a show always and forever can only use 1 camera. Just that for the most part, it does. It's a category of tv shows, not some sort of strict dictate that says that the show will fall into oblivion if they ever use more than one camera.

I mean, you can just google it. It's not like I'm lying to you. :o

[Shiny]

Wiki is not always reliable no, but that's besides the point. Whether it's defined as a single camera show is really a moot point since it isn't that way all the time, but back to laugh tracks. :p

They suck.

[Breine]

I don't mind laugh tracks. Some of my favourite shows used them.

Also, like Rye I think there's something cosy (perhaps even nostalgic) about a laugh track on a sitcom. But of course laugh tracks are best if the show is actually filmed in front of a live studio audience, otherwise it's just weird (except for maybe e.g. How I Met Your Mother).

[Heath]

A laugh track for me can actually highlight how bad something is, I find. It I hear the laughing at jokes that are simply terrible, as is the case in a lot of modern sitcoms, then I just find that I notice how unfunny it is. Having said that, I like plenty of programmes with laugh tracks (Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, Frasier, etc). I think I might slightly prefer there not to be one, but that might just be because I've been watching a lot of 30 Rock, which doesn't have a laugh track, as of late and it hardly makes or breaks a show for me.

[Meat Puppet]

They pissed me off when I was a little kid, and I can't really watch shows with them anymore. I've never seen the big bang theory or whatever it's called, but the most ridiculous laugh tracks are on those rl disney shows. It makes me feel like man if that were a real ordience... ordience? What the fuck, wait a minute
audience
It makes me feel like man if that were a real audience, they'd have to be on some top quality drugs.