Laugh Tracks
 

For some reason my roommate still likes Friends, and last week I made the mistake of watching it with him. The laugh track drove me crazy! I don't think I would mind so much if the jokes were actually funny, but nothing is worse than the "groan factor" of hearing the laugh track when the joke falls flat. This happened so often that by the time something genuinely funny finally happened, my mood had been completely soured and I couldn't even enjoy it.

Anyway, my question is this: is there anybody out there who actually enjoys the laugh track, and feels that it enhances the quality of the show (any show)? My impression is that people will be divided into two camps: those who don't notice/care, and those who actively dislike the laugh track.

One last thing. Here's my list of really funny shows which don't have a laugh track:

Arrested Development (can't say enough good things about this show - watch a few episodes and you'll be hooked)
The Office
Scrubs
Animated Sitcoms (Simpsons, Futurama, Family Guy, ...)

Any others?

no. but during the last town hall, Tom Freston, President of MTV Networks asked the engineers if they brought a laugh track. It was funny and was played every so often.

That was live...

I've been to some other audience things when I was younger, and real laughter is hard to come by. It really is...

Neither Rude Awakening nor Sex and the City have laugh tracks. I find the lack of a laugh track a refreshing change from a comedy show...

I can live with it.
I wish I had one, myself.

Instead of a laugh track as an audio clue, I'd be happier with a visual clue.

Y'know, like after Ross says something borderline gay, a big flashing graphic would appear on the screen that says: "That was a joke mouthbreather, either laugh or switch to Malcom in the Middle."

That would rule.

the worst laugh tracks can be found on The 70's Show. I loved the show for a while.. Donna is so hot.. but then my mom pointed out the laugh tracks (they had never really hit me) and since then, I cant stand any show with them.

Comedy Central is almost completely void of laugh tracks. The shows where there is laughter is because there is a live audience (Chapelle's Show, the Man Show, Conan, etc.)

I like the laughtrack on the Flintstones.

*edit* oh, and the Scooby Doo laughtrack

actually, I'm joking. I can't stand them.

They usually do turn me off...

The only show I can watch without even noticing them is Seinfeld, only because the humour really is that good.

Laugh tracks, MARRIED, WITH CHILDREN had the greatest of them all, just watch any one episode, you'll soon understand.

Didn't Sports Night start of with a laugh track, but then eventually get rid of it?

I usually don't mind them, unless there's the only person who laughs like a damn heyiena (spelling?) and you can point them out every time. that's really annoying.

shows like family guy and the simpsons are funny because they DON'T have laugh tracks.

well you can all take comfort in the fact that the jackass who invented the laugh track died about 6 months ago. NPR did a bit on them, and throughout the whole story talking about how he died, they had a laugh track playing. It was hilarious!

Yes, they had it at the beginning. The network suits forced it on them:

<a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/magazine/19980922sports5.asp">
http://www.post-gazette.com/magazine...922sports5.asp</a>



After the trial run, they wised up and got rid of it....

I was going to say they annoy the hell out of me, but then I realized that I didn't know Friends and That 70s Show had laugh tracks...go figure.

Holy shit, anyone remember the show Night Court? That had THE MOST ANNOYING laugh track. Seriously, take a listen to it if you ever happen to see it (do they even play it anymore?) and you'll hear this GUY goin "hyuck-hyuckhyuck-hyuck" EVERY SINGLE TIME in EVERY SINGLE EPISODE.

Do they REALLY think people wouldn't notice that?

Laugh tracks are there to help guide people into kind of laughing. Like if Friends didn't have the laugh track, no one would laugh because the show isn't really that funny.

A common joke that they ALWAYS repeat is like this:

Monica: Oh hey Ross!
Ross: Hi Monica.. what's that greasy stuff in your hair?
Monica: Oh, this is hair gel, I put too much on.
Chandler stumbles in the room: HEY GANG! Wanna go to the video arcade and monica why is your HAIR SO GREASY? (all said in one sentence to kinda "slip" it in there as if they're being clever)
*laugh track*

wtf? That's NOT FUNNY.

If you ever wanna prove to someone how genuinely UNFUNNY these shows are, simply laugh out loud (fake, of course) whenever the laugh track hits. And when they get annoyed and they look at you.. you say, "What? IT was FUNNY!"

...but deep inside, they'll know it wasn't funny. Keep doing it and eventually they'll either hit you upside the head with a brick, give you some kind of kung fu cross kick to the ribs, or they'll begin to realize that what they are watching .. really isn't funny at all.

I don't really notice them; I don't even realize that a lot of the shows have it. I rarely laugh out loud at TV sitcoms anyway.

Coached audiences can suck just as bad as a completely fake track.

I do remember when the Simpsons pretended to have a laugh track when they were sending up all of those bad old variety shows. Their "live studio audience" did everything that could possibly suck from aaawwwing the cute baby to wooooooing some lame innuendo to cheering and whooping for 50 minutes when the "special" Fonz/Kramer character enters a room. Absolutely terrifying.

I also saw an episode of Jerry Springer the other day, their audience has resorted to pumping their right arm in the air and chanting "U...S...A" over and over. They alternate this with "You...Are...Sick" whenever some particualrly disturbed guest comes on. Creepy.

So it seems that nobody is willing to speak out in favor of the laugh track. The best we have is people who don't really care. So what I want to know is, why do they keep using them?

I guess it's because laughter is contagious, and they can sort of trick you into thinking a joke is funnier than it really is. I wonder if anybody has done a scientific study on this. That is, investigating whether the laugh track actually increases people's enjoyment of the show, which in turn would increase ratings.

It seems that such an experiment would be fairly easy to perform. Simply get two groups of people. Show one of them a sitcom with the laugh track, and the other the same sitcom without. Have each person rate the show afterwards and compare the results.

Now that I type all this out, it occurs to me that the networks probably have done something exactly along these lines, and that their results must have been in favor of the laugh track... Well fooey on them!

Laugh tracks only jump out at me if the show is really, really unfunny. Or animated. Flinstones????? OK, whatthefuck?

Are we to believe that there's a LIVE audience watching the animated events unfold? It boreders on insulting/

I never noticed the laugh track on that 70's show. I hope that doesn't ruin it for me. I'm kinda fond of that show.

what about MASH?

being pressured to laugh because of canned laughter irks me

Some shows (Seinfeld, for example) did have a live studio audience, not a laugh track.

That said, Malcolm in the Middle, Simpsons, Scrubs, South Park, and many other comedies do fine without them. Then again, those shows are actually funny enough to merit real laughter.

You know, That 70's Show has scenes that really exemplify how they don't have a live audience, like the pot huddle they always do in the middle of the show. It's seems just as obvious that there's no live audience as watching the Flintstones...

Friends hasn't been good since before last season. Sadly, I keep watching it.