Is it just me, or are sitcoms usually funnier if they lack laugh tracks? And, if the public does agree, why do we still have shows coming out with laugh tracks? Does the world just have a hard time knowing when to laugh, or are the shows with laugh tracks just not funny? Sometimes I wonder if I would still laugh at M*A*S*H, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, I Love Lucy, The Cosby Show etc, if they didn't have laugh tracks. What do you think?
And, while we're here, let's list all the sitcoms we know without laugh tracks. I know:
Malcom in the Middle The Simpsons South Park Futurama The PJs Family Guy Arrested Development (New show, only one episode, but I loved it) Ill-Ustrated (It's a new show on VH1...only two or three episodes so far)
Posted by jexx (Member # 3450) on :
Sports Night didn't have a laugh track at first. *sniffle* I miss Sports Night. When they added the laugh track, it certainly diminished the quality of the show.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Scrubs doesn't have a laugh track.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
I hate sitcoms and I wonder, why is a laughtrack even needed? It seems like 90% of those shows are terrible! I don't think Bernie Mac has one. I like that show. I wonder if they will put it back on.
Posted by Raia (Member # 4700) on :
*cluelessly blushes*
What is a laugh track?
Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :
I agree that the ones without laugh tracks tend to be funnier, but which is the cause and which the effect I'm unsure. I also likened it in a previous thread to posting without smilies. When people post smilies in response to their own jokes, it always makes the jokes less funny to me. That's one of the reasons I was a proponent of Tom ceasing the smilie usage. I could usually tell when he was joking. And if I couldn't tell, well, then he just wasn't funny.
Later seasons of Sports Night had no laugh track, and I liked those.
--Pop
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Syn, I think you answered your own question there.
Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :
Dang people type fast here.
Posted by prolixshore (Member # 4496) on :
It's always unnerving to watch through the whole series of sports night and get to that first show that didnt have a laugh track. Kinda freaks you out for a second.
A laugh track is the dubbed in sounds of people laughing when the producers think there is something you should find funny on the show. Once upon a time many sitcoms were performed in front of a live audience and so they had laughter in the background. When they stopped doing this executives came up with the brilliant idea of just putting laughter in even though nobody was there.
--ApostleRadio
[ November 05, 2003, 04:34 PM: Message edited by: prolixshore ]
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
1) What is a laugh Track. Its pre-recorded laughs that occur when their is something the producers believe is funny happening on the stage.
2) Why are they needed. If things aren't really that funny, having laughter fill the air has been psychologically proven to make other people laugh too.
3) Do laugh tracks make shows less funny? This is debatable. My guess, no. It the fact that less funny shows rely on them.
Posted by Raia (Member # 4700) on :
Oh, gotcha.
Thanks, ApostleRadio!
Posted by Da_Goat (Member # 5529) on :
Synthesia: I heard Bernie Mac is going to be on Sunday, after The Simpsons, from now on.
[ November 05, 2003, 04:34 PM: Message edited by: Da_Goat ]
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Raia, a "laugh track" is a recording of laughter, applause, whistles, etc. that is played at appropriate points in a sitcom as a cue to the audience that what is happening on screen is funny or noteworthy in some way. It's often (always?) a crutch used to spruce up something that isn't funny enough to stand on its own, but it's pretty effective--in studies (which I'm too lazy to go looking for right now), it's been shown that people tend to rate something as funnier when other people are laughing at it, and laugh tracks give that impression.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Well, looks like half of Hatrack beat me to the punch there.
Posted by JonnyNotSoBravo (Member # 5715) on :
What about Seinfeld? I thought it was funnier than Malcom, than PJs, than Sports Night, than Futurama (than Simpsons, South Park and Family Guy is debatable - South Park and Family Guy have raunchier humor which sometimes makes it funnier, and the Simpsons is just...well...different). But Seinfeld had a laugh track! Arghhh! (or as Jerry would say, "...Newman!")
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :
I find laugh tracks to be deeply irritating.
I have how ever noticed that when I see a funny movie in a theater with lots of other people who are laughing, I laugh a lot more than when it is just my husband and I watch the movie at home. I think that the laugh track is supposed to simulate that group feeling, it just doesn't work for me.
In my opinion, the funniest shows that have ever been on TV have been without laugh tracks. I still remember nearly splitting a gut during some of the episodes of Northern Exposure.
Posted by Raia (Member # 4700) on :
Hehe, thanks Da_Goat, and Noemon!! Posted by Da_Goat (Member # 5529) on :
Jonny: I know. I don't hate all shows with laugh tracks (as I mentioned in my first post, I like The Cosby Show, M*A*S*H, I Love Lucy, the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and, yeah, I also like Seinfeld). It just seems that, as a whole, laugh-track-less shows are funnier.
[ November 05, 2003, 04:42 PM: Message edited by: Da_Goat ]
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
Yay! They'll put Bernie Mac back on!
*still doesn't see how Seinfeld is funny* They always seem to put laugh tracks on parts that are NOT funny. And why is it that they can't go back to filming in front of studio audiences? I think it's cooler like that, especially thinking about the characters messing up lines and stuff. A show called Roc used to film live, I thought that was interesting.
Posted by seriousfun (Member # 4732) on :
Actually, the first year(s) of M.A.S.H. didn't have a laugh track, and were much better for it.
The new show on Fox, Arrested Development, reportedly doesn't have one. An Opie production!
Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
Heh. I assumed that most sitcoms were still taped in front of a live studio audience. Then again, the last "sitcom" I watched was probably the Cosby Show. That had a live studio audience, didn't it?
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :
Most sitcoms actually are taped in front of a studio audience. But now most shows also go through and add onto that digital laughter.
Most sitcoms:
Hobbes Posted by Megachirops (Member # 4325) on :
The MASH laugh track was the worst, corniest sounding one ever.
-o-
It seems to me that laugh-track-less tv comedies still cue you in with music and sound-effects much of the time.
Posted by Carrie (Member # 394) on :
The Bernie Mac Show does not have a laugh track, but my father and I could definitely be it.
I like deciding for myself when to laugh instead of laughing at the laughs they put in the laugh track. Then again, I do laugh at odd times at a show, so I could just be weird.
Posted by Megachirops (Member # 4325) on :
I watched an episode of the Bernie Mac show once.
I didn't find anything to laugh about.
Maybe a laugh track would help.
Posted by Da_Goat (Member # 5529) on :
quote: The MASH laugh track was the worst, corniest sounding one ever.
What about Scooby Doo?
Posted by Damien (Member # 5611) on :
The Munsters had a pretty bad one, too, didn't they?
DXM
Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :
Yeah, but the most annoying ones are those that go along with all the new mediocre sit coms...Everybody Loves Raymond for example. It drives me crazy because that show isn't funny very often, so to hear people roaring maniacally with laughter just serves to bug me even more!
Oh, and this is for Moose Posted by docmagik (Member # 1131) on :
On Whose Line is it Anyway? they mostly use live laughter, but they have to use canned stuff for Kathy Greenwood.
Posted by Ayelar (Member # 183) on :
Most of the time I'd agree that laugh tracks are annoying. But with Seinfeld, would the show have worked without one? So many things on that show were just shockingly awful, and they might not have been taken the right way without encouragement to laugh at them. The bubble boy? Susan? I don't know if I would have laughed without someone else laughing first. Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Icarus, it would probably be worth your while to give Bernie Mac another chance. I've found that it's pretty hit-or-miss, but when the show is funny it's one of the funniest things on television.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
Urg. Everyone Loves Raymond drives me nuts! His wife is always ranting and raving in a high shrill voice all through the show. Bleck. Posted by Megachirops (Member # 4325) on :
I also don't see the attraction in Everybody Loves Raymond, but then, I didn't like Seinfeld either, so maybe I'm just not a sitcom person.
Or maybe it's just some specific styles of sitcom.
I love The Simpsons, and I used to love Mad About You, until it jumped the shark so painfully. I'm fond of King of the Hill, except when it's lame. Same goes for Malcolm in the Middle. Same went for Roseanne. Same for Friends, I guess.
The episode of Bernie Mac I saw was the one where he played golf with Lucie Lawless (as herself, iirc). Nothing was really funny to me, but the clincher was feeling like I was being beaten over the head with a superficial moral (Trust your wife or appreciate your wife or be honest with your wife or something like that). Young Adult books have these . . . stuff for grownups should not. The whole audience-address gimmick annoyed me, though I have seen it done where it did not.
EDIT: What's a "sife"?
[ November 06, 2003, 12:45 PM: Message edited by: Megachirops ]
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
America, Reno 911 would not be hilarious with a laugh track. Being without one is part of the timing.
(BTW, I think a spoof of a reality TV show was the next logical step in the slow but unending spiral downward for the reality tv trend. I lived through game shows, I lived through talk shows. I survived the psychic friends, and I made it past primetime soap operas. As I live and breathe, I'll see this one spiked to dust too. Just bring me back my Buffy.)
[ November 06, 2003, 12:51 PM: Message edited by: ClaudiaTherese ]
Posted by Da_Goat (Member # 5529) on :
quote: Young Adult books have these . . . stuff for grownups should not.
Excuse me, but Tolkien just happens to be in the young adult section of my library, and I pity the fool who don't like those.
...
Oh yeah, sitcoms.
Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
I have one wise saying for everyone: Friends don't let friends watch Friends.
Posted by Zalmoxis (Member # 2327) on :
Best sitcom on right now: Scrubs
Uneven, but not bad: King of the Hill Bernie Mac Less than Perfect Malcolm in the Middle
Surprisingly funny at times: The George Lopez Show
Shows a lot of promise: Arrested Devlopment
I'm still grieving about the cancellation of: Family Guy Sports Night Andy Richter Controls the Universe The Tick (not as much, but the pain is still there)
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