Learn Something New Everyday Thread

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Yeah, I just don't get the massive popularity of that show. I mean, if you like it, fine, everyone likes different things. But I just can't understand it, no matter how much people analyse and break down the show and give us all the reasons they love it, I just don't get it. They say the show is relatable, because everyone's known the socially awkward person or stereotypical jew. And they say outcasts can relate to the characters, that we're supposed to empathize with the characters. But if that's the case, why are we clearly supposed to be laughing at the characters instead of with them? If we're supposed to empathize with them than why did the writers make most of the characters soooo unlikable?

And another thing: The jokes aren't even clever, yet the laugh track is always so annoyingly loud.

This is my impression of the show:
*Sheldon walks in on Raj who is in bed with sixty women at once
Sheldon: "My God! You have more companions than Doctor Who!
*Audience erupts with laughter

And that's another problem, more than half the jokes(if you can call them that) are just dumb pop cultural references. Sure, pop culture references can be funny, even if you use them a lot, I mean look at how funny and clever "Animaniacs" was. But I fail to see how something is funny just because you mention something from pop culture. And did I mention how annoying their laugh track is? I did? Okay, i'm done than.

 

[D'Snowth]

It's a live audience, laugh tracks are seldom used anymore except for sweetening, and even then they're uses sparingly anymore, as many producers are trying to veer away from that "full" audience sound. In fact, I hear CBS is going to start doing away with live audiences from their new multi-camera sitcoms to give them more of a droll and ghastly atmosphere like today's single-camera sitcoms . . . oh, how I miss the days of yore, when single camera sitcoms weren't mockumentaries and had laugh tracks, lol.

As for pop culture references . . . I'm so guilty of using them too much myself. I was finally, painfully made aware of that when I was watching older videos I did for an audio commentary and Steve D'Monster made like three different pop culture references in a row that are now outdated because they were references to a then-popular commercial (which I'm sure nobody even remembers now), and two now-outdated memes. It felt so, so awkward, I was actually embarrassed.

 

[fuzzygobo]

Carol Burnett once commented (her comedy show was taped before a live audience, and used to open the show taking questions from the audience) there were two kinds of sitcoms on TV today (mid 1970's):

"Some shows are filmed on a studio set, and the laugh track is added later. We perform live in front of you, THEN we add the laugh track".
Much studio laughter and applause.

That's something that was so impressive about her show. A lot of slapstick, Tim Conway cracking the cast up, and some legendary bloopers, you can hear the audience not just laughing, they're HOWLING! Done live.

 

[D'Snowth]

Live shows have to have additional canned laughter added in post often times because sometimes there's bumps and gaps between cuts that have to be filled . . . or, in some cases, to augment the studio audience reaction: I'm acquainted with a TV historian who attended a taping of ALICE in the 70s, and he said there was a scene where the actors kept blowing their lines that after so many takes, the audience wasn't laughing anymore, so the canned laughter was added to the final episode to compensate.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Well I know of a podcast that learned several new things today...mostly because they had listeners like me to correct them.

 

[D'Snowth]

Evidently, those GOD'S NOT DEAD movies were financed by the DUCK DYNASTY family. Uh . . . surprise?

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

So apparently there's a man in Britain who has fathered 40 children by 20 different women.

Well I know of a podcast that learned several new things today...mostly because they had listeners like me to correct them.

Which podcast was it, if you don't mind me asking. As a huge NPR nerd i'm always on the lookout for new, interesting things to listen to.

 

[ShMuppetgal96]

I still love the Backstreet Boys! They have become my longest playlist on Youtube!

 

[CensoredAlso]

Which podcast was it, if you don't mind me asking. As a huge NPR nerd i'm always on the lookout for new, interesting things to listen to.

Oh well it's a little start up movie review podcast on YouTube. They'd gotten a few things wrong in their Spies Like Us review. But they seem like cool guys, and turns out they were very gracious when taking corrections. Here's their YT page if you want to check them out:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClfL-O8VtN8jAAkSu2xrakA/videos

 

[D'Snowth]

All of these reviews end up getting a few things wrong - even Nostalgia Critic will get a detail or two wrong in his reviews.