The Laugh Track Thread

[D'Snowth]

Cool, you know a lot about this. Well if you ever do go to New York or California, you could try getting an Internship at The Paley Center.

Yeah, I'm a few of a breed of "laugh track nerds", but a friend of mine is one of THE leading experts on the laugh track... matter of fact, he helped improve the laugh track on Steve D'Monster's YT series this past season.

And quite frankly, no one needs to tell me when to laugh at Robin Williams.

Once again, the laugh track doesn't tell you when to laugh, that's a misconception.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I have to admit laugh tracks have always just been background noise to me. It never bothered me, it's just there and it's normal, almost like an additional character in the story. It's almost akin to a Greek chorus, commenting on what's going on.

 

[D'Snowth]

I can understand that, and I was kind of the same way at first, but the more classic sitcoms my parents introduced me to growing up, the more I noticed the laugh track, and the more it fascinated me (especially when it came to shows where including a laugh track seemed odd, like animated series and puppet shows)... and you have to admit, the laugh track in general back then had so much more personality than today's laugh tracks: back then, you had a variety of chuckles, yocks, guffaws, belly laughs, people absolutely losing it, shrieking (watch THE MUNSTERS, and you hear a lot of shocked, "WWWWWWWHOOOOAAAA!!!"s) - it really made it sound like the audience was really having fun watching these shows... today, on the other hand, studios and producers keep wanting less and less enthusiam, which makes modern laugh tracks sound droll and listless, and even somewhat generic.

 

[CensoredAlso]

the laugh track in general back then had so much more personality than today's laugh tracks....today, on the other hand, studios and producers keep wanting less and less enthusiam, which makes modern laugh tracks sound droll and listless, and even somewhat generic.

I don't watch a ton of TV anymore but I can believe it.

The only thing that ever really bugged me about laugh tracks (and this can happen with live audiences as well) is that pretentious, overblown applause when a character leaves a scene after doing something supposedly hilarious.

 

[D'Snowth]

That doesn't usually happen with laugh track shows, but with live shows, yes, that can be a bother... OR, whenever a character enters the scene, and is met with thunderous applause.

SANFORD AND SON is probably the worst example of this: anytime any of the actors enter the scene, each one of them is met with an ovation, then all of the actors just stand there and freeze, waiting for the audience to settle down before resuming the scene... I mean, can you imagine if something like that happened in reality?

FRED: (Enters) Hey, Lamont!
LAMONT: (Enters) Yeah, Pop?
*Silence*
FRED: Speak, dummy!
LAMONT: Oh, was that my cue?
FRED: Yeah, what are ya waitin' for? Applause?

 

[CensoredAlso]

Incidentally that also happens in Broadway shows when a celebrity enters from stage left (or right, whatever the case may be). I hate when the actor distracts from the story like that. It's even more annoying when there's an understudy that night and you can see the actor hitting the marks as if anticipating the applause but of course no applause happens because the audience isn't there for the understudy.

 

[D'Snowth]

It depends on who, specifically, is supplying the laughs.

But yes, laughs have kind of gone through cycles and rotations since the 60s or so. Some laughs that were used in the early and mid 60s started resurfacing again in the late 70s, and in some cases, more recent shows like FRASIER and BECKER have a few laughs that originated in the 60s.

Just to provide an example of how interesting the longevity of certain laughs can be, have a listen here...

First, take a look at this clip from HOGAN'S HEROES in 1967 (at 2:47, after Hogan says, "Pick up the phone and say it's the wrong number")

Now, take a peak at the Christmas episode of D.C. FOLLIES, 20 years later (at 11:57)

And NOW, here's the pilot episode of BECKER from 1998, and you can still hear that particular chuckle, at 3:52:

And just for the halibut, from the PUPPET POWER webspecial I just did last month, listen at 10:50

So yeah, not all, but a number of laughs can survive a pretty nice existence; this one in particular originated in the mid 60s and was used rather heavily, but slowly phased out by the beginning of the 70s and later resurrected in the late 70s and pretty much lasted the duration.

 

[Drtooth]

Once again, the laugh track doesn't tell you when to laugh, that's a misconception.

That and the laughs tend to cover up the best lines half the time.

Gah... I think I should know this. I think Fat Albert had a laugh track...no wait. I know it has a laugh track, except for certain TV specials. It works beautifully there.

 

[D'Snowth]

That and the laughs tend to cover up the best lines half the time.

When that's the case, it's the fault of the writers/producers: that was an issue in the earlier days, because they didn't think to take into consideration to time scripts to allow for the laugh track to play without stepping on dialogue, which they did get better at over the years, as previously mentioned when watching M*A*S*H on DVD with the laugh track turned off, it leaves a bunch of pauses of silence.

 

[beatnikchick300]

I actually find laugh tracks annoying; there have been a ton of comedy shows that are fine without them. Since a lot of shows don't have live studio audiences anymore, and tend to use laugh tracks instead, it just comes off as a forced attempt to hook in the viewers. If a show really is funny, shouldn't it be able to stand on its own, without a laugh track?