Poll of the Day > How do you feel about "laugh tracks" in sit-coms?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've always been really annoyed by laugh tracks. More then half the time the audience is just laughing at something normal that at most should just generate a smile or a slight chuckle. The cast could do something as simple as walking down stairs & the audience will roar with (needless) laughter... It also makes the humor feel very forced & it tends to distract me from the show. I can't think of any reason to include it, why do they!? Its just annoying & absolutely pointless. Do they think I don't know how or when to laugh on my own?

What are your opinions?
---

It can enhance the experience when used well and be annoying when implemented poorly, like any other technique.
---

OlorinTheOtaku posted...

I can't think of any reason to include it, why do they!?

So the viewers know when to laugh, thus making the jokes appear to actually be funny.

The scene about adding the laugh track was the only part of Annie Hall that I found amusing.
---

Blaqthourne posted...

OlorinTheOtaku posted...

I can't think of any reason to include it, why do they!?

So the viewers know when to laugh, thus making the jokes appear to actually be funny.

The scene about adding the laugh track was the only part of Annie Hall that I found amusing.

It goes further than that, it's a psychological trick that utilizes the herding instinct within people, as in, if everyone else thinks it's funny, you should think its funny too.
---

I heard somewhere that most laugh tracks were recorded in the 50s and early 60s. Which means when you hear them you're hearing the laughter of people who are more then likely dead.
---

^ ... that's... severely creepy...
---

I dislike them. Practically almost hate them. They really distract me from watching a show.

The best thing for me, would be if when you bought a season or whole series, there'd be an option to turn off laugh tracks. Or make that something you can do on the tv itself!!! That would be tv watching bliss!!!

Side note, I don't mind the laughing when it's a live audience like SNL or something.
---

I dislike it, probably the main reason why I don't like/am not able to watch sitcoms
---

I don't mind it when it's short, but depending on the the funniness of the joke, they can look dumb standing there staring at each other every 5 seconds. They need to better differentiate the laughter between heavy punchlines and throwaway jokes.

They are usually bad and a sign of bad writing
---

Terrible.

Even if the joke is funny, the canned laugh just ruins it.
---

Love it, how else am i supposed to know when to laugh.
---

I am anti-laugh track.

A dude walking into a room is not automatically funny.
---

But hearing "Scooby Dooby Doo!" is hilarious all 15 times he says it every single episode. Well, at least after 1972, or whenever they added one. Before that, it wasn't funny.
---

lol laugh tracks
---

Lol. Been done like that since forever. If you can't sit and watch a sitcom, without being a dush. Maybe choose another show to watch.
---

What's a dush?
---

meh it's alright
---

Mead posted...

They are usually bad and a sign of bad writing

This. Always makes me think of that vid of big bang theory without laugh tracks...

Doesn't bother me but I kinda block them out.
---

wwinterj25 posted...

Doesn't bother me but I kinda block them out.

Yeah I don't really hear it if I'm into the show.
---

I dislike sitcoms.
---

I always felt that a comedy without a laugh track is very cringy. Kind of like "we think we are funny but no one else does". Maybe it is just that I grew up with laugh tracks, IDK.
---

Often, laugh tracks are there to make something appear funny, even when it isn't.

On the flip side, there are some good shows that are actually funny, whose humor is diminished by that incessant laughing.

So yea, not a fan.
---

I like some shows with laugh tracks. Seinfeld, friends, himym. Others I dislike.

I don't think they're that big of a deal, but they're clearly being moved away from

Sensual_T_Rex posted...

I heard somewhere that most laugh tracks were recorded in the 50s and early 60s. Which means when you hear them you're hearing the laughter of people who are more then likely dead.

I read that in the book lullaby I think

A show instantly becomes unwatchable to me if it has a laugh track, unless used extremely rarely or like ironically I guess.
---

I'm fine with a live studio audience. I just don't like inserted, pre-recorded laughter.
---

"I don't need a bell to tell me when to drink! I'll take a drink when I'm goddamn good and thirsty!"


---

They piss me off. Every fucking 10 seconds, there's an annoying laugh track. It's the exact reason I don't like/watch shows like Big Bang Theory.
---

gravy posted...

Mead posted...

They are usually bad and a sign of bad writing

This. Always makes me think of that vid of big bang theory without laugh tracks...

Big Bang Theory does overuse laugh tracks, but that video is also a bad example. Timing is also an important part of humor. When the people who made that video removed the laugh tracks, they didn't just remove the laughs, they removed time and put all the timing off.
---

AllstarSniper32 posted...

I dislike them. Practically almost hate them. They really distract me from watching a show.

The best thing for me, would be if when you bought a season or whole series, there'd be an option to turn off laugh tracks. Or make that something you can do on the tv itself!!! That would be tv watching bliss!!!

Side note, I don't mind the laughing when it's a live audience like SNL or something.

After seeing a clip of a show with the laugh track removed I'm pretty sure watching a show made with a laugh track removed would be pretty terrible awkward with tons of silent pauses.

Anywho on my opinion, I don't notice them very often but when I do it gets to be a bit annoying, like when you watch a show and the audio is off with the picture by just a split second.
---

Sometimes I don't notice them that much or mildly appreciate them, but other times they're annoying or distracting especially when used after a lame joke because it just calls more attention to the misfire.

I think I'd be fine without any crowd noise, although sometimes I like the exaggerated noise during things like Fuller House.
---

I don't mind them, but if the material doesn't stand on its own without them the show is crap.

I don't mind them. They're just background noise to me now.
---

OneTimeBen posted...

Lol. Been done like that since forever. If you can't sit and watch a sitcom, without being a dush. Maybe choose another show to watch.

I don't really mind them but just because things are done since forever does not mean they are right
---

I only like them if it's live. It's always delightful when they react differently
---

Well, remember, sitcoms are an evolution of comedic theater. Beck in the day, the actors litterally had to pause and wait for laughter to subside, or the audience would miss half the play. When television came around, they just started recording the performances, continuing to hold said performances in front of live audiences. So it's not like the laugh track was originally not intended to fill time/defend poor joke telling, even thoigh thats what it seems to be for today.

On topic, as long as it's well written, I don't mind the laugh track. When you hear a crowd of rowdy laughter and applause after someone cracks a bad pun, yeah, it seems pretty forced.

Oh. And Scooby-Doo had the most hillarious misuse of a laugh track ever. The show barely contained any actual jokes or humor, but the alughtack would explode every thirty seconds.

"Oh, Scoob."
*uproarious laughter*
"Scooby-doobie-doo!"
*thunderous applause*
---

As long as it's not over used like TBBT I don't really care
---

I'm indifferent. A studio audience is perfectly fine, but even with canned laughter I don't see the need to vehemently hate it.
---

Wait, laugh tracks are fake?

Then why do I hear laughter at whatever I say or do?

LAUGHTER....LAUGHTER.....ALL I HEAR OR SEE IS LAUGHTER...
LAUGHTER....LAUGHTER.....LAUGHING AT MY CRIES!
\m/
---

It's just outdated now. Seems really out of place in modern tv. I feel the big bang theory would be better with out one.
---

Just for the record, I don't usually watch or like sitcoms, their usually just stupid & not really that funny. The only sitcoms I really like are King Of Queens & Kevin Can Wait, both great shows.

10 minutes on YouTube can get me more legit laughs then 3 whole episodes of any sitcom... except maybe King Of Queens.
---

the only use I see for them is it does give you a moment to laugh without missing any dialogue
---

Laugh tracks are padding for lazy television producers. There is no reason for them to exist on any show anymore.

They're terrible. They scream "this show sucks, so we'll 'herd mentality' you into laughing along!"
---

Mario_VS_DK posted...

gravy posted...

Mead posted...

They are usually bad and a sign of bad writing

This. Always makes me think of that vid of big bang theory without laugh tracks...

Big Bang Theory does overuse laugh tracks, but that video is also a bad example. Timing is also an important part of humor. When the people who made that video removed the laugh tracks, they didn't just remove the laughs, they removed time and put all the timing off.

They didn't remove the time lol. By removing the laugh track it shows certain people who might not otherwise realize it how stilted and unnatural the comedy of that show really is.

wah_wah_wah posted...

Laugh tracks are padding for lazy television producers. There is no reason for them to exist on any show anymore.

read what I said. it does give at least that. i've actually missed dialogue in shows that didn't have them because I or someone in the room was laughing. other than that though, it does make the show look awkward as you have the actors standing around just staring at each other
---