Poll: Would TV shows be better without the laugh-track?

Recommended Videos

RagnarokHybrid

New member
Aug 6, 2011
283
0
0
I'm sitting here watching Victorious on Nickelodeon and I thought to myself, "Why the laugh track?" I understand it's purpose to an extent: it's supposed to be a signal for the audience to engage and laugh at the material presented. However, that function seems kind of like the laugh-track coordinator (or whatever the position for that is) thinks of us--the audience--as little animals or babies that they have to condition to like the show.

I prefer a live studio audience, really; at least with that, you know they are real people and, thus, can almost feed off the audience's energy. However, a laugh track seems generic and, in cases like Victorious, very overused.

Also, every time I don't laugh but the track insists that I should, I feel like the show is full of itself. The writing starts to seem pretentious, I get annoyed, and eventually I can't stand watching the show anymore. (This is especially true with iCarly, also on Nickelodeon, which I have grown to hate with a passion.)

I prefer silence, really. That way, I can watch the show MY way and pick out the jokes I prefer over the ones the writers have tried to force onto me.

EDIT: the poll is bugged. There should be a third option reading, "Silence is golden."
 

Klumpfot

New member
Dec 30, 2009
576
0
0
Canned laughter annoys me to the point that I usually refuse to watch any show that utilizes it. A studio audience is no better, because it still feels like the show is telling me what I'm supposed to find funny.
 

mysecondlife

New member
Feb 24, 2011
2,142
0
0
I do shake my head whenever I hear laugh track in sitcoms. but excluding them wont make that tv show better. it's more likely to expose how unfunny a lot of them are.

people can call me a snob but to me, the funniest shows have been ones without laugh track. Arrested Development and Scrubs are still tv shows I watch from time to time.

edit: I don't know how studio audience are any better. the chances are, they are being cued when to laugh as well.
 

HerbertTheHamster

New member
Apr 6, 2009
1,007
0
0
There's a reason why live audiences existm laughter triggers laughter.

even Monty Python had a live audience, for fucks sake. It's just that most shows nowadays overdo it.
 

TeeBs

New member
Oct 9, 2010
1,564
0
0
I have to be honest, Im I back in the 90s? I haven't seen a recent show use a laugh track in a long time.
 

Richardplex

New member
Jun 22, 2011
1,731
0
0
Depends on the show. Shows with story are weakened by them; shows without, say, Mock the Week, would be weakened without them.
TeeBs said:
I have to be honest, Im I back in the 90s? I haven't seen a recent show use a laugh track in a long time.
Big Bang Theory
 

Rawne1980

New member
Jul 29, 2011
4,144
0
0
I'm not a fan of laughter tracks or an audience with forced laughter.

If something is funny then the people watching will find it funny. We don't need some fethwit with a laugh box firing it up after every joke making us believe every damn line is hillarious.
 

Gaiseric

New member
Sep 21, 2008
1,625
0
0
Laugh tracks are one of the reasons I stopped watching sitcoms.

I hate those things.
 

AngryMongoose

Elite Member
Jan 18, 2010
1,230
0
41
Canned laughter never works. It's always ill timed, mechanical, and generally feels fake. Live audiences can work, since they add an element of light heartedness to the show, and avert the fact that people find it difficult to laugh when other people aren't. They can also add a sense of legitimacy to the jokes. Could you imagine watching a standup routine with no laughter? (Other than Stewart Lee LOLOLOLOLOL. Naa, I like him, but his audiences don't do more than nervous laughter). Silence is preferable for many types of comedy, however, such as black humour, as well as films, as laughing tracks can break the suspension of disbelief in long narratives.

And, now that I have an excuse to plug him, Stewart Lee ladies and gentlemen!
 

Kargathia

New member
Jul 16, 2009
1,657
0
0
The problem with canned laughter is that it works. It's incredibly annoying, but it still triggers the urge to laugh along - no matter how unfunny the show really is.

Just watch the "backstory" scene in Natural Born Killers, and you'll notice it.
 

RagnarokHybrid

New member
Aug 6, 2011
283
0
0
While we're on the topic, how do people feel about concert movies? I saw the Glee 3D commercial and I thought that that kinda feels like putting an unnecessary middle-man between you and the actual show. It seems to me like it's definitely just trying to make money doing as little work as possible.
 

Kargathia

New member
Jul 16, 2009
1,657
0
0
RagnarokHybrid said:
While we're on the topic, how do people feel about concert movies? I saw the Glee 3D commercial and I thought that that kinda feels like putting an unnecessary middle-man between you and the actual show. It seems to me like it's definitely just trying to make money doing as little work as possible.
I'm pretty sure it'd serve no purpose for metal concerts until they add in the mosh pit.
 

zehydra

New member
Oct 25, 2009
5,033
0
0
silence is golden, but I think it's gonna kill me now.
everything I've seen, never seems to fail me now.
no one told me that the world could fall through, yeah.
 

fatal2704

New member
May 8, 2010
90
0
0
With Seinfeld, i'm not sure if it was a track or a live audience, but it makes it doubly funny in an ironic sort of way to hear people laugh at all the old, cheesy jokes.
 
Dec 27, 2010
814
0
0
I don't think they're necessary, but then again my favorite sit-coms like Father Ted, Mr. Bean and Monty Python used them, so I suppose they don't exactly ruin the show.
 

ShindoL Shill

Truely we are the Our Avatars XI
Jul 11, 2011
21,802
0
0
i saw the muted Big Bang Theory clip, and before the silence was edited out it was balls, because its in retarded places (which i think means the studio execs werent even aiming it at nerds...)
when the blocks of silence were edited out, it felt like i was reading a nerd version of QC (a slice of life webcomic about indie fans if you didnt know, except about nerds) and it felt a lot better.
plus, i laugh at times with no laugh track and when i hear the laugh track i think 'what the fuck, that wasnt funny in any way.'
so i just tune it out, it makes the whole episode feel about 5 minutes shorter.
a live audience is decent, because they laugh when theres a decent joke. plus i like it when you just hear one person, two minutes after the big joke, chuckle. i DO NOT like celebrity fangirling with guest stars (*door open* "hi, come in." '......WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!' *eardrums implode*)