I feel very pathetic for saying this, but...it kind of is. I'm not sure if I'm laughing because it's stupid or because it's actually funny, though.
It makes me wonder how unfunny other sitcoms would feel without the laugh track telling us which parts are funny...
To this day, I have a natural aversion for sitcoms with laugh tracks. I don't care how acclaimed any sitcom is (I'm looking at you, CBS), but the canned laughter just feels incredibly forced.
Funny. I love the applause. Several lines that get laughs added are as unfunny as many sitcom lines that get laughs. Like Disney Channel kid comedies. Youtube has sitcoms with the laughs deleted.
When I watch some shows and start paying attention to the laugh track, it starts bothering the hell out of me. Honestly, on some shows they really need to cut back on it. Seinfeld was pretty good at metering it and TBBT is OK. Friends was atrocious. Anyway, it just goes to show that with any TV show having funny moments, a laugh track can totally change the mood. Not a bad take on it, except for the elevator malfunction and the ship being damaged! Serious moments + Laugh Track = FAIL.
yeah I know what you're talking about. So many kids shows I've watched on Disney aren't even close to being funny, and that is when I first became aware of laugh tracks. I was watching I think Wizards of Waverly Place and all the jokes that trigger hysterical laughter sound like this: Kid1: Here's you're strawberry milkshake. Kid2: I said vanilla, I am allergic to strawberry. laugh track --> Kid1: Did you see Mandy? Kid2: well I certainly didn't hear her. laugh track --> Kid1: Pencil holder? It looks like an old soup can. Kid2: Well I also charmed it to magically sharpen pencils. laugh track --> however, I often felt Voyager needed a laugh track, some of the technobabble they spouted made me laugh. Like this one episode they were being bent in and out of time by chronoton particles. So they wore wrist bands that emitted a field of anti-chronotons... HA HA HA
Agreed. It's just them telling us when to laugh. And if they have to do that, then logically speaking, the material must not be funny enough to start with. It's only in extremely rare cases, such as Monty Python's Flying Circus and The Red Green Show, that such laughter works. (At least with those shows, the laughs were provided by live studio audiences - and in Red Green's case, the audience was literally part of the show!)
It's sad how much this totally works with the laugh track. In my sick way, I wonder what a laugh track would do to really serious movies, like Schindler's List.
I don't know about Friends and TBBT, but Seinfeld did not employ a canned laugh track; they filmed in front of a live audience. At least a majority of the show.
Live audience "natural" laughter isn't normally too invasive for my liking, unless its sweetened with the canned variety. I read once this was sometimes done when the producers decided the live reactions didn't get the response they were looking for. This thread reminded me of the times on I Love Lucy when Desi Arnaz was off camera laughing at Lucy's on-set antics. It was kinda distracting, but funny at the same time.
The Red Dwarf audiences were the funniest. You could hear them almost laughing themselves sick at times.