# Has there ever been a theatrically released movie with a laughter track?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-theatrically-released-movie-with-a-laughter-track/116812>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [July 1, 2002, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-theatrically-released-movie-with-a-laughter-track/116812 "2002-07-01T12:30:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![hammos1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@hammos1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hammos1)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-theatrically-released-movie-with-a-laughter-track/116812/1 "2002-07-01T12:30:55Z")

</div>

It’s strange that the majority of TV comedies have laughter tracks, but the cinema is a canned laughter exclusion zone.

Have there ever been any comedy movies with laugh tracks? If not, why not? Do filmmakers regard themselves as being ‘above’ their TV brethren, would a laughter track not work in a cinema, or what?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-theatrically-released-movie-with-a-laughter-track/116812/2 "2002-07-01T12:44:45Z")

</div>

Perhaps this will be better served in Cafe Society.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mikahw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Mikahw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikahw)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-theatrically-released-movie-with-a-laughter-track/116812/3 "2002-07-01T12:59:41Z")

</div>

In theaters, the audience serves as a laugh track (If the jokes are any good, that is). Having a second one placed in the movie’s soundtrack seems a bit redundant.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-theatrically-released-movie-with-a-laughter-track/116812/4 "2002-07-01T13:29:48Z")

</div>

The last time I heard a lauch track in a movie, it was used in a segment that was designed to have a particular effect; that is, it wasn’t that the movie itself had a laugh track, they used a laugh track during a particular segment. The movie was Natural Born Killers, and the segment with the laugh track showed Mickey and Mallory at Mallory’s home showing the abuse she suffered at her father’s hands and M & M’s murder of the father. The laugh track was used, I think, to parody the way that sitcom famlies always seem to avoid such major problems and everything is always resolved in 30 minutes.

Or something like that.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-theatrically-released-movie-with-a-laughter-track/116812/5 "2002-07-01T16:09:27Z")

</div>

try this for laugh tracks  
“Hey! There’s Naked Bodies On My TV!” [http://www.badmovieplanet.com/unknownmovies/reviews/rev85.html](http://www.badmovieplanet.com/unknownmovies/reviews/rev85.html)

and “Can I Do It … Til I Need Glasses? (1977)”  
a truely horrible mess of a movie … so Bad Robin Williams tried to get his scenes cut from it  
[http://www.thestinkers.com/100stinkers.html](http://www.thestinkers.com/100stinkers.html)