I can’t watch sitcoms that feature a laugh track or studio audience anymore. I don’t really know why; I can still watch old shows like Seinfeld with no loss of enjoyment. But for some reason it seems jarring when it’s done on new shows; it doesn’t help that the current shows I’ve seen that have them are all (IMO) hacky and bland series that may as well have been aired in the '80s - not that there aren’t sitcoms without laugh tracks that don’t fall into this category. To stave off the “So what shows do you like?” comments, I’m a fan of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Community, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Louie and, to a lesser extent, 30 Rock and The Office.
Anybody else have this kind of aversion to laughter on sitcoms?
Yes. On top of being incredibly dull and annoying, laugh tracks are insulting to the viewer, really. It’s as if it’s telling the viewer when to laugh or when comedy is taking place. If it’s funny, I’ll know it, thanks automated asshole. :dubious:
It’s falling out of style, for sure, but I can still appreciate it in a solid situation-driven show like “Everybody Loves Raymond.” When you can feel like you’re laughing along with people, it can make the show more enjoyable.
Watching reruns of “How I Met your Mother” is painful, because the cheap laugh track just highlights how slow the show is. You end up waiting 5 seconds in between non-funny jokes for the fake laughter to die out. In those cases, the show just isn’t funny to begin with, so no amount of other-people-laughing can save it.
Shows like the early Simpsons and Community can get away with not having laugh tracks because the jokes are less about the situation, and more about just being funny jokes. They can cram in more jokes and have less dead time in between them. The show has to be designed around not having a laugh track though. Otherwise you get dreck like Sports Night, which was a show that desperately need a laugh track, but instead filled the long pauses in between jokes with uncomfortable silences.
As an experiment, someone should filter out all the laughter from a stand-up routine. It’s amazing how quickly something can seem non-funny when nobody else is laughing.
I would love to see how episodes of Seinfeld would play without a laugh track.
I’d almost think the characters would come off as whiney or creepy or bitchy rather than humorous.
I agree entirely. Weirdly enough, I also find myself still laughing my ass off at old Seinfeld episodes that I’ve seen a dozen times, and that show has a laugh track. I’ve been playing around with a hypothesis that it’s because the actors themselves often chuckle (in character) at what’s being said. I dunno if it’s a Larry David trademark – he does it on Curb, but that’s only pseudo-scripted – but I think it helps. It makes the show more realistic: Jerry says something clever that a roomful of writers crafted, and Elaine laughs in response. It beats Doogie Howser saying something clever that a roomful of writers crafted, and all that chick from Buffy does in response is just kinda stand there frozen for four seconds while she waits for the laugh track to die.
I can’t watch them anymore either. I was tickled pink when my daughter gave me a Soap DVD – loved that show. Couldn’t watch the damn thing! I’m so glad Raising Hope, My Name Is Earl, and Modern Family don’t have the track/audience.
Interesting example. Here’s another: what if they broadcast a ball game (on TV or radio) without any of the crowd noise? Would a touchdown or a home run be as exciting to watch without hearing the spectators’ reaction?
Or without the ironically-themed music which punctuated every strange occurence in the show. “Dumm dumm DUH DUH dumm…” which basically equates to “Once again a bunch of selfish idiots get what they deserve.”
Another vote for hating laugh tracks. This is why I can’t really watch The Big Bang Theory, which I think I’d quite enjoy if it weren’t for the hyuck-hyuck-hyucks all the time.
I’m kind of ambivalent on the laugh track vs. no laugh track question. On some shows that are clearly shot in front of an audience (like Frasier or Seinfeld) I don’t have an issue with a laugh track since it makes you feel like you’re part of the audience. Some shows like The Office and what I’m currently watching, Wilfred and Louie, a laugh track just won’t work since the humor on those shows are based more on the situation than a series of one-liners. I think that sitcoms are generally pretty savvy about which shows should have laugh tracks and when to use it within an episode. Laugh tracks should not be used when they are clearly intrusive such as in the early seasons of M.A.S.H.
They never bothered me growing up, but not watching TV for a few years and coming back, they were jarring. I refuse to watch anything with a laugh track now.
Basically, I think if a show is funny, a laugh track doesn’t hurt, and if it’s not funny, a laugh track doesn’t help. For instance, I enjoy How I Met Your Mother, and when I read steronz’s post above I had to stop and think about whether that show even had a laugh track. I guess the fact that I’m laughing as well makes it less obtrusive.
When “Malcolm in the Middle” first started airing, I enjoyed watching it for a while. I couldn’t put my finger on why exactly I liked it so much until I realized the show had no laugh track. It seemed fairly similar to other sitcoms, albeit without the voice-over narration, it just didn’t have that one annoying aspect of automated laughter. It seemed to give the show a much more authentic feel.