Many late night talk shows offer nearly constant laughter during their shows. The rate of laughter to action on the set is about as frequent as what we can find on television sitcoms. When you analyze the humor of a late night talk show, I think many people would agree that audiences who are seemingly dying from laughter every 10 seconds on average throughout shows that span more than an hour just don’t exist.
This is not an argument that these shows are not funny. Most times they are very funny. The argument is that they are not that funny. Of course, if you are in the studio I’m sure more people would be more inclined to laugh more often than at home alone or in amongst a small group, but the rate and intensity of laughter seems incredible.
This is why I suggest a conspiracy theory of sorts. I argue that producers of these late night talk shows hire professional actors to fake laugh throughout each show on cue. Using a laugh track is considered too low a thing for a live show. So how else could it be done? Is anyone in agreement with me here?
It’s been years since I personally saw a TV taping in front of a studio audience. But back then they had signs over the set facing the audience that lit up “Laugh” when they wanted the crowd to laugh.
They also played laugh track into the studio. Lots of people will spontaneously laugh in a group of other laughers when they’d never be the one to laugh first.
IME what you hear on the broadcast show is a mix of real audience laughter, laugh track played to the studio audience, and laugh track mixed into the recording of the live studio.
They also had “applause” signs and recorded clapping to induce the live audience to applaud. Same idea.
Bottom line: What you hear is about 90% fake and 10% real. About like Hollywood breasts. I’d be very hard-pressed to label that a “conspiracy” though. More like simply an industry convention.
I’ve been in two live audiences: the David Letterman show and Prairie Home Companion (radio). If there were professional laughers in the audience, I was not aware of it.
There’s a “high” about being in a live audience. For one thing, you feel a responsibility for the success of the show and a loyalty to the host. Audience members feed off each other, and extreme laughter and applause feel natural. Everybody is thrilled to be there and wants to have a good time. It gets a little crazy.
At the Letterman show, there was an audience prompter that flashed “APPLAUSE” when the director wanted to ensure applause, but most of the time it wasn’t necessary. I don’t remember if the prompter ever flashed “LAUGHTER”; I don’t think so.
Also, at both shows there was a pre-show warmup that got the audience in a good mood. The warmup also established some private jokes between the audience and the staff, and during the show, these often produced big laughs that might seem a little strange to those watching from home.
The most contentious current show is The Big Bang Theory. It’s clearly dubbed with a lot of fake laughter. But Lorre &Co go to absurd lengths to claim it’s real. Yes, there is an audience, there are microphones over the audience. That doesn’t mean they don’t sweeten (and more) the soundtrack.
My favorite point of comparison is this prank the crew played 4 years ago. Notice how very uneven the audience sounds are at various points. Not the usual quick buildup and quick fade
When watching the show, notice the many times when the audience magically laughs on cue. E.g., just when the camera pans just right, etc. (I know that the best view is via the monitors, but there shouldn’t be a big surprise that Sheldon is dressed like Gollum.) Also remember things like the stairwell: This is one set redone for each shot. But the laughter magically is seamless despite the fact they aren’t seeing one continuous take at all!
If even Mrs. FtG, when just walking thru the room notices that they used the same burst of laughter twice in a row, it’s pretty clear what’s going on.
We are currently watching old episodes of Mary Tyler Moore. At the end it says it’s filmed in Hollywood in front of a live audience. But you are clearly not hearing a normal audience most of the time. It’s just weird how the audience is magically quiet during a lot of stuff, some of it actually funny, and then a perfectly timed burst out of left field. But once in a while I see something real. An episode we saw the other night had a line before the punchline that got a really long laugh. Ted Knight had to improvise a fairly lengthy stall to let it die down before he could deliver the punch line.
Stuff like that doesn’t happen on TBBT. Here and there an extra, brief, pause, but little need to improvise a really long fill.
(A more drastic example of having to stall is the huge applause when Michael Richards made his first entrance in a Seinfeld episode. In some seasons it really went on and on. Jerry even took to asking the audience ahead of time to not do that. It got better near the end of the run.)
As it happens Chuck Lorre addressed this in his most recent vanity card, saying that not only is there no laugh track, but that they sometimes need to turn down the audience so it doesn’t drown out the show dialogue.
Are there any examples of TV show tapings where the live audience was not at all responsive? I’m not talking about being openly hostile by booing the host or actors. I’m talking about a show that’s so stupid, nobody in the audience could be assed to clap or laugh at the appropriate times.
I watch very little conventional network TV. Instead I watch mostly sports while also 'Doping. I mention that to indicate say that I’m not inured to standard sitcom fare.
I saw my first 2 minutes ever of Big Bang Theory the other night. I turned on the TV in a hotel and that’s what popped up. I recognized the characters from advertising.
The dorky guy standing awkwardly said something dorky; the laugh track swelled and faded in a totally artificial fashion.
The cute chick seated on the couch said something cute; the laugh track swelled and faded in a totally artificial fashion.
The dorky guy standing awkwardly said another something dorky; the same laugh track swelled and faded in a totally artificial fashion.
The cute chick seated on the couch said another something cute; the same laugh track swelled and faded in a totally artificial fashion.
I mashed the channel change button in disgust.
I’m not doubting your facts even a little bit. But I am utterly flabbergasted to learn anyone anywhere could make any claim with a straight face that the laughter on that particular show was even 5% real.
My sample was admittedly tiny, but come on, how stupid do the producers think the audience is? Wait, don’t answer that.
I’ve never been in a studio audience, but I’ve been to the TBBT set (it’s a stop on the Warner Brothers studio tour). The only parts of the set that are visible from the audience are Sheldon and Leonard’s living room and the stairwell.
I suppose it’s possible that the audience can watch scenes filmed elsewhere on the soundstage via monitors (I honestly don’t remember if there were any). But I think the most likely explanation is that you’re hearing fake laughter in those other scenes. Perhaps someone who has actually attended a TBBT taping can elaborate.
There’s an old story about the early days of using laugh tracks. It might have been Milton Berle. Watching a pratfall in edit, someone said, “It’s not funny.” Berle said, “Put a number three under it” - a fairly major audience laugh. They ran it again. “See?” said Berle. “I told you it was funny.”
Can’t remember the last time I heard a laugh track outside of satirical use. Seriously.
As a former professional audience member, I can tell you for sure that they pay people to fill seats and clap and laugh on cue. Most of the popular shows (tonight show, Jimmy kimmel etc) will be able to fill the audience with tourists who will do it for free. But they have to allow for them to get bored and leave, so they always have a handful of paid audience in reserve to fill their seats.
The less popular shows are almost always entirely paid audience (like the judge shows) and they film like 10-12 cases a day, so it’s like a 10 hr work day.
Sitcoms will likely be mostly paid, with a handful of tourists. But sitcoms usually take all day to film as well, so the tourists usually get really bored after the first few hours. Also with sitcoms, they will often times “sweeten” the audience later. Meaning they will take the entire finished episode and show it on a monitor in front of a roomful of paid audience to over dub the laughing/clapping track.
All these shows (except the Very Serious judge shows) will have a warm-up guy to tell jokes in between takes and lead people in the laughing and clapping. So often times the first big laugh after even the weakest of “jokes” you hear will be the warm up guy trying to get the audience to laugh or clap or whatever.
Also at the end of tapings, they will also do reaction shots of the audience. This is when the they turn the cameras around and the director will ask for various generic reactions they can cut into the show later. They’ll say something like “Ok let’s do a BIG laughter followed by clapping” or “We need you to groan and shake your heads in disbelief”.
Hubby and I went to a taping for a local sitcom, maybe 15 years ago. This was a relatively new show (had it even aired yet?) and we didn’t watch TV much, so we didn’t know what to expect. We knew the title, who the main actor was (a locally-known stand-up comic) and that it was a (low-budget) sitcom.
So we all sat down, maybe 50 or 60 people. About 15-20 minutes before the taping began, our handler started getting to know us, telling us jokes, spotting the lady who laughed funny, the enthusiastic ones, etc. He showed us the “laugh now” sign, we tested it a few times. He explained that each scene would be done at least twice, and they’d keep the best delivery and/or best audience reaction (and obviously we had to be as entertained by the second take as by the first).
So taping began. The show itself was medium-funny, predictable situations and one-liners. Our handler was somewhere in front of us and encouraging us to do this or that. Because the actors were right there in front of us, I felt a certain need to laugh to make them feel good. Once the people around you start laughing, you laugh with them, even if it’s just half-funny. And the lady in the audience with the weird laugh was sometimes funnier than the people in front of the camera. But we didn’t get the feeling that she was part of the staff.
We never watched that episode, but we did watch a subsequent one. The audience reaction sounded real, but there was no way to tell if it had been edited.
The OP is talking about late night talk shows but everyone else is talking about sitcoms. Two completely different animals. I’ve heard of sitcoms sweetening up the audience reaction but I’ve never heard that about talk shows.
That’s been my impression from comedy shows. You not only feel more for the speaker but also you’re there to have a good time so you’re more inclined to be generous with your laughter. Also, like attending a concert, there’s a buzz from being among a group of people with a mutual purpose/interest.
I’ve easily had sincere laughter at live performances that I know I would have maybe smirked at had I watched it on TV.
Maybe it’s the years of watching sitcoms, but I hardly notice laugh tracks most of the time. Perhaps I’ve become immune? Or maybe it’s a byproduct of being an old grouch.
I’ve certainly never noticed identical, repeated tracks. I don’t doubt those who say they exist - I just never really pay attention to it.
The word you’re looking for is inured. As in numb to the pain.
I watch barely 10 minutes of sitcom per year. The loud short roar of fake laughing after most of the lines is downright painful when you’re not used to it. It totally pulls me *out *of the scene, not *into *it.
I’m nobody special. I’m sure if I watched an hour a day of it soon I’d be just like you.
I’ve never gone to a late night talk show, but I did watch a sitcom being filmed, once. There was a professional comedian working the crowd to elicit laughter. That was good, because they filmed the scenes of the show out of order, and much of the time, I had no context and had no idea what was happening on stage. But the comedian was funny, and cued us when to laugh. I’d guess most of the laugh track was real. Just not inspired by the sitcom.
Yeah, that’s the standard procedure for “filmed in front of a live audience” sitcoms. There are usually one or two rooms/sets in front of the audience. Anything else is taped elsewhere and then shown on the monitors in sequence with the rest of the episode. Audience members watch the episode in sequence, both on stage and on the monitors.
The comedian warming up the audience before taping and during retakes and resets has a lot to do with the gaiety of the audience. But, yeah, I still think the natural audience applause is sweetened after taping.
As mentioned, this is for sitcoms. I have no idea about late night shows, other than even though they are longer, they take less time to tape. Sitcoms will do lots of retakes, whereas late night shows are usually taped pretty much straight through, so the audience has less time to get worn out and isn’t watching retakes.
Lorre has been denying this for years. It’s pretty darn obvious.
Okay, if the guy’s living room is clearly visible to the audience then these are weird:
Everyone (?) leaves the apartment. The camera pans and shows Raj eating a sandwich off to the side and looking puzzled. Then the laughter starts. The audience didn’t see Raj standing there the whole time?
Raj is teaching Sheldon meditation on the living room floor. The camera goes in on just Raj. Then it pulls back and no Sheldon. Big laughs. No one started laughing when Sheldon stood up and walked away?
Sheldon is standing behind someone in the living room but we can’t see him well. The person steps away and we see Sheldon has been making faces the whole time. Then the audience laughs. But he was only blocked from the camera ~off to the side. From the front of the set he would be clearly visible the whole time.
Many examples of that.
I will grant that the producers can manipulate audiences to do abnormal things: e.g., get them to laugh after the 5th take. Laugh during scenes that are shot out of order so some of the jokes don’t actually make sense without the context, etc.
But they really can’t get people to react so incredibly uniformly and precisely over and over.
One compromise is to not have a live audience during shooting but then show the complete show to a live audience and use those reactions. But then the actors need to have a good feel for how long the audience will laugh for a given joke. Too long a laugh? it needs to be pared down. Too short? More needs to be added.
So, some fakery. But not as much as some “live” shows do.
The best solution is no laugh track at all. I love shows that do that.
