Canned laughter is so not funny |
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Ad nauseous
Revolutionary Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Location: Connecticut Status: Offline Points: 23601 |
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Posted: 12 Jul 2015 at 9:13pm |
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I was watching Reba (out of boredom might change the channel) and I noticed how fake and canned the so called "laughter" is. I hate laugh tracks! They're so fake. Now compare this to a show like Here's Lucy where people are actually laughing their asses off at something really funny. That's GENUINE LAUGHTER! I miss that laughter! The only thing that comes close to that is The Daily Show and The Nighttly Show and maybe late night shows!
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One good thing about TV-you could always turn it off
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Donathan
Junior Executive Joined: 19 Sep 2010 Location: Florida Status: Offline Points: 4073 |
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I agree. Canned laughter is creepy.....
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My name is Donathan, pronounced the same way you pronounce Jonathan, except with a D.😀 Hitting on a Lesbian who speaks to you and about you like trash means you're REALLY desperate! 😀
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Thor
Revolutionary Joined: 16 Apr 2008 Location: Rockaway, NJ Status: Offline Points: 63903 |
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Some comedies work better with a laughtrack. Others don't. There's a lot of factors to consider. I have nothing against them. |
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Donathan
Junior Executive Joined: 19 Sep 2010 Location: Florida Status: Offline Points: 4073 |
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A lot of recent and current comedy TV shows have ditched the canned laughter (Everybody Hates Chris, For Better Or Worse, and Modern Family are three good examples), and sometimes rely on musical cues to make viewers laugh.
For example, when usually soft spoken Chris suddenly launches into a shouting tirade rant when his Dad offers to let irresponsible babysitter babysit him, his brother and sister again, the musical cues is playfully dramatic. Rather than have a laugh track laugh at Chris's out of character tirade, the producers made the music funny..... |
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My name is Donathan, pronounced the same way you pronounce Jonathan, except with a D.😀 Hitting on a Lesbian who speaks to you and about you like trash means you're REALLY desperate! 😀
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tvpirate05
Junior Executive Joined: 27 Apr 2008 Location: Virginia Status: Offline Points: 661 |
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I remember watching Reba years ago, and someone in the "audience" kept clapping a couple of times after every single joke to emphasize how funny the joke was supposed to be. Got really irritating.
I know laugh tracks are nothing new, but they sound so generic nowadays.
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The poster formerly known as producer757
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MrTim
Ad Exec Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Status: Offline Points: 10421 |
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Saw something on PBS where they showed the actual 'canned laughter' machine. The people that built it compiled laugh tracks from live audiences, and licensed them out to shows. If you think about it, the same tracks (from the 40's & 50's) are probably still being used today, which means new shows are using laughter from people who are dead now. Still, I'd rather have canned laughter than the 'dead air' style some shows use (though some of them should really use crickets or boos... )
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Thor
Revolutionary Joined: 16 Apr 2008 Location: Rockaway, NJ Status: Offline Points: 63903 |
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If a show has a lot of one-liners and quick jokes (Big Bang Theory), laughtracks work well as they give you a second to absorb the joke and laugh at it without interfering with the next line. But if a show is supposed to be more realistic, or has fast-paced dialogue (The Middle), a laughtrack might not work as well. As far as live laughter versus canned laughter, if a show has a lot of outdoor scenes and real locations that can't be set up on a stage inside a theater, you can't realistically have a live audience. |
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Jimbo
Honor Roll Joined: 19 Apr 2008 Location: Florida Status: Offline Points: 56959 |
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There's only one kind of "canned laughter" as far as I'm concerned... |
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...the ads take aim and lay their claim to the heart and the soul of the spender
Jackson Browne - The Pretender C'mon, man! Joe Biden - 46th President of the United States |
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aka ron
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Liquid courage, conversation lubrication.
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Darthhillbilly
Junior Executive Joined: 31 Jan 2013 Location: Cincinnati Status: Offline Points: 4178 |
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I have no use for either "prompt", canned laughter or cue music, and both tend to put me off of most comedies. It's like Larry the Cable Guy telling you "that's funny right there, I don't care who you are"... Much like someone telling me that they're sexy, you telling me that it's so makes it even less so to me. Either it was funny or it wasn't. If I laughed, it was funny TO ME... if I didn't, it wasn't. You telling me where the joke is... even though most jokes in today's comedies can be seen coming from a mile away... isn't going to make me suddenly laugh. It's borderline insulting. "You're too stupid to figure out the joke, so we'll highlight it for you".
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Jimbo
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I think the laugh track is more about "setting the mood" than it is about telling viewer where to laugh.
I'm guessing that from a psychological standpoint, the sound of other people laughing makes one more receptive to whatever it is that's causing the laughter & thus, makes one more prone to, if not laugh out loud along with them, at least accept that whatever it is, must be funny. You'll notice they don't use laugh tracks in movies. That's probably at least in part, due to the fact that because movies are shown in theaters full of people, there's no need for the sound of a laughing crowd. The audience is the laughing crowd. Probably also why you're more likely to find a comedy movie funnier if you watch it in a movie theater as opposed to at home by yourself. |
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...the ads take aim and lay their claim to the heart and the soul of the spender
Jackson Browne - The Pretender C'mon, man! Joe Biden - 46th President of the United States |
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Darthhillbilly
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And that's NOT a cue... how?
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"It's never too late to choose life...instead of the internet. Just drop the mouse." - Darwin Watterson
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Jimbo
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I didn't say it wasn't a cue. I said it was more about setting a funny mood. I assume there is some element of the cue in there too, but I just don't think it's the main reason for it. Or at least not the only reason for it. |
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...the ads take aim and lay their claim to the heart and the soul of the spender
Jackson Browne - The Pretender C'mon, man! Joe Biden - 46th President of the United States |
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Darthhillbilly
Junior Executive Joined: 31 Jan 2013 Location: Cincinnati Status: Offline Points: 4178 |
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Fair enough.
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"It's never too late to choose life...instead of the internet. Just drop the mouse." - Darwin Watterson
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Papa Lazarou
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I think it started out as part of an immersive element.
At the dawn of entertainment technology, there had only been plays; things you watch with a large audience and the reaction is large and hefty. Radio did comedies, talk shows, and sometimes even semi-dramatic in front of an audience, recording the reactions alongside the show. So television shows most likely tried to encapsulate that same feeling of watching an immersive 30-minute play performed on set while you watch with an invisible audience. It especially seems accurate if you look at how theatric the filming was (Lots of static cameras on obvious sets, similar to how early films were before they understood the full potential) After some point I imagine it became more traditional than intentional. Of course, I think that part of the issue is simply advancing technology. All U.K. sitcoms, especially by the BBC are recorded in front of an actual live audience (TV Licence payers can go to the BBC recording studio and get tickets to watch the recordings). I imagine that - whereas before they had to sort of wait for the audience to calm down (A lot of this happens on I Love Lucy), now they can control the volume of the actual recording of the show and the audience recording, so what might make it seemed like "canned laughter" is actually a lot of over-editing to a genuine audience reaction. |
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Banana!
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crainbebo
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I believe Big Bang Theory still has a real, live laugh track as they are taping. Seinfeld did for the regular scenes inside the apartment, the other scenes were canned. And of course, Cheers was a live audience as well.
Some shows that have a blooper/gag reel have really wild laughter. I have seen this on Seinfeld reels, when it's not canned. -crainbebo
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Darthhillbilly
Junior Executive Joined: 31 Jan 2013 Location: Cincinnati Status: Offline Points: 4178 |
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I don't have a problem with a genuine audience reaction, edited or otherwise, and it's pretty easy to tell the difference. Actual human laughter would sound a little different each time... the higher-pitched laughter starting a half-second behind the lower pitch after this joke, but simultaneously on the next joke, and so on. It would almost never, if ever, sound exactly the same 2 or more times in a row.
I'm talking about the blatantly obvious laugh track... the one with zero variation, always the exact same tones, in the exact same sequence. At least that's what I mean when I say "canned laughter". |
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"It's never too late to choose life...instead of the internet. Just drop the mouse." - Darwin Watterson
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Papa Lazarou
Ad Exec Formerly Codtaro Joined: 18 Nov 2011 Location: New Mexico Status: Offline Points: 7710 |
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^Interesting on the Seinfeld bit.
In BBC shows, outdoor scenes are shown on screens and the audience still reacts in real time. Probably extra good for costume changes and minor set alterations..which I think kind of boosts the point of the theatrics of it all. |
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Banana!
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aka ron
Honor Roll Joined: 11 Apr 2009 Location: WI Status: Offline Points: 33539 |
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Home Improvement also had a live studio audience.
I heard somewhere that you can hear Desi Arnez laughing in the laugh track for I Love Lucy.
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Papa Lazarou
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I heard a rumour that you could hear Harvey Korman laughing in the Carol Burnett Show...I think it's bogus, though...
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Banana!
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Erick Cartman
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Anyone producer with even a shred of dignity would only tape his Comedies in front of a live studio audience, and let those real people be the judge of what's funny and what's not funny. The laughter would sound miles better coming from real people and not a machine.
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