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Wednesday, September 04, 2024
Let's Dissect the Laugh Track on TV
No Film School: Have you ever been watching a TV show and heard laughter that wasn't in the room with you? Well, you probably have a ghost.
Just kidding. I mean, you might have one, but that's not why we're here.
I have always loved watching sitcoms. I will happily watch reruns of The Big Bang Theory if given the chance, and the laugh track is always something that has fascinated me. Now with AI becoming so prominent in a lot of working environments my hope is that laugh tracks don’t become digitized. But I fear that that has already happened. The magic of the sitcom is being able to enjoy it from your couch at home and think that you are part of the live audience that is laughing along with the show. I find that often the laugh track will help me find the jokes within the script, or sometimes even distract from the script but overall it makes the sitcom feel like a sitcom. After watching the couple of takes in the article that had no laugh track I can understand how hard it must be to film a sitcom without a live audience and with all of the awkward pauses for post-production laughter. I hope that for the sake of the sitcom that laugh tracks are here to stay.
As a child, I always hated laugh tracks. To me, they just felt awkward and weirdly placed. However, after reading this article, my opinions have changed. I believe that the reason why was because of this article’s use of videos as examples. Most news, and news-like, articles simply consist of words that seem to just go over my head. The use of video in this article really helped me understand why laugh tracks are necessary on some shows. It also, honestly, makes the television show feel more real. More like you are part of the episode. Not just watching it through a screen, but instead sitting there in the world of the show itself. I now appreciate and understand that these shows are more like theatre, in a way. That is, in the way that the actors’ performance feeds off audience response– such as laughter, sighs, tears, or boos. Overall, I would say that this article really changed my opinion of the use of laugh tracks in media.
The laugh track has been such a big part of my life for such a time, and I know that may sound like I'm chronically watching TV, but I remember watching a random show one day and it didn't, and I got so weirded out because it just sounded and felt so different. I know how the article kind of talks about shows that give more of a documentary style, and don't get me wrong, I love the Office and Parks and Rec. However, I feel like nothing beats hearing that dumb laugh track in the background of shows, especially when what they say isn't even funny. However, the laugh track does serve that purpose of connecting the audience to the people in the show, giving it a more homey feel, and regardless of whether the comedy is considered realistic, I hope laugh tracks stay for years to come because I feel they add so much more to a show that we might realize and ultimately give the overwhelming sense of comfort.
The different uses of a laugh track to either help punch jokes, fill the silence, or foil an awkward moment is interesting. I wonder how much time is taken up by laugh tracks that could be given to a story. I can see it adding up to a significant amount and honestly feels like you’re being jipped. It's just like how they expand a 16-minute episode to last a full 30-minute show slot by taking up the rest with ads in cable television. I don’t know if I agree that cinematic experience is communal inherently. I think that the communal experience of a film or show mostly enhances the entertainment (except when someone distracts you). With the rise of on-demand entertainment like Netflix or other streaming services, more and more video entertainment is viewed privately and has changed the majority experience for video entertainment from communal to independent. The ephemerality of an experience breeds a communal necessity because to live through it, you will need to be at the same place or same time to watch it together, a principal example being theatre.
4 comments:
I have always loved watching sitcoms. I will happily watch reruns of The Big Bang Theory if given the chance, and the laugh track is always something that has fascinated me. Now with AI becoming so prominent in a lot of working environments my hope is that laugh tracks don’t become digitized. But I fear that that has already happened. The magic of the sitcom is being able to enjoy it from your couch at home and think that you are part of the live audience that is laughing along with the show. I find that often the laugh track will help me find the jokes within the script, or sometimes even distract from the script but overall it makes the sitcom feel like a sitcom. After watching the couple of takes in the article that had no laugh track I can understand how hard it must be to film a sitcom without a live audience and with all of the awkward pauses for post-production laughter. I hope that for the sake of the sitcom that laugh tracks are here to stay.
As a child, I always hated laugh tracks. To me, they just felt awkward and weirdly placed. However, after reading this article, my opinions have changed. I believe that the reason why was because of this article’s use of videos as examples. Most news, and news-like, articles simply consist of words that seem to just go over my head. The use of video in this article really helped me understand why laugh tracks are necessary on some shows. It also, honestly, makes the television show feel more real. More like you are part of the episode. Not just watching it through a screen, but instead sitting there in the world of the show itself. I now appreciate and understand that these shows are more like theatre, in a way. That is, in the way that the actors’ performance feeds off audience response– such as laughter, sighs, tears, or boos. Overall, I would say that this article really changed my opinion of the use of laugh tracks in media.
The laugh track has been such a big part of my life for such a time, and I know that may sound like I'm chronically watching TV, but I remember watching a random show one day and it didn't, and I got so weirded out because it just sounded and felt so different. I know how the article kind of talks about shows that give more of a documentary style, and don't get me wrong, I love the Office and Parks and Rec. However, I feel like nothing beats hearing that dumb laugh track in the background of shows, especially when what they say isn't even funny. However, the laugh track does serve that purpose of connecting the audience to the people in the show, giving it a more homey feel, and regardless of whether the comedy is considered realistic, I hope laugh tracks stay for years to come because I feel they add so much more to a show that we might realize and ultimately give the overwhelming sense of comfort.
The different uses of a laugh track to either help punch jokes, fill the silence, or foil an awkward moment is interesting. I wonder how much time is taken up by laugh tracks that could be given to a story. I can see it adding up to a significant amount and honestly feels like you’re being jipped. It's just like how they expand a 16-minute episode to last a full 30-minute show slot by taking up the rest with ads in cable television. I don’t know if I agree that cinematic experience is communal inherently. I think that the communal experience of a film or show mostly enhances the entertainment (except when someone distracts you). With the rise of on-demand entertainment like Netflix or other streaming services, more and more video entertainment is viewed privately and has changed the majority experience for video entertainment from communal to independent. The ephemerality of an experience breeds a communal necessity because to live through it, you will need to be at the same place or same time to watch it together, a principal example being theatre.
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