'laugh or we gas you'

Eh, I don't find TBBT to be funny anyway. I get the jokes and references, it just feels like the show goes out of it's way to say 'HEY LOOK GUYS! I'M MAKING JOKES ABOUT NERDY STUFF SO NERDS WILL LOVE ME!' and just comes across as a show only hipsters would really watch on a regular basis.

I truly despise a laugh track in anything other then classic British comedy shows. Whenever I watch something like the Big Bang Theory or Two and a Half Men the laughing really grates on my nerves. Its like the show is telling me when to laugh and how hard to laugh rather then letting me get the joke. Its the reason why I refuse to watch How I met Your Mother even though it has Alyson Hannigan in it and its also one of the reasons why my favourite sitcom ever is Scrubs.

Note: The few times I watch Two and a Half Men(usually forced by friends) I also get nostalgic at how funny Charlie Sheen used to be.

Hmmm, I watched that TBBT link and I didn't laugh, but about 2 weeks ago I was clicking on random TBBT videos on youtube and I laughed a lot.

Canned laughter does force us to laugh I guess.

In essence, even when there is an audience, it's still canned laughter because they've seen the scene a few times before they move on to a new scene.

Wow, I never realized how disjoint and awkward the conversations seem without a laugh track.

But yeah, it's purpose, like others have stated, is probably to give you the cue to laugh as well. I personally prefer shows that don't have them, like My Name Is Earl, Scrubs, Simpsons, etc...

Two And A Half Men.

They are not to bad. Maybe in the new ones they get to be anoyying. I find Big Bang and none funny, lame show.

I don't really notice them much, but I hate it when an 'audience' tries to set the emotion (?) of the scene, for example going ooooooooo, or awwwww, when something romantic happens.

Laugh tracks make serious things seem funny. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPRAPFiG5BM

To Catch a Predator is funny anyway...

I don't like laugh tracks but some good programs do have them unfortunately. Seen as were all discussing big bang theory I might as well join in. I watched it for a while and I enjoyed it because every once and a while it had something funny but then it just started svcking and I stopped to watch Community instead.

As did I.

But, its a sitcom, these things happen. They do this to make you think "Oh, this isn't all that funny to you? Well you must be a freak, because theses people think its [censored] hi-lari-ous.

Holy Assassin mentioned My Name is Earl.....God, I miss Earl.

Sigh, the joy of canned laughter. Actually when done right--which means subtly--it can really add to the atmosphere of a programme; but when done wrongly it's just an in-your-face annoyance that actually sounds incongruous: why is the audience almost dying of laughter at a line that barely even qualifies as a pun? It's weird and embarrassing, and makes the programmes in question almost unwatchable.

I think the theory that TV directors think their audiences are imbeciles who need to be told in the most obvious terms possible when they need to laugh is probably correct. <_<

Still, at least it inspired some rather amusing reading material like the OP.

I hate laugh tracks in sit coms. I don't mind them so much in panel or sketch shows where there actually is an audience (I guess there are sit coms with a live audience, but hardly any of them are worth watching)

I don't see the point in it sometimes, particularly in a show with a specific type of humor like TBBT (jokes based around maths, sciences, science fiction, comics, games, etc). Even with the laughter a person who is not into these things is not going to get the joke unless they decide to look it up after that and even if they do that it probably won't be funny anymore. And is a person who doesn't get the jokes in the first place even part of the target audience and someone who is likely to continue to watch?

Producers and directors also love to use old overused jokes.

I miss Trailer Park Boys. A lot of My Name is Earl seems inspired by the residents of the Sunnyvale Trailer Park.


Jimmy Carr said in a book he wrote that explaining a joke is a bit like dissecting a frog, no one's that interested and the frog dies.

The jokes aren't funny enough to be recognized as jokes, so they decided to make sure you knew that you should be laughing right now.

I'd love to direct a TV programme if only to replace the canned laughter with "HURRRR!!!" sounds at the most inappropriate moments.

Somtimes when I watch TV with others I laugh along with the laugh tracks even thought it's not fun, just to bother the others so they see how silly it is. :whistling: