Laugh track!
Is it just me or does a laugh track actually make comedic moments less funny?

I really enjoy Frasier, yet the laugh track takes the shine off some of the funnier moments.

Yet Peep Show (which I think is over rated, terribly) without the laugh track often gains a bigger laugh from me for less funny moments!
(Dangerous Disco Trev Isn't my real name, Tue 30 Dec 2008, 16:10, 13 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

Yep
Kinda strange they use it. According to some of my learnings of psychology the laugh track is there not to tell you when a joke is, but becuase we tend to try and fit in we tend to laugh if we hear someone else laughing. And the very act of laughing makes it more likely that you find something funny. Which kinda begs the question: How shit and unfunny would some of these sitcoms be without even a laugh track?
(Fredz A graveyard of hopes, a dump of ambition, Tue 30 Dec 2008, 16:36, Reply)

Ahahahahaahahaaha
hahahahahaha....

ahem.
( Bert Monkeysex is waiting for the mods to delete him, Tue 30 Dec 2008, 16:46, Reply)

Also
Lead balloon is devoid of laughter track. Makes me laugh.

Interesting psychology would be to take a few episodes of Friends and remove the laughter track, compare it to the reaction to episodes with the laughter track. Also, viewers that have never seen Friends and viewers that are regular viewers would be good test subjects.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Tue 30 Dec 2008, 17:28, Reply)

people who have never seen Friends?
good luck finding one of those!
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 30 Dec 2008, 17:30, Reply)

I am one of those people. I have seen tiny snippets, like when I walked into a room, saw it was on, walked out. Not that I have anything against the show - I just never watched it.

I might add that Jennifer Aniston is the sexiest woman ever made, both historically and into the future.
( enoughblueskyforsailorstrousers, Tue 30 Dec 2008, 20:43, Reply)

M*A*S*H
I remember when M*A*S*H was first broadcast on British TV years ago without the laugh track (as it was deemed insulting to the intelligence of the British viewer!)

I liked the show, not hugely, but it was watchable.

Now, the only version shown is the original US "laugh track" release which I find unwatchable!
( RadG Drinking Mojitos in the sun, Tue 30 Dec 2008, 17:38, Reply)

Agreed
It's nicer to be allowed to make up your own mind about what's funny in a programme.

Anyone seen that episode of Scrubs where the events happened as if it was a standard sitcom, laugh-track and all? Yeah, it was a bit over the top, but it showed up the differences with the normal episodes.

Why didn't I think of the experiment idea when I was actually doing my degree? Damn!
(Dizzy Steinway, Tue 30 Dec 2008, 19:19, Reply)

It's odd though
More shows seem to be going down the no laugh track route.

Also, the last series or two of Alan Partridge had a laugh track and it hadn't done before (from my memory anyway, I remembered Frasier not having one too but apparently it always has done) and they were arguably the worst. Was it there are you say to try to 'trick' viewers into thinking it was funnier than it was?
(Dangerous Disco Trev Isn't my real name, Tue 30 Dec 2008, 19:31, Reply)

@SLVA
Wouldn't be too tricky. You could set up a double blind experiment with group 1 watching a clip from an episode of a relaively unknown sitcom without a laugh track, and a 10 min clip of one with, and group 2 with the laugh track removed from the first clip, and added to the second - oh and a control group to account for how funny the episodes actualy are...... well, if there's a B3TAn doing undergrad psychology there's a free experiment right there I guess!
(Fredz A graveyard of hopes, a dump of ambition, Tue 30 Dec 2008, 20:10, Reply)

Laughter Tracks
make me want to kill and not laugh.

:(

I die a little inside whenever I hear one.
(Shippy likes linebreaks and doesn't care what you think, Tue 30 Dec 2008, 21:14, Reply)

Not just less funny, it ruins the timing!
Does anyone else find that they laugh before the laugh track? It tends to be mainly with American stuff when they explain the joke - I laugh when I get it, then the laugh track plays after they've explained it for the stupid people.
(xanthine, Wed 31 Dec 2008, 6:27, Reply)

Worst laugh track?
I used to watch The War at Home because I had nothing better to do on a Friday night. The lame jokes (of which there were quite a few) were followed by the 'audience' sounding like they were wetting themselves.
( waffle1 is lurking on, Wed 31 Dec 2008, 8:04, Reply)

I went to see a recording of Buzzcocks at the BBC in London
and afterwards they brought Steve Coogan on and showed an episode of I'm Alan Partridge, recording our laughter track.

I noticed I was laughing along with the crowd of five hundred people, at things I wouldn't normally have found funny.

Crowds are odd beasts.
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Wed 31 Dec 2008, 9:27, Reply)