Poll: Would TV shows be better without the laugh-track?

[weker]

Recorded laughter is the only thing I have issues with.
It's for morons who don't know when to laugh, and it's the main thing that puts a bad taste in my mouth after each American sitcom.
It wouldn't be so bad, but you get situations like
*Charlie Sheen walks in
"where's the drugs"
"oh you charlie"
*Overly hysteric laughter accompanied by a pause and my face scowling and thing "wtf how was that funny"

After canned laughter the red mist descends and block all possible good jokes from my mind.

 

[RagnarokHybrid]

i DO NOT like celebrity fangirling with guest stars (*door open* "hi, come in." '......WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!' *eardrums implode*)

Yeah, I hate that too. Especially when I don't know who the celebrity is--which is most of the time since I've been sheltered my entire life so far.

 

[velcrokidneyz]

ok i jumped ahead and didnt read responses so i apologize if this has been said.

I have heard before taht the sign of a good show is that if the laugh track is there, you dont notice it. so it doesnt matter to me but it would be kinad akward if there was silence.

 

[LookingGlass]

I believe so. I don't laugh out loud at TV very often, and so the laugh track just puts me off. It also means that there have to be pauses in the actual dialogue so that you can hear the actors over the ridiculous laughter.

These days I avoid shows with them. Arrested Development, Scrubs and Curb Your Enthusiasm didn't need them, and they're the best comedies of recent years in my opinion.

 

[Vykrel]

since there is no option for "it depends on the show" ill just say that CERTAIN shows are better with live audiences. it is much better than a stupid laugh track. sitcoms should always have live audiences, for example.

 

[Rule Britannia]

Depends on which show, my sister watches family channel and it's added in where the situation isn't funny whatsoever and even my stubborn as hell sister is ready to admit that. But in stuff like "How I Met Your Mother" I think it's required.

 

[LiquidGrape]

Canned laughter is a blight upon comedy. I refuse to watch any show featuring it, because even if there is something I might find peripherally funny about the ones that employ it, the humour is snuffed out by the sheer artificiality and crudeness of that device.

I genuinely hate it.

 

[babinro]

I love me the classics like Seinfeld...

But shows like Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Simpons, Futurama and Arrested Development proved to me that a laugh track/live audience just hurts the pacing of a show.

I really see no reason for them to exist anymore except as a means to lengthen a shows run time without incorporating more ads.

 

[Giantpanda602]

The Big Bang Theory has the WORST laugh track EVER.

 

[dyre]

I hate it in every TV show I've ever watched that has it. I had this theory (hypothesis, really) that it's only there because the shows that use it are so unfunny that they need to remind the audience to laugh, but then there are reasonably humorous shows that are ruined (or made lesser, anyway) by laugh tracks, like Big Bang Theory

 

[Outright Villainy]

Live audiences I can live with, a lot of good shows have used them without too much detriment. I prefer no track, but it's not a deal breaker. Canned laughter however, can go die in a fire.

 

[zombie goat fetish]

Here is a little experiment next time you are watching a show with a live audience, make sure listen to what it is they are laughing at. They are like performance monkeys laughing at the stupidest shit.

Like on Bill Mahers Real Time, what is with the audience they will clap to anything, mindless zombies I can almost hear there minds screaming "TELL US WHAT TO THINK TELL US WHAT TO LIKE"

 

[Scde2]

Laugh tracks are horrible. It's like the producers are saying "IT'S FUNNY BECAUSE WE SAY IT IS!" I would prefer to laugh because I find the show funny, not a live audience. It makes things that are sorta funny totally unfunny. And besides, it's annoying as hell to me to hear all that canned laughter.

 

[Ace of Spades]

I prefer when there is no laugh track, but if a show is actually funny, I find that I don't notice it, because I'm laughing right along with the studio audience, like the Dick Van Dyke Show.

 

[EcoHulk]

I noticed shows without a laugh track seem to go farther than live audiences or canned laughs. Though if the show is like a Sketch Show, then live audiences are obviously better.

 

[Lizardon]

I don't mind it when it's an audience laughing, but when it's pre-recorded laughter it gets on my nerves that it sounds the same every time. Canned laughter is placed on what the director/editor thinks is funny, not what the audience will find funny.

 

[latenightapplepie]

Blackadder had laugh track, and it worked.

So yeah, I'm not necessarily against it. Often it is bad, but not always.