Talk:Laugh track

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Cleaning up a bit of vandalism here and on the page.

First use of laugh track

According to R R Provine's article Laughter in American Scientist V84, p. 42, the first show to use a laughtrack was the Hank McCune Show broadcast at 7PM EST Sep. 9 1950 to 'compensate for the lack of a live audience.' I cited this article in the laughter entry. --PaigePhault

but how does it work?

can someone write about how it works in the production room? how many different tracks are there? how were they selected? from what shows did they come? what are the standard practices? Kingturtle 10:26, 8 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed, I hope someone who knows about it will add the information. I don't think the article should be focused completely on just what sitcoms use a laugh track and those that don't. --Mrtea 04:21, 6 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

The Simpsons

I don't know how you can mention shows that don't use the laugh track and not mention the Simpsons, probably the most successful comedy of all of the ones mentioned by far.

So why didn't you mention it?

That's easy. "The Simpsons" is animated. Laugh tracks don't work in animation since there is no live audience watching.Peter Tangney 18:02, 20 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There isn't in most sitcoms either. — Mütze 10:18, 17 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Counter example: The Flintstones. --86.135.218.31 (talk) 21:11, 4 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm.

Do shows recycle the same old laugh tracks or does each show record its own? If it is recycled, are we listening to people laughing who are dead now?

i don't know what they do today, but the laugh tracks used in the 70s were of dead people. Kingturtle 18:50, 17 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

^^ thats just ridiculous

Plagiarism-here for rewrite

This section was plagiarized from The Straight Dope. I have posted it here in case someone wants to try rewriting it. If you rewrite from this text, make sure to say, "According to The Straight Dope," or some other similar attribution.

The man who made canned laughter what it is today was Charley Douglass (1910-2003), a sound engineer who devised the 'Laff Box'. This was a unique contraption that stood a little over two feet tall and could be played like an organ to replicate different kinds of laughter, from guffaws to belly laughs. The operator could also select particular genders and ages, so a kids' show could have a simulated audience full of giggling children. No one is really sure where the original recordings came from; some say Douglass recorded audiences from I Love Lucy, The Red Skelton Show, or Marcel Marceau's mime act. All of these were heavy on sight gags, which probably made the recording process a little easier. Douglass won a special Emmy for engineering in 1992.

cluth 18:22, 18 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Citations

I feel the following two sentences need some kind of citation or removal: TV critics have often claimed that laugh tracks are used to cover up problems with the writing of a TV show, by using artificial "canned" laugh tracks to make the show seem funnier than it actually is. This has led some to change the common phrase "taped in front of a live studio audience" into "live in front of a taped studio audience." --Crossmr 23:31, 12 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

List?

should we have a list of shows the use a laugh track?Angelofdeath275 21:08, 24 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Question

It says in the first sentence of the article that the laughter track is is a separate soundtrack with the artificial sound of audience laughter". But most laughter tracks (or at leasts a large proportion) are not artificial; the show is filmed in front of a live audience, so why is this sentence saying that all laughter tracks are fake?

You cannot be that dense. A laugh track is a fake laugh track added over a show. Actually most shows are no longer taped in front of live audiences. This is something that started to end during the 1980s and was almost dead by the end of the 1990s. If a show has a live audience it does not have a laugh track. If you are watching most any sitcom from very recent history, it has a laugh track. -Thebdj 01:51, 7 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This is absolute rubbish. Situation comedies ARE filmed in front of a studio audience. Do you think this website (http://www.tvtickets.com/) is part of an elaborate scam? So who's the dense one?

This whole Wiki entry is absolute rubbish from beginning to end. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.70.246.157 (talk) 16:14, 5 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Help me make this NPOV

I wanted to add after "Philadelphia": "Their prevalence might be explained by the success of animated comedies such as The Simpsons — which was a major influence on the first of these sitcoms, Malcolm in the Middle — as well as by the increasing use of cutaways, which are clearly not filmed linearly." However, as of now it's unsourced and arguably POV. If anyone wants to adapt this, though, it'd be nice to add. Calbaer 02:23, 3 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I edited the "History" and "Use" sections, in order to make this a bit more NPOV, but it definitely still needs work. I completely took out the phrase that said "as if they would not have known otherwise" because it's pretty snide and totally not NPOV. --HowardW, Jan 18, 2007

Not Having A Live Studio Audience Does Not Mean Canned Laughter

Last of the Summer Wine is hardly an exception, most UK stuff with laughter on it will have been shown to an audience in some form or other. I suspect this is true of most American stuff too and that people don't really understand what the hell they are talking about.

Oh, so that's why the laughter DOESN'T sound generated, and DOESN'T play over things that aren't really funny. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.81.190.144 (talk) 04:20, 28 January 2007 (UTC).[reply]

I think there should be more information regarding Married With Children.

Contradictions with Wiki article on "All in the Family"

This article directs the "All in the Family" article. In the "All in the Family" article, Norman Lear is cited as having claimed that the show never used 'canned laughter.' This article states that the show did indeed use canned laughter and 'sweetening' in later years. I don't know which is correct, but I figure it should be pointed out.

All In The Family never used canned laughter. That is in an error and I already fixed it. Nevilledad 06:41, 8 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Monty Python

It should be noted that Monty Python's Flying Circus was NEVER broadcast with an artificial laughtrack, if a sketch didn't get laughs from the live audience it hit the Cutting Room floor-GeorgeFormby1

Surely the worst example of laugh tracks

"Animals do the funniest things", "Planet's Funniest Animals", and others in that genre. I can't watch them, the fake laughter is just cringeworthy. Davetibbs 11:32, 2 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Same for Full House, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Family Matters 24.141.131.205 (talk) 20:19, 29 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

greek chorus?

any citable sources ever pointed out the similarity to the greek chorus? --86.135.218.31 (talk) 21:10, 4 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I was just thinking that... maybe zizek, but if he did I couldn't say where.

Whole page is wrong and written by somebody who has no idea of how TV shows are made

1. All sitcoms with laughter are made in front of a studio audience. A visit to http://www.tvtickets.com/ and http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/tvaudience.html. would have cleared that up quite quickly.

2. The term 'laughter track' refers to the actual laughter recorded on the night, sometimes edited to help transition between takes. It is completely different from 'canned laughter'. The only shows I know which used real 'canned laughter' are 'Scooby Doo' and 'Mash'. If anyone doubts this, why don't they apply for tickets at one of the above sites and see for themselves?

3. Speaking as someone who works in television, and has made various TV shows of the type discussed, I think this is an example of Wikipedia at its absolute worst. Conjecture and conspiracy theory dressed up as hard fact. It should be taken down because it contains as much truth as the average article on, say, Conservapedia.

First of all, you'll get a lot further if you come in with constructive criticism and helpful responses, rather than just tearing everything apart. Secondly, dictionary.com defines "Laugh track" as a separate sound track of prerecorded laughter added to the sound track of a radio or television program to enhance or feign audience responses.. Nobody said this was (necessarily) in place of a studio audience, but are you asserting that there is never canned laughter added to enhance what a studio audience generates? Thirdly, I didn't realize such shows as the Flintstones and Jetsons were actually filmed in front of a studio audience... --Rehcsif (talk) 16:42, 5 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Right, so you're using MORE CARTOONS to refute my arguments. And the reason I'm tearing the whole piece apart is because it is wrong from top to bottom, and I don't have time to edit it myself. But it's unbelievably frustrating and annoying to see conjecture like this reported as fact. I'll say it one more time to be clear--'canned laughter' is completely different to a 'laughter track' and anything that says they more or less amount to the same thing is disingenuous and insulting to the people who work hard to elicit real laughter from real people. The reason I'm 'tearing it apart' is because it so casually does the same to an entire style of TV comedy.

And in answer to your question, I'm not saying that sweetening doesn't happen, of course it does, but in my own experience the laughter you hear on a show is the laughter you get on the night. Of course you edit it like you edit every other element of a show (for instance, when jumping between takes, or when an audience laughs at something that won't be funny to people at home), but that doesn't mean we're all engaged on a massive conspiracy to make people laugh at things that aren't funny. Please, whoever wrote this entry, just come to see a show. That should clear everything up. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.70.246.157 (talk) 16:59, 5 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm pretty sure what you're talking about is only true for British shows. In the US they seem to be much less principled about sticking in fake laughter when the original audience didn't react appropriately. --86.135.218.31 (talk) 04:19, 6 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How do you know this?!! Where are you getting your facts from? When you say 'seem to be', why aren't you sure? And if you aren't sure, why are you assuming it to be true? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.70.230.213 (talk) 18:06, 6 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

stones, glass houses? give your own sources. --86.144.101.168 (talk) 19:35, 6 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]