You have escaped the horrors known as work, school or uni for a limited time. You want to make the most of it. So when you get home, you usually relax in your couch, and turn on the TV. You get comfortable, get a drink and some snacks, and prepare to have a entertaining laughing fest. But no! The laughing fest is coming from the speakers, and not you. It’s a disgraceful thing known as the ‘laugh-track’, and it’s on a truckload of our comedy shows, which is horrific.
Oh, you’ve heard the forced laughter plenty of times. Somehow, you put up with it, and sometimes, (yes sometimes!), you laugh along to it. But never, ever, does it enhance the viewing experience in any way possible. In fact, it makes the jokes seem lame, laboured and above all it makes you self aware. Like the replicants in Blade Runner, once you become aware, you can never turn back. No matter how engaging a show may be, once the laugh track occurs, you are conscious that you are watching a TV show with made up characters. It completely destroys any possible attempt at making the show as relatable as possible.
As well as that, the canned laughter makes the jokes feel forced upon you and if you do not laugh at a certain joke, you have no humour. I don’t know how many of you watch things like The Big Bang Theory and Two and A Half Men, but I never laugh during those shows, and by the way the audience laughs at the appalling jokes, you feel as if you have no sense of humour. Yes, humour is subjective, but like opinions, if you are constantly forced to appreciate it, the less chance you have of genuinely enjoying it.
The canned laughter also implies we are forced to find certain aspects of humour acceptable. While sexism and racism can be funny if there was a certain irony to it, or it was spoken by an unlikeable character to create cringe; writers seem to think it is acceptable to have protagonists who are meant to be viewed as witty, and the character for the audience to sympathize with shouting these atrocious things. . And of course the fake audience just keeps laughing and laughing. For younger viewers especially, it creates a sense of humour that people-who-are-easy-to-influence think is appropriate for normal day-to-day activities. Of course, I have slightly gone off-topic.
The Laughing track pounds your eardrums like a chanting cult, urging you to join in to benefit yourself and ‘fit-in’. I urge you, to ignore these fits of fake laughter, and laugh (and decide) for yourself.
Your thoughts on the laugh track?
Oh, you’ve heard the forced laughter plenty of times. Somehow, you put up with it, and sometimes, (yes sometimes!), you laugh along to it. But never, ever, does it enhance the viewing experience in any way possible. In fact, it makes the jokes seem lame, laboured and above all it makes you self aware. Like the replicants in Blade Runner, once you become aware, you can never turn back. No matter how engaging a show may be, once the laugh track occurs, you are conscious that you are watching a TV show with made up characters. It completely destroys any possible attempt at making the show as relatable as possible.
As well as that, the canned laughter makes the jokes feel forced upon you and if you do not laugh at a certain joke, you have no humour. I don’t know how many of you watch things like The Big Bang Theory and Two and A Half Men, but I never laugh during those shows, and by the way the audience laughs at the appalling jokes, you feel as if you have no sense of humour. Yes, humour is subjective, but like opinions, if you are constantly forced to appreciate it, the less chance you have of genuinely enjoying it.
The canned laughter also implies we are forced to find certain aspects of humour acceptable. While sexism and racism can be funny if there was a certain irony to it, or it was spoken by an unlikeable character to create cringe; writers seem to think it is acceptable to have protagonists who are meant to be viewed as witty, and the character for the audience to sympathize with shouting these atrocious things. . And of course the fake audience just keeps laughing and laughing. For younger viewers especially, it creates a sense of humour that people-who-are-easy-to-influence think is appropriate for normal day-to-day activities. Of course, I have slightly gone off-topic.
The Laughing track pounds your eardrums like a chanting cult, urging you to join in to benefit yourself and ‘fit-in’. I urge you, to ignore these fits of fake laughter, and laugh (and decide) for yourself.
Your thoughts on the laugh track?
